Porgy and Bess 🎭

Tonight and Tomorrow's Met Opera is the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess.  

I have always loved the music of the Gershwins. I am also a huge fan of Eric Owens (he was great in Das Rheingold). I am also a big fan of Angel Blue. I have not seen this production, so I am looking forward to it. A good show just as summer is ending...

I am surprised cancel culture has not taken out this show. It was written by dead white Jewish guys, based on a book by an establishment dead white Southerner, so you'd think the über-woke would declare it cultural appropriation and full of racial stereotropes. It actually has drawn that criticism from some, it is just those criticsms have not gained critical mass (yet). Give it time. Woke never sleeps. Fortunately, the vast majority of the public love Porgy and Bess, which gives it some protection.   

World Socialist Web Site: New Met production of Porgy and Bess prompts racialist criticisms of America’s greatest opera (actually not a bad article from that socialist rag)

Observer: Angel Blue steals the Porgy and Bess show

Mark Steyn: Summertime (song for the season)

AoSHQ: Morning Report 09.04.20 

EBL: Lulu 🎭, Nixon in China with Ginger Costa Jackson 🎭🇨🇳🇺🇸, Peter Grimes 🎭, Elektra 🎭, Falstaff 🎭🦌, Don Carlo 🎭, La Traviata 🎭😷⏳, Un Ballo in Maschera 🎭, Louisa Miller 🎭, Il Trovatore 🎭, Rigoletto 🎭, Hansel and Gretel 🎭🧙🏼‍♀️, Il Barbiere di Siviglia 💈🎭, Simon Boccanegra 🎭, Un Ballo in Maschera 🎭, Eugene Onegin 🎭, Francesca da Rimini 🎭, Tosca 🎭, Luisa Miller 🎭, La Bohème 🎭😷☣️🕯️, Tristan und Isolde 🎭, Turandot 🎭, Rigoletto 🎭, Carmen 💃🏻🎭, Manon Lescaut 🎭, Don Giovanni 🎭, Parsifal 🎭, Madama Butterfly 🎭🦋, Simon Boccanegra 🎭, Les Contes d’Hoffmann 🎭, The Magic Flute 🎭, Die Walküre 🎭, Ernani 🎭, Rusalka 🎭🌕🧜🏻‍♀️, Il Trovatore 🎭, Rigoletto 🎭, Tosca 🎭, Lucia di Lammermoor 🎭, La Fanciulla del West 🎭🤠, Der Rosenkavalier 🎭, Falstaff 🎭, Roméo et Juliette 🎭, Macbeth 🎭, Tannhäuser 🎭, Il Barbiere di Siviglia 💈🎭, La Bohème 🎭😷☣️🕯️, Le Nozze di Figaro 🎭, La Cenerentola 🎭, Wozzeck 🎭, Turnadot 🎭, La Traviata 🎭, Manon Lescaut 🎭 with Kristine Opolais, Tristan und Isolde 🎭, Madama Butterfly 🎭🦋, Eugene Onegin 🎭, Francesca da Rimini 🎭, Così fan tutte 🎭, Il Trovatore 🎭, La Bohème 🎭😷☣️🕯️, La Donna del Lago 🎭, Don Pasquale 🎭, Don Giovanni 🎭, Carmen 💃🏻🎭, The Nose 🎭👃, Die Walküre 🎭, La Fille du Régiment 🎭, Die Zauberflöte 🎭, Cendrillon 🎭, L’Elisir d’Amore 🎭, Manon 🎭 with Lisette Oropesa, Samson et Dalila 🎭, Doctor Atomic 🎭 ⚛️🤯,  La Traviata 🎭, Satyagraha 🎭, Akhnaten 🎭, La Forza del Destino 🎭, Iphigénie en Tauride 🎭, Semiramide 🎭, Armida 🎭, Rodelinda 🎭, Met At Home Gala (Encore) 🏡, The Ghosts of Versailles 🎭, Hansel and Gretel 🎭🧙🏼‍♀️, Iolanta 🎭 and Bluebeard's Castle 🎭, La Clemenza di Tito 🎭, Thaïs 🎭, Otello 🎭, The Exterminating Angel 🎭, Tosca 🎭, Orfeo ed Euridice 🎭, Lulu 🎭, I Puritani 🎭, Salome  🎭, L’Elisir d’Amore 🎭, La Sonnambula 🎭, Les Troyens 🎭, Manon Lescaut 🎭, Ernani 🎭, La Damnation de Faust 🎭, Manon 🎭, Faust 🎭, Don Giovanni 🎭, Turnadot 🎭, Un Ballo in Maschera 🎭, Lohengrin 🎭, Idomeneo 🎭 with Nadine Sierra, Nabucco 🎭, Rigoletto 🎭, Lucia di Lammermoor 🎭 Joan Sutherland, Peter Grimes 🎭, Ariadne auf Naxos 🎭, The Tempest 🎭, Werther 🎭 with Sophie Koch, Cavalleria Rusticana and Paglacci 🎭, The Opera House, La Boheme 🎭, Capriccio 🎭, L’Amour de Loin 🎭, Hamlet 🎭 with Marlis Petersen, Le Nozze di Figaro 🎭, Prince Igor 🎭, Luisa Miller 🎭, Aida 🎭 Leontyne Price's Farewell Performance, Marnie 🎭 with Isabel Leonard, Roberto Devereux 🎭 with Elīna Garanča, Maria Stuarda 🎭, Anna Bolena 🎭, La Cenerentola 🎭, Met Stay At Home Gala, La Traviata 🎭😷, The Merry Widow 🎭, Les Contes d’Hoffmann 🎭, Tosca: Sonya Yoncheva 🎭, Elektra 🎭, Der Rosenkavalier 🎭, Adriana Lecouvreur 🎭, Madama Butterfly 🎭🦋, Le Comte Ory 🎭, La Rodine 🎭, Boris Godunov 🎭, Rusalka: Song to the Moon 🎭🌕🧜🏻‍♀️,Così fan tutte 🎭, Don Pasquale: Anna Netrebko 🎭, Roméo et Juliette 🎭, Parsifal 🎭, Falstaff : Ailyn Pérez, Angela Meade, and Lisette Oropesa 🎭, Maria Callas, La Fanciculla Del West 🎭 (Girl of the Golden West), Aida 🎭, Bellini's Norma 🎭, Macbeth: Anna Netrebko 🎭,Don Carlo: Marina Poplavskaya 🎭, Nixon In China 🎭🇨🇳🇺🇸, Il Barbiere di Siviglia: Joyce DiDonato 💈🎭, Dialogues des Carmélites 🎭, Tannhäuser: Eva-Maria Westbroek and Michelle DeYoung 🎭, Annette Dasch 🎭 in  Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Götterdämmerung 🎭🔥, Siegfried: Deborah Voigt 🎭⚔️, Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries 🎭, Das Rheingold 🧜🏻‍♀️🎭, Tristan und Isolde: Nina Stemme 🎭, Renée Fleming in Eugene Onegin 🎭, Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Netrebko 🎭, La Fille du Régiment: "Chacum le sait" with Natalie Dessay 🎭🇨🇭🇫🇷, La Traviata 🎭😷, Il Trovatore: Anvil Chorus 😷☣️🎭, La Bohème: Che gelida manina 😷☣️🕯️ and Elīna Garanča 💃🏻 in Carmen

American Experience

The Many Faces of Catfish Row and Aria Code

Porgy and Bess at Schomberg Center and Dancing Queen

All I Cared About Was Bess

Eric Owens' character Alberich gets dissed by the River-Babes in Das Rheingold.

Rule 5 and FMJRA

Frank Sinatra: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' with Sammy Davis Jr. and Chita Rivera

The 1934 opera Porgy and Bess was the George Gershwin's masterwork and personal obsession. Gershwin wrote it mostly on location in South Carolina. It was based off the book and play Porgy by DuBose Heyward.  Heyward and Ira Gershwin both contributed to the lyrics and book of Porgy and Bess. 

Porgy and Bess: George, DuBose and Ira

It may not be summer time right now, but Mark covered Porgy and Bess' Summertime. Mark's review She Likes A Gershwin Tune of Martha Bayles' Hole in Our Soul remains as just as relevant today. These pieces gives some excellent background on George Gershwin's work on Porgy and Bess.

Frank recorded this version on the Nelson Riddle arranged album A Swinging' Affair in 1957.

Sammy Davis Jr. does a great job with his take of the song from 1957 album Boy Meets Girl. This album was arranged by Buddy Bergman (who was Jule Styne's nephew).

Pope Francis and Chita Rivera

Not the best vocals on this one below, but Chita Rivera does a sizzling dance rendition on the Judy Garland Show, and for the time period the camera work is especially good (this was probably 1964):

Pundette is at #27 with the flawed masterpiece Only The Lonely, #28 with It Had To Be You. and at #29 You Make Me Feel So Young. 

Bob completed his top 100 Sinatra songs and his top selections are top notch. Bob is not stopping, listing the top 10 Sinatra albums up through Frank's birthday, starting with this one at #10.

Fitting for all the lunar talk this weekend, Mark has Moonlight In Vermont (a wonderfully lovely song which Pundette, Bob, and myself all had too). Mark also has It's All Right With Me and Autumn Leaves (Mark does a wonderful job explaining and contrasting Mercer's lyrics to the original French version). Mark also talks about Mohammed and the Movies (wow). That is a must read (you will never look at Halloween the same way again) and After the Balls.

I had the jazz standard Indian Summer with bonus Michele Carey. Given Mark's post a Cole Porter Indian Summer classic It's All Right With Me I posted the Can Can film clip of that performance along with the lovely Juliet Prowse. I added Sinatra and Day singing a terrific version of Take Me Out To The Ball Game in remembrance of Yogi Berra's passing.  And I think I collected links to most of the autumn themed Sinatra songs I previously posted in recognition of the autumn equinox. I also had Frank and the Kessler Twins for Oktoberfest. And the bittersweet The Shadow of Your Smile.

Don’t forget to also keep checking out
Pundette’s Sinatra 100 countdown,
Ms Evi’s Sinatra Celebration,
Dispatches from the Camp of the Saints Sinatra, &
Mark Steyn’s Sinatra Songs Of The Century.
It’s a swingin’ world.

Rule 5 and FMJRA

Sammy Davis Jr: There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York