Pauline Malefane as Bess with Derrick Parker as Crown
It cannot be overstated that Angelo Gobbato is an extraordinary man. Thanks to his prodigious efforts, the UCT Opera School has supplied Cape Town Opera with a steady stream of remarkable singers and voices. There are hardly any companies in the world, including the US that can muster productions with over 60 trained black opera singers. Porgy and Bess is a major achievement.
Certainly not as revolutionary as the 1955 American ‘Negro’ performance at the Palace of Culture in what was then Leningrad in the Soviet Union (and humorously recounted by Truman Capote in the New Yorker), Porgy and Bess will open shortly in Umeå, Sweden. Yet it’s early days for this ambitious venture. The die is well cast though – this production is leagues ahead of the feeble Showboat that toured overseas incredulously to great acclaim. Patronising African performers is not something one wishes to see perpetuated into the twenty-first century.
Cape Town audiences need not be disappointed that Otto Maidi due to illness has been replaced by Xolela Sixaba, who shares the role with American baritone Leonard Rowe, as Porgy. Only he doesn’t seem crippled in anyway other than that he gets about on a cart. Pauline Malefane, known for her title role in uCarmen eKhayelitsha, is well cast as Bess, especially since George and his lyricist brother Ira Gershwin had Carmen in mind while creating the role. Marcus Desando as the happy-dust peddler Sportin Life is delightfully camp, especially in “It ain’t necessarily so”, though in his seduction scene with Bess – “There’s a boat dat’s leavin” soon for New York” – his character fails to convince. Derrick Parker has the strapping physicality for the killer Crown, but his voice is unexpectedly slight. On opening night Michelle Saldanha as Serena drew applause for her “My man’s gone down” from an audience otherwise reticent in the first act. The second half sails far better overall. Chorus master Peter Valentovič has the ensemble excel in the spiritual choral arrangements and rouse with the jazzy rhythms.
Porgy is a dark, violent work. This is not a squeamish production – it’s even raunchy in “I ain’t got no shame” – however, in the current South African context, the drama could have benefited from a more brutally realistic and less operatic treatment.
Patrons should keep in mind that this is the opera version, not the jazz standards familiar to most lovers of songs like “Summertime” and “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin”. The demotic inflections in the recitative are particularly tricky. Although in English, the surtitles are essential, as the various unfamiliar accents are hard to follow, while occasionally shoddy diction is to blame and projection is shy. At times, they could be singing in Italian for all one can make out. The interpretation often smacks more of Verdi than Gershwin, but this will not detract in continental Europe.
The setting is ill defined and contradictory. On curtain rising, the costumes suggest a South African context, but this soon evaporates. Whatever the budget, it’s hard to come to terms with a tacky set that is extraordinary for its ugliness, and not helped by the dim, at best perfunctory lighting. The foam walls (supposedly masonry) wobble, even curl. For marring an otherwise capable production, the set should be scrapped outright.
