George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn ? Sir Simon Rattle ? W. White ? C. Haymon ? Glyndebourne Opera
by Trevor Nunn
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Actor: Cynthia Clarey, Cynthia Haymon, Gregg Baker, Marietta Simpson, Willard WhiteDirector: Trevor Nunn
Writer: Trevor Nunn
Producer: Dennis Marks
Producer: Greg Smith
Producer: Jac Venza
Writer: Dorothy Heyward
Writer: DuBose Heyward
Writer: Yves Baign?res
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 184 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-07-03
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: EMI Classics
DVD Reviews of George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn ? Sir Simon Rattle ? W. White ? C. Haymon ? Glyndebourne Opera
DVD Review: Very nice audio and video
Summary: 3 Stars
I received in hoped time even so far to be sent from the origin. The quality of audio and video are so fine. I really didn't have any problem with postal or quality. I just reclaim about the subtitles. Doesn't have subtitles in Portuguese.DVD Review: Not what I expected
Summary: 2 Stars
I was mistaken. I was expecting a live production but everything was dubbed. It was distracting.DVD Review: One (technical) reservation
Summary: 4 Stars
Although this was filmed for Television in 1993, when wide-screen TV wasn't available yet, there's no excuse for filming this Opera using a narrow (3/4) aspect ratio. Wide screen as such has been with us since the 1920s, and a production of this magnitude near the turn of the century should have had some better vision (in both meanings of the word). a 5-star masterpiece except for this rather disturbing aspect.DVD Review: Porgy and Bess
Summary: 5 Stars
I read about this performance in Alex Ross's "The Rest Is Noise - Listening to the 20th Century" - a wonderful book, by the way.
I live in Australia where, because of the copyright conditions of the Gershwin estate, "Porgy and Bess" is rarely performed. I'm a classical musician (singer, conductor) with a low-level professional career behind me. I have yet to see "Porgy and Bess" live.
It is hard to imagine a better staged performance than this one. The singing, acting and orchestral playing are wonderful.
Having recently read Barack Obama's "Dreams From My Father", I wonder what a contemporary African-American makes of "Porgy and Bess" these days. Do they wince at the lyrics? ("Hebben" for "Heaven", etc.) Is there a feeling that it is (or purports to be) an African-American story told by non-African-Americans? And if so, how do they feel about that?
Like any work of art, "Porgy and Bess" is of its own time. I found it harrowing and, eventually, possibly-a-bit-hopeful. Or is Porgy just deluded?
I thought it well worth watching (and listening to).
Highly recommended.
DVD Review: Porgy & Bess Video
Summary: 5 Stars
It was a fun and lively show. Music performances were excellent. I found myself being pulled into the story, feeling the passions of the characters, and when it was over I was on my way to New York with Porgy!
Description of George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn ? Sir Simon Rattle ? W. White ? C. Haymon ? Glyndebourne Opera
The Gershwins' musical masterpiece Porgy and Bess is one of America's greatest works. This production was adapted for the screen by Trevor Nunn and Yves Baigneres. It was directed by Trevor Nunn and is based on the highly successful staging of the original Glyndebourne Festival Opera production in 1986-87, which was remounted at Covent Garden in the autumn of 1992 with most of the original cast. Immediately after that performance the production was moved to the giant stage at Shepperton Studios, with much expanded sets and lighting. It was then recorded using EMI's original award-winning soundtrack.First performed in 1935 and based on the play Porgy by DuBose and Dorothy K. Heyward, Porgy and Bess has achieved worldwide renown through such memorable songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way," and many more, set to Gershwin's moving symphonic score. 184 minutes.
Porgy: Willard White
Bess: Cynthia Haymon
Crown: Gregg Baker
Serena: Cynthia Clarey
Maria: Mariette Simpson
Sporting Life: Damon Evans
Clara: Paula Ingram (sung by Harolyn Blackwell)
Jake: Gordon Hawkins (sung by Bruce Hubbard)
Mingo: Barrington Coleman
Robbins: D. Alonzo Washington (sung by Johnny Worthy)
This powerful production originated on the stage of the Glyndebourne Festival. It was restaged and filmed on location for the BBC telecast preserved in this video recording. Director Trevor Nunn takes full advantage of the realism, fluidity of movement, and precision of small details that are difficult to achieve when televising a staged performance but easy and natural in a movie treatment.
Nunn's vision, conveyed by an unusually talented cast, is constantly touching and rises to overwhelming intensity at climactic points. For example: the crap game and fight that end in Robbins's death, the hurricane scene, Crown's capture and abuse of Bess on Kittiwah Island, Porgy's fight with Crown, the comically sinister antics of Sportin' Life, the double-edged pathos and absurdity of the scene in which Bess gets "divorced," and the electrifying conclusion, when Porgy throws away his crutches and sets out, naively, to find Bess in New York.
Musically, Simon Rattle and all the performers find the exact style for Gershwin's marvelous score--not only such big numbers as "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "I Loves You, Porgy," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Hates Your Struttin' Style," and "O Lawd, I'm on My Way," but such smaller items as the exquisite cries of the street vendors of honey, strawberries, and crabs. There are no weaknesses in the cast. Willard White and Cynthia Haymon are ideal in the title roles, Gregg Baker is a terrifying, larger-than-life Crown, and Damon Evans is a properly slimy Sportin' Life. The white police officers are splendidly repulsive. --Joe McLellan
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