Porgy and Bess: A Review

Warning: spoilers!

While we anxiously await pictures of Lauren with her buds Kiefer, Paula and Julianna, I thought I'd write my impressions of LA Opera's Porgy and Bess, which Christopher got us tix to last night (thanks ck!) Overall it was pretty incredible. The sepia toned set design matched the feel of the music perfectly for an oddly sad yet nostalgic (celebratory yet with a sense of dread) feel. And I loved how the show wasn't afraid to take time out to give voice to random characters like honey man, strawberry lady and crab guy. Every note sung was not in the service of advancing plot -- setting and character were just as important.

The leads were phenomenal -- perfect casting. Porgy was this strong man cursed with a crippled foot yet with a look of childlike innocence and Bess had the face of an angel and a body of, well not a devil per se but you get the point, which perfectly captured the character's conflict between angel and devil that tore her apart.

The end though seemed a bit rushed and I only realized after the curtain closed on Porgy setting off on a mission to save Bess from a thousand miles away despite having the use of only 1 leg, that his cathartic moment, the climax of his character's arc, was killing Crown, the man from whom Porgy had tried to save Bess. In his mind, by killing Crown, he had become a man. But was that really his conflict? Or if it was, did Porgy really see violence as the means to manhood? I didn't think so. It seemed to ring false. And when whitey came to take Porgy to the morgue to ID Crown, both Porgy and Bess considered the prospect of Porgy's looking Crown in the eye as a fate worse than death, so much so that it sent Bess into a tragic spiral downward causing her to give up the baby she'd inherited and take up the happy dust again.

So while the overall effect was a sensory embarrassment of riches, it fell apart dramatically for me toward the end. Oh, and another thing, which has nothing to do with the merits of the show, I have to say that at the curtain call it was a bit unsettling to see a 99% black cast bowing before a 99% white audience. The implied subservience of the ritual made me a bit uncomfortable for a moment.