Houston Grand Opera, Donnie Ray Albert, Steven Alex-Cole, Shirley Baines, Kenneth Barry, Phyllis Bash, Raymond Bazemore, Carol Brice, Alex Carrington, Children's Chorus - George Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess"

Dissappointed

When I got the product the third disk titles were all in an asian looking language. I couldn't read a thing it said. Vendor took the item back, and gave me a refund, I was well satisfied with that...but wished he had had the one with all english, it looked like a good album. June 21, 2008

Great Preparation for The Show

I purchased this in preparation for seeing the opera in Los Angeles in 2007. This version of Porgy & Bess lived up to its billing. It is a beautiful rendering of the opera. What I most appreciated about this version was the well told history of the opera, as well as the inclusion of the libretto. May 12, 2007

Still the Best on Record

I agree with the positive comments made here about this production and this recording. This is the best recording of the full score that I know. Haven't heard the Simon Rattle recording but did not need to, since I already had this one which is practically perfect in every way.

I have owned at least four recordings of this work, starting with the movie soundtrack, then the 1951 revival because I wanted the hear the `complete' score, and then when it was finally recorded complete in stereo for the first time, I bought the Maazel recording (which contrary to a comment made here was done in the 70's not 1969--I think it was 1976). Maazel's tempos are heavy and ponderous and lacking all humor. Elsewhere it's said, he was not the greatest Gershwin conductor. Too true.

Was lucky enough to have seen this production in NYC with the top cast recorded here (the leads alternated as it was too tough to sing either Porgy or Bess 8 nights a week). It was beautifully done, musically and theatrically. DeMain gets nearly all the tempos just right and that is an important thing for Gershwin. The cast act convincingly and sing beautifully.

I understand that Porgy and Bess is one of record producer Thos. Z. Shepherd's favorite operas and the care he put into this recording shows it. It is a live with appropriate sound effects that reproduce the action of the stage version.

Overall lovely recorded sound, with a wide dynamic range (pre-digital, you can hear a very few tape dropouts that I wish they fixed, but who cares). And it works on record theatrically, because it worked on the stage! According to a musician friend of mine, who did the percussion here, RCA took a while to decide on committing to this recording, despite the rave reviews the production got, but who can blame them since Maazel's recording had just come out a year or so earlier. Lucky they did. So far this production has never been duplicated for getting all the elements, most especially the Gershwin sound, which more often than not is the antithesis of lingering sentimentality, just right.
June 11, 2006

My Search is Over!

After several years of frustration, my search is over. This is overall the most satisfying complete recording of this opera.
The first complete set I heard was Maazel's, and while it has much to recommend it, it never truly ignites the way every good opera should. I then purchased the Rattle set, and found it very beautiful, but even less dramatically coherent than Maazel's. It even caused me to wonder, Lawd forgive me, if Gershwin's sense of dramatic timing wasn't inherently flawed.
How wrong I was. In this set, conductor John DeMain vindicates the work's claim to be a great opera, but never loses sight of the incontrovertible fact that it it is an opera conceived in Tin Pan Alley, and raised on Broadway. Best of all is his expert pacing. DeMain unfailingly seizes the dramatic point of a scene, giving the work a sure structure. Poor Rattle on the other hand seems to be so in love with the music - and who can blame him? - lingering over a phrase here, wallowing in an orchestral and choral wash there, that the music slowly succumbs to Wagnerian torpor.
Rattle may have a higher quotient of gorgeous voices and a more polished orchestra, but DeMain's performance makes me feel I'm in the theatre watching what must have been a thrilling performance. Bravo! April 6, 2006

The one by which all PORGYS are measured

Composer Stephen Sondheim has frequently cited PORGY AND BESS as his favourite calling it "a gift from above." And indeed it is.

And you could not ask for a better recording than this lavish set from the 1976 Houston Grand Opera, lovingly translated to discs by Thomas Sheppard with the same care and dedication he brings to his original Broadway cast recordings.

This album puts you centre stage with extensive use of sound effects and creative use of the stereo spread. The cast is perfection, honed by having performed the show live several times before going into the RCA studios. It's packed with a full libretto and synopsis.

The other "complete" recordings don't measure up. London's is correct but uninspired. EMI's set is well sung but lacks theatricality. All of the elements are in perfect balance on this set.

The old Columbia 1951 album was complete in its day but musicologists have since restored much of the material cut before the Broadway premiere.

Among the highlights discs are the Decca set featuring some of the cast members from both the 1935 and 1942 Broadway productions. A 1950s CD featuring Leontyne Price and William Warfield offers the key arias in a well sung collection. Readers Digest offers excerpts in their Gershwin CD set featuring a woefully bad Porgy, Valentine Pringle.

There are also a variety of Jazz interpretations. A strange 1956 Bethlehem Jazz album with Mel Torme and Frances Faye on Rhino, a highly prized album with Lena Horne and Harry Belafonte, and albums by Sammy Davis Jr and Caremen MacRae, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis.

Sammy Davis also appeared in the 1959 Samual Goldwyn film version with Sidney Poitier and Dorthy Dandridge. The film was withdrawn from circulation by the Gershwin estate in 1974 and has rarely been seen since. The Columbia Records "soundtrack" album was briefly available from SONY on CD but it too has been withdrawn. (Strangely, contract problems prevented Sammy Davis Jr from appearing on that album and his songs were redone for the record by Cab Calloway!) It is still the preferred version of "highlights" from the score for many listeners who enjoy the well-sung program and lush orchestrations.

February 19, 2005

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