Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Performs Gershwin’s American Classic, Porgy and Bess in Concert, July 22

By -

Program features Indira Mahajan (Bess) and Derrick Parker (Porgy) with the Heritage Signature Chorale

Originally scheduled in February but cancelled due to inclement weather, Music Director Marin Alsop will finally lead guest vocalists Indira Mahajan, Alison Buchanan, Larry Hylton, Derrick Parker, the D.C.-based Heritage Signature Chorale and the BSO on Thursday, July 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in Concert. Porgy and Bess, dubbed an American folk opera, features the popular, genre-crossing song “Summertime,” as well as other favorites “A Woman Is A Sometime Thing” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” The program will open with Gershwin’s Overture to Girl Crazy, followed by another Gershwin favorite An American in Paris.

George Gershwin’s operatic masterpiece Porgy and Bess opened on Broadway in 1935. The original cast was entirely African-American, with Eva Jessye as choral director. Such a casting decision was artistically bold for the time but nevertheless well received by audiences. Critics, however, were not convinced, citing racial issues and formal construction as inherent problems in the work. It was not until 1976, when Houston Grand Opera performed the work using Gershwin’s complete score that critics were able to accept Porgy and Bess as an American folk opera and hail it as an artistic success. With her “graceful stage presence” and “amber-tinted voice” (Charles Downey, The Washington Post), Indira Mahajan joins the BSO for the role of Bess. Mahajan and fellow vocalists, Alison Buchanan (soprano), Larry Hylton (tenor), Derrick Parker (bass-baritone), as well as the Heritage Signature Chorale will team up under the baton of Marin Alsop to bring this Gershwin classic to life.

Porgy & Bess
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.—Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Marin Alsop, conductor
Indira Mahajan, soprano
Alison Buchanan, soprano
Larry Hylton, tenor
Derrick Parker, bass-baritone
Heritage Signature Chorale
Stanley J. Thurston, music director

Gershwin: Overture to Girl Crazy
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess in Concert

Tickets for this performance range from $19 to $55 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 877.BSO.1444, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Acclaimed Fauré Quartett returns to Deutsche Grammophon with their first recording of Brahms

By -
Image
The Fauré Quartett continues to add authoritative recordings to the chamber music catalog with their new recording of two Brahms quartets, available from Deutsche Grammophon on January 12, 2010. These large, some say symphonic, works test the limits of technical and musical capabilities, and the Fauré Quartett once again proves why they are one of the most acclaimed ensembles performing today. Within a short period of time the Fauré Quartett has conquered the great concert halls of London , Paris , Berlin , Amsterdam , Brussels , Geneva , Hamburg , Frankfurt, Milan , Buenos Aires , Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. “They attract superlatives wherever they go,” wrote The Strad following a concert at London ’s Wigmore Hall, while the Süddeutsche Zeitung praised them for a performance that “brought tremendous pleasure by highlighting interpretative details that had scarcely ever been heard before”. The Fauré Quartett strives to achieve a unique sound for Brahms (as indeed for every work)
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more