Search - Various Artists :: Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (Highlights)

Lacks spirit

John Grabowski | USA | 08/30/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Everyone in this recording sounds out of their element. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra sounds too light and airy, not "earthy" enough. Leonard Slatkin conducts like he's leading them in Mozart. Simon Estes' voice is just not big enough for Porgy--it sounds like he's really straining to hit those low notes. His coloring is also too dark--and yes, I mean *musical* coloring. Similarly, Roberta Alexander, another coloratura, sounds beautiful in the role of Bess, but I can't understand what she's singing half the time. The vinyl version of this release included the texts of the songs but those were omitted for the CD. They're needed. She also seems to be out of tune at times.



These are some of the most moving numbers from one of the most moving musicals ever written. I hesitate to call it a "musical," actually. It's been cited as America's first and greatest opera, a claim I would not want to dispute. It's also very hard today to appreciate just how ground-breaking it was in 1935, for many reasons. But listening to this precise-but-bloodless recording (crystal clear, but by itself not enough of a recommendation), you might indeed dispute it. Porgy and Bess, and George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward, deserve better than this. And so do you. Nothing to see here, unfortunately...move along.



"