So much has happened in this year at the Kennedy Center, and perhaps most seismically with the giant resident company, Washington National Opera. It is “still standing,” and delivered its season finale with what, in ordinary times, might have been a safe and familiar classic, the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. But these are no ordinary times, and, in bringing the original production, with sets and all from the Glimmerglass Festival/Seattle Opera, Artistic Director Francesca Zambello has made a radical and joyful declaration of the power and resiliency of community.
What a beautiful world Peter J. Davison (set) and Mark McCullough (lighting, along with A.J. Guban for the revival) have created for the storytelling. The three-storied façade, representing the tenement dwelling, first appears in a full display of rich colors, but as the opera progresses, the walls begin to peel and become more skeletal, emphasizing the pressures and hardships the community has endured. The world of the bright southern sun grows dark and turns into eerie green-blue hurricane country.
The Gershwins’ work has had a rich but not always easy history. The story, based on a real character in Charleston’s Catfish Row, was penned in 1925 by local white author Dubose Heyward. When he collaborated with brothers George and Ira and transformed the story into an “American folk opera” in 1935, it upset many white audience members, who found much in the content and the subject of a poor Black community objectionable for the “high art” of opera. There has been a considerable period, still lingering, when there was a very vocal backlash from the Black community, which felt burned by the appropriation of their history, and people have bristled at what they see as the work’s perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes. Over the years, many Black artists have also felt confined, limited in their careers by being cast only in roles in this opera.
This production shows us a community that both cares for and polices itself as needs be against the callous treatment by white officials who periodically swoop in to haul off “material witnesses.” The stage is filled with life so rich and uplifting that the air in the Opera House seemed blissfully clear of any contentious dialectic. A welcome, unusually diverse audience on opening night at the Opera House erupted in enthusiasm throughout the almost three hours of opera.
This was due in part to the generosity of Zambello sharing the stage direction with Associate Director and Choreographer Eric Sean Fogel. The two have collaborated often before. This time, however, took their collaboration to another level and proved a most seamless affair. The whole production might well be called music-DANCE-theater because of Fogel’s contributions. From the very first scene, everyone is moving. Above, women on three-storied balconies shaking out and folding laundry, while below men engage in full-bodied good-luck rituals before rolling dice in a Saturday night craps game. Mothers rock and pass babies back and forth to each other (proving it does indeed take a village). A young boy grabs a baling hook and for a moment is caught playfully triumphant in private celebration. These daily activities are heightened just enough through exquisite choreographic sequences to become a continuous whole. It is a story of rolling, mesmerizing beauty, but also one that encompasses the full spectrum of humanity, including loss, mourning, and, yes, even eruptions of violence, yet brought back together when taking shelter against cataclysmic nature.
There is a great ensemble of talent assembled on the Opera House stage, and richly etched characters who together make up the Catfish Row community. Big and cameo roles are filled to just about perfection. The scene on Kittiwah Island explodes into an extended ballet, deliciously carnal in the best sense of that word: folks liberating themselves and expressing spirit and sheer physical joy in a church of the body.
In traditional teaching of opera, convention has it that singers sing in situations where their characters themselves would not. But in this production, such conventional wisdom has been upended. From the first scene and the beautiful singing of Viviana Goodwin as Clara in the all-time favorite “Summertime,” she delivers the lullaby completely rooted in character. Of course, this woman would sing so to pacify and bond with her infant. Soon into the storytelling, there is a death in the community. After her husband is killed in a fight by Crown, at his funeral Serena (Amber R Monroe) leads the assembled mourners in prayer — as she would. I was particularly taken by Benjamin Taylor, who as Jake sang one of the lesser-known songs from the opera, the working song “It Takes a Long Pull,” with such believability and depth as a man who makes his living off the sea and must face daily hardships and death just to keep food on the table for his family.
The central drama is carried by the relationships between Crown, Sportin’ Life, and Porgy, and the woman entwined in the three men’s lives, Bess.
You just know that when Bess enters, she is not just “a sometime thing”; she is trouble. Brittany Renee is a drop-dead gorgeous performer in voice, body, and soul, and in this her debut with WNO, she pulls off a performance that goes from A to Z and reveals her triple-threat mastery of singing, dance/physicality, and emotional expression. Her Bess first appears in flame orange-red satin announcing she’s probably too hot to handle. No wonder the other women on Catfish Row initially bar their doors!
Costume Designer Paul Tazewell cleverly traces Bess’ journey, later dressing her in a sedate white dress, suggesting someone newly baptized and redeemed but also one who has been somewhat domesticated. She, along with the entire ensemble, also wears white to the summer picnic on Kittiwah Island. But, spoiler alert, that flame dress appears again.
Chauncy Packer is Sportin’ Life and embodies that weasely song-and-dance man, drug-dealing tempter to a T. He plies Bess with “angel dust” to keep her under his thumb. He wiggles and slithers all over the stage and in and out of crap games. His big numbers, “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York,” are cross-genre showstoppers.
Kenneth Kellogg plays Crown. Having seen him as the lead in WNO’s Blue, where he played a loving husband, protective father, and straight-up police officer, it was initially hard to see him as the volatile bully and controlling abuser in this role. Crown is a brute. (The production leaves no doubt about that when Act I ends with his hauling Bess off and raping her after a community picnic.) Kellogg is a big guy and completely convincing as the brooding, menacing Crown. But the surprise came in this actor’s amazing ability to show also the loneliness of this outlier in a complex portrait of a tormented, self-sabotaging soul.
Amazing also is this Porgy, and I’ve seen quite a few. Michael Sumuel gives us a fully rounded character, physically and morally strong, and, despite his disability, someone fully integrated and respected in the community. I loved seeing this Porgy with Renee’s Bess; they made us believe they not only have deep affection for each other but enjoy real passion. The duets “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” and “I Loves You Porgy” made me tear up. I loved hearing the familiar tunes “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ and “I’m On My Way” in his sonorous voice. When he crosses the stage determinedly heading off to New York City to find Bess, we not only root for him but believe he will succeed in his quest.
The music is just so fine and tuneful, and most ably conducted by Kwamé Ryan in this his first appearance on the WNO podium. Notably, Ryan is one of three artists of color on the creative team, alongside Costume Designer Tazewell and Associate Choreographer Eboni Adams.
I’ll let Francesca Zambello have the last word, which you’ll find as part of a most interesting exhibit of the women in this opera (and some of the singers who portrayed them) in the Hall of the States as you enter the Kennedy Center:
I consider this the greatest of all American operas, setting the standard for all American musical-theatre works to follow. It is rooted in the American tradition; it conjures a world long forgotten yet one rife with potential for contemporary times.
This “greatest of all American operas” plays through May 31.
Running time: Two hours and 50 minutes, including one intermission.
Porgy and Bess plays through May 31, 2025, presented by Washington National Opera, performing in The Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW, Washington, DC. For the schedule and to purchase tickets ($45–$299), go online or contact the Box Office at (202) 467-4600.
In English with Projected English Titles.
The program for Porgy and Bess is online here.
Porgy and Bess
MUSIC by George Gershwin
LIBRETTO by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin
CAST
Porgy – Michael Sumuel, Bess – Brittany Renee, Clara – Vivianna Goodwin, Serena – Amber R. Monroe, Maria – Denyce Graves, Sportin’ Life – Chauncey Packer, Crown – Kenneth Kellogg, Jake – Benjamin Taylor, Strawberry Woman – Marquita Raley-Cooper, Lily – Alexandia Crichlow, Annie – Brittani McNeill, Mingo – Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, Robbins – Daniel Sampson, Peter the Honeyman – Keith Craig, Nelson – Ernest Jackson, Crabman – Anthony P. Ballard, Jim – Nicholas LaGesse, Undertaker – Jarrod Lee, Detective – Scott Ward Abernethy, Coroner – James Whalen
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor – Kwamé Ryan, Director – Francesca Zambello, Associate Director and Choreographer – Eric Sean Fogel, Set Designer – Peter J. Davison, Costume Designer – Paul Tazewell, Lighting Designer – Mark McCoullough, Revival Lighting Designer – A.J. Guban
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