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music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, book by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, directed by Will Roberson

Living Arts Inc., Elgin Theatre, Toronto

March 15-20, 2005

The Gershwins’ 1935 “folk opera” Porgy and Bess was the first American opera accepted into the international repertoire.  The most successful attempt to bridge the worlds of opera and the musical, it gave the world such standards as “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”.  Yet, the last time it was seen in Toronto was in 1976.  Given the current mediocre production, you’ll have decide whether to see it or possibly wait another 30 years for a better one to come along.

Touring the world since 1992, Will Roberson’s is an old-fashioned one-set production evoking in outline the black ghetto of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina.  The roles, double or triple cast, are sung by a mixture of strong operatic and character voices, but the acting is variable.  On opening night Samuel Stevenson was an oddly powerful Porgy, the crippled man who falls in love with the flashy Bess, while Jerris Cates awkwardly captured Bess’s moods from despair to cocaine-induced highs.  Better were Everett Suttle as her slick drug-dealing tempter Sportin’ Life, Thomas Elliott, both physically and vocally imposing as Crown, the brutal man who won’t give her up, and  Lisa Lockhart, as a devout Christian widowed by Crown.

The staging lacks the fullness of detail we’ve come to expect in the best operatic productions, but the on-stage depictions of murder, rape and drug-use show how contemporary the work still is.  A major disappointment is the amplification of both the orchestra and singers.  Other venues may need it, but not the Elgin.     

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-03-17.

Photo: Jerris Kates as Bess in red dress. ©Living Arts, Inc.