Gershwin - Porgy & Bess | Audite AUDITE23405

Gershwin - Porgy & Bess

£16.10

Currently out of stock at the UK suppliers. Available to order, but is likely to take longer than usual to despatch

Label: Audite

Cat No: AUDITE23405

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 3rd November 2008

Contents

Artists

Leontyne Price
William Warfield
Cab Calloway
John McCurry
Helen Colbert
Jerry Laws
Helen Thigpen
Joseph James
Howard Roberts
Leslie Scott
Joseph Crawford
Helen Dowdy
Georgia Burke
Catherine Ayers
Sam Kasakoff
Walter Riemer
William Veasey
Moses LaMarr
Elizabeth Foster
Ray Yeates
Willis Daily
Choir of the Blevins Davis & Robert Breen Production
RIAS-Unterhaltungsorchester

Conductor

Alexander Smallens

Works

Gershwin, George

Porgy and Bess

Artists

Leontyne Price
William Warfield
Cab Calloway
John McCurry
Helen Colbert
Jerry Laws
Helen Thigpen
Joseph James
Howard Roberts
Leslie Scott
Joseph Crawford
Helen Dowdy
Georgia Burke
Catherine Ayers
Sam Kasakoff
Walter Riemer
William Veasey
Moses LaMarr
Elizabeth Foster
Ray Yeates
Willis Daily
Choir of the Blevins Davis & Robert Breen Production
RIAS-Unterhaltungsorchester

Conductor

Alexander Smallens

About

Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin’s only opera, had to fight hard on its way to its German audience as it was ostracised as “nigger music” in the Third Reich. The blockage was only broken by the legendary production by Robert Breen which was toured first in the US and then across Europe from 1952 until 1955.

This recording documents the guest performance of the ensemble at the Berliner Festwochen 1952. The conditions were ideal: the music director, Alexander Smallens, had also conducted the New York premiere in 1935. He inspired a stellar cast of soloists to perform on the highest level. Amongst them are William Warfield, Cab Calloway and also the young Leontyne Price (this is probably the very first sound document on which she can be heard).

Here is a captivating document of the highest musical and dramatic intensity, making the listener hold his breath atmospherically and dramatically from the first to the last minute.

Cast:
- Leontyne Price: Bess, Crown’s girl, who is also a prostitute
- William Warfield: Porgy, a disabled beggar
- Cab Calloway: Sportin’ Life, a dope peddler
- John McCurry: Crown, a tough stevedore who is also Bess’s pimp
- Helen Colbert: Clara, Jake’s wife
- Jerry Laws:  Mingo
- Helen Thigpen: Serena, Robbins’ wife
- Joseph James: Jake, a fisherman
- Howard Roberts: Robbins, an inhabitant of Catfish Row
- Leslie Scott: Jim, a cotton picker
- Joseph Crawford: Peter, the honeyman
- Helen Dowdy: Lily, Peter’s wife
- Georgia Burke: Maria
- Catherine Ayers: Annie
- Sam Kasakoff: Policeman
- Walter Riemer: Detective
- William Veasey: Mortician
- Moses LaMarr: Frazier, a black ‘lawyer’
- Elizabeth Foster: Ruby
- Ray Yeates: Crab man
- Willis Daily: Policeman

Recorded live: Berlin, 1952.

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