Americans still love `Porgy’

Sixty years after its premiere in New York, “Porgy and Bess” is on the stage again, this time with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in a 70-city tour. Last night, the momentous drama about summertime life in Catfish Row came to the Maine Center for the Arts and played before an appreciative audience that nearly filled the concert hall.

George Gershwin never saw the success of this piece — he died less than two years after its rocky run in New York.

“Porgy and Bess” has been called a folk opera, just simply an opera, and a musical. It has been chided for being incomplete musically and lauded for being unusually creative.

It has been criticized as a piece written by overprivileged whites about underprivileged blacks, celebrated for depicting the depth of community and spirituality amoung Southern blacks, laughed at for suggesting that “plenty o’ nuttin”‘ could satisfy anyone.

And those with an ounce of feminism would have to throw the term “objectification of women” at this work that has as one of its most popular songs “Bess, You Is My Woman Now.”

Despite all this, “Porgy and Bess” has managed to remain a beloved American work. Part of it is the sensual swing of Gershwin’s music, part of it is the encapsulation of American themes.

The Charleston production probably ranks right up there with the best of them, but too many other factors made last night’s performance a disappointment.

The problems began when ushers continued to seat patrons throughout the first 15 minutes.

Although the live orchestra was in great shape, its presence made it necessary to mike the singers. As is nearly always the case at the Maine Center, amplification muddled singers’ voices and made it impossible to understand the words. “Porgy and Bess” has some amazing vocal twists which were lost in the wires of the hall. Every one of the Charleston singers was top-notch but poorly reproduced through the sound system. Additionally, the volume was uneven throughout the show, occasionally causing a burst of sound or tinny buzz.