Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber Block, Geoffrey (large ebook reader .txt) đ
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Authenticity
Somewhat related to the problems of genre definition is another controversy surrounding Porgy and Bess: how to determine an authentic performing version. To place this debate in perspective it may be helpful to recall the difficulties in establishing a text for Show Boat (discussed in chapter 2). Since Kern and Hammerstein themselves revised their work nineteen years after its original Broadway run for the 1946 Broadway revival, it is arguable that this later version represents the final intentions of the creators. Despite its claim to legitimacy, however, revisionists such as John McGlinn rejected the 1946 version as an impure mutation of original authorial intent. Further, the Houston Opera (1983), McGlinn (1988), and Prince (for the 1994 Broadway revival) restored material that had been discardedâpresumably with the consent of the Kern and Hammerstein estatesâin the pre-Broadway tryouts. The appearance of the dropped âMisâryâs Cominâ Arounââ in the first published vocal score provides fuel for the idea that Kern really wanted this music in the show but capitulated to external pressures. Other reinsertions were not supported by equally compelling evidence.
The authenticity problems associated with Porgy and Bess (and many European operas in the core repertory) differ from those posed by the performance history of Show Boat. For example, in contrast to the Show Boat score, which was published four months into the original Broadway run, by which time the cuts had been stabilized, the Porgy and Bess vocal score was published as a rehearsal score prior to the Boston tryouts on September 30, 1935, and therefore includes most of the music that was later cut in the Boston tryouts. Thus the Gershwin score, unlike the first published Show Boat score (with the exception of âMisâryâs Cominâ Arounââ), is not a score that accurately represents what New York audiences actually heard on opening night ten days later. Thanks to the work of Charles Hamm it is now possible to reconstruct what audiences did hear on the opening night of Porgy and Bess (October 10, 1935) down to the last measure.28 But the question remains: Were these cuts made for artistic or for practical or commercial considerations?
Hamm argues that âmost cuts made for apparently practical reasons were of passages already questioned on artistic grounds,â and that âthe composerâs mastery of technique, his critical judgment, his imagination, and his taste come as much in play in the process of final revisions as in the first stages of composition.â In addition to the relatively modest âcuts to tighten dialogue or action,â âcuts of repeated material mostly made before the opening in Boston,â and âcuts to shorten the opera,â the openings of three scenes were greatly reduced. By the time Porgy and Bess reached New York, only twenty measures of Jazzbo Brownâs music remained before âSummertimeâ (and even these were eliminated a few days later), and the âsix prayersâ that opened act II, scene 4 were removed (though a far shorter reprise could still be heard at the end of the scene). More than two hundred measures from act III, scene 3, had also been discarded, including much of the trio portion of âOh, Bess, Oh Whereâs My Bess.â
An examination of one deleted portion, Porgyâs âBuzzard Songâ from act II, scene 1, might help to shed light on the complex issues of âauthenticityâ and the relative virtues of âabsolute completeness.â29 As in the play Porgy by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, upon which the opera libretto is based (rather than on the novel Porgy), the libretto draft that DuBose sent to George on February 6, 1934, concludes this scene with the appearance of a buzzard.30 In the play, the fact that the buzzard lights over Porgyâs door represents the end of the protagonistâs newly acquired happiness and peace of mind with Bess and prompts the final stage direction of the scene, âPorgy sits looking up at the bird with an expression of hopelessness as the curtain falls.â31
The text of the âBuzzard Songâ in the libretto shows Porgyâs superstitious response to and fear of the buzzard, but in keeping with his attempt to be more upbeat in his adaptation from play to opera, Heyward presents a triumphant protagonist who reminds the buzzard that a former Porgy, decaying with loneliness, âdonât live here no mo.ââ32 Because he is no longer lonely, the Porgy in the first draft of Heywardâs libretto revels in his victory over superstition and loneliness: âThereâs two folks livinâ in dis shelter / Eatin,â sleepin,â singin,â prayin.â / Ainât no such thing as loneliness, / Anâ Porgyâs young again.â33
Several pages earlier in the libretto manuscript George wrote the words âBuzzard Song.â The song cue appears shortly after the arrival of the bird in the scene and Porgyâs observation that âonce de buzzard fold his wing anâ light over yoâ house, all yoâ happiness done dead.â34 By placing the âBuzzard Songâ earlier in the scene, Gershwin paved the way for the following duet between Porgy and Bess, âBess, You Is My Woman Now,â a subsequent addition.
Shortly before Porgy and Bess premiered in New York, the âBuzzard Songâ was among the deletions agreed to by Gershwin and director Rouben Mamoulian. There is general agreement among various first- and secondhand explanations for this cut. Mamoulian, in his 1938 tribute to Gershwin, wrote that âno matter how well he loved a musical passage or an aria (like the Buzzard Song in Porgy and Bess for instance), he would cut it out without hesitation if that improved the performance as a whole.â35 According to Edith Garsonâs completion of Isaac Goldbergâs 1931 Gershwin biography, the composer agreed to this particular cut for practical reasons: âIn fact, during the Boston run, it was George who insisted on cutting fifteen minutes from one section, saying to Ira, âYou wonât have a Porgy by the time we reach New York. No one can sing that much, eight performances a week.ââ36 David Ewen writes that âPorgyâs effective âBuzzard
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