TRACKLISTING

original 1935 production version


ARTISTS

Alvy Powell (Porgy)
Marquita Lister (Bess)
Nicole Cabell (Clara)
Robert Mack (Sportin' Life)
Lester Lynch (Crown)
Monique McDonald (Serena)
Leonard Rowe (Jake)
Linda Thompson Williams (Maria)
Chauncey Packer (Mingo/Nelson/Crab Man)
Barron Coleman (Robbins)
Calvin Lee (Peter)
Uzee Brown, Jr. (Lawyer Frasier)
Tamica Harris (Annie)
Tiffany Wharton (Lily/Strawberry Woman)
Justin Lee Miller (Jim/Undertaker)
Nashville Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Blair Children's Chorus
Tenessee State University Band
John Mauceri

RECORDING INFORMATION

THE FIRST EVER RECORDING OF GERSHWIN'S ORIGINAL 1935 PRODUCTION VERSION. This brand-new studio recording was made in Nashville following the first performances of Gershwin's revised version for more than half a century. Conducted by John Mauceri whose acclaimed recordings of Broadway classics include The King & I, Candide and a definitive series of Gershwin musicals, Gershwin's most popular score bridges the worlds of grand opera and the Broadway musical.

Features Alvy Powell as Porgy and Marquita Lister as Bess, and recent Decca signing Nicole Cabell as Clara sings Summertime.

Gershwin made extensive cuts and additions to the published version of Porgy & Bess before its New York premiere in 1935. Since that time it is the published version that has usually been performed. Now this great masterpiece of American theatre has been recorded for the first time in the original production version - as George Gershwin himself wanted it performed.

"This is the last version that Gershwin supervised and signed off on" says conductor John Mauceri, "...it's a much better opera this way".

An outstanding vocal cast led by Alvy Powell and Marquita Lister includes Decca's most recent signing - American soprano Nicole Cabell - singing the role of Clara and giving a radiant performance of the best-loved song from the score 'Summertime'.

It was in 1987 that musicologist Charles Hamm called attention to Gershwin's edits to Porgy & Bess. He researched hand-written notations which he discovered in the scores used during rehearsals for the 1935 Broadway premiere at the Alvin Theatre. These revisions tightened dialogue and action and cut unecessary repeats.

Gershwin's additions to this version include a street festival scene in Act 1 which features an 11 piece on-stage band. For the Nashville production members of the Tenessee State University band joined the cast and they also take part in this Decca recording.

Perhaps the most fascinating additon is the 'symphony of sounds' that begins the opera's final scene. The original orchestral interlude is replaced by a minute long soundscape of domestic sounds - cooking, sawing wood, a man snoring - gradually building into a sound picture of everyday life.

Mauceri sees Gershwin's revision of the score as one in a long line of great operatic revisions which includes Puccini's reworking of Madama Butterfly and Verdi's revised La Traviata.

All of us hope to leave behind an authentic and vital text from which other performers can find inspiration. No masterpiece deserves less and surely Porgy & Bess is our great American opera.
John Mauceri (conductor).