It’s not a woman that’s a sometime thing; it’s Porgy and Bess itself. If ever an opera was a period piece, rooted firmly in the times and places of both its composition and its original setting, it’s this 1935 work by a New York composer about a poor black fishing community in 1920s South Carolina. The tunes, however, stay fresh. There have been attempts to rework Porgy and Bess – most recently a bad-faith Hungarian State Opera production that shoehorned the story into a present-day refugee centre, ignoring the Gershwin estate’s insistence on a black cast. But, with ears open and in good faith, it is practically impossible to do much with it other than present it as written. That is what English National Opera’s first ever production of it does, wholeheartedly and handsomely.
James Robinson’s staging is timeless, in the sense that it could have been created at any point in the last 40-odd years, give or take the digital rain effects on the drop curtain. Audiences at the august Metropolitan Opera in New York, where it is due to be staged next season, will love it. Michael Yeargan’s design gives us a stage-filling revolving set made of wooden scaffolding, two storeys high, so that you can see into everybody’s rooms, all the time – no privacy here. Most of the time this set is filled with the noise, visual and actual, of a huge, fabulously full-voiced chorus – not ENO’s own, but an ensemble of singers of colour assembled for this production. They are due to combine with the regular chorus for the company’s production of Britten’s War Requiem, opening next month, an ear-ringing prospect.
Ceiling fans spin as Nadine Benjamin’s Clara sings Summertime to her baby – it’s the first singing we hear, and Benjamin delivers it gorgeously. You can almost hear the heat – and indeed, it is George Gershwin’s score, buoyantly played here under the specialist guidance of conductor John Wilson, that more than anything establishes the atmosphere of summer in the American south. Gershwin researched it enthusiastically: the prospect of working with Dorothy and DuBose Heyward and turning their play into an opera brought him to their hometown of Charleston, visiting churches and absorbing the music of the Gullah Geechee community first-hand. It’s no coincidence that there’s a slight stylistic shift whenever we hear from Sportin’ Life, the slippery, perma-smiling drug pusher who always has an eye on New York – his big numbers, including It Ain’t Necessarily So, have his voice shadowed by a quietly sleazy muted trumpet.
Sportin’ Life’s numbers are highlights thanks to a sparky UK debut from Frederick Ballentine. Indeed, among this largely American, British and South African cast, it is singers in supporting roles who make the biggest vocal impressions – especially Latonia Moore, ENO’s Aida last year, on commanding form as widowed Serena. She plays off Tichina Vaughn’s ballsy Maria nicely. Nozuko Teto’s languid Strawberry Woman stands out among the myriad cameos.
Nicole Cabell’s Bess seems subdued early on, her words swallowed up in her velvety soprano tone, but comes into her own in the second act, as does Nmon Ford’s initially charmless Crown. Eric Greene’s Porgy, crippled but potent, is vividly drawn, towering over Crown and everyone else even with one leg strapped into a brace. A period piece it may be, but if you’re going to stage Gershwin’s opera, this is how.
• In rep at the Coliseum, London, until 17 November
