Evening star., 1953-12-22

4HcTe Is no neeQ TO TcpeS
George GerShwin is Americas ri
no more than is due the Blevins
Davis-Robert Breen production
to say, that it is richer now for
the time and travel that have
added to its texture. This Is
the way it should be with an
authentic work of art.
And with such work, the
spectator can be increasingly
happy and ever so proud that
it was SO long so triumphant in
its tour OF European capitals.
** IS
The excitement of "Porgy and
Bess," unequaled in the con-
temporary theater, is the product
of two remarkably complement
.tary geniuseS. The one is that
Of Du Bose Hayward who wrote
this deeply compassionate reva-
lation of Negro life in the lower
depths Of Charleston, S. C.
The other is the imperishably
brilliant gift of Composer Gersh-
win who set it to music that
throbs with grief and gladness,
terror and twilight peace. and
above all an infinite power to
move.
Between them, these two
worked out a harmonious per-
fection. an unfailingly fascinat-
ing story come to a fitting glory
in song.
The Davis-Breen production
Is work of sheer exultance I'M
dimmed in the smallest detail
by the time and events of it's
career. 1t was sung last night
by a cast headed by Leontyne
Price and Leslie Scott. It was
sung, too, with the same burst
OF life that has been it's happy
endowment since the day it was
born almost two years ago.
Because it is so presented. the
four weeks of it's return visit to
Washington cannot fail to be
the most exuberant and excit-
ing of the current drama
season.
It diminishes Gershwin in no
way to view "Porgy and Bess" as
two of the most inviting charac-
ters that ever inspired a modern
composer. These are a pair of
historys strangest lovers, con-
genitally crippled. primitively
simple Negro and Catfish Rows
most unbridled temptress. They
live moral worlds apart, these
two. but in the teeming ghetto
behind CharleSton's gardens
their emotions become entWined.
1t is this unlikely involvement
that provides the passionate
heart of Catfish Rows immortal
A4OOlSd1 1ld1 dC1NC.
The power of "Porgy and
Bess" is found in the fact that
1t never lapses into a lightly
charged moment. Life writhes
and coils ceaselessly, even in the
sleepy dawn of day and the
simplest songs of the street ven-
dors selling their honey, straw
berries and soft-shelled crabs.
It becomes tumultuous in the
quadrangular relationship be-
tween Porgy, BesS, the primitive
giant Crown, and the satanically
sleek Sportin' Life.
This is the energy with which
Breen's direction has vitaliZed
the production. 1t is expressed
in performances whose raw. tire
less power is rarely achieved on
any stage and in music that ends
with the hunger for it unsatis-
fed.
An incomparably brilliant
company, uIlCOInpIOLlISIIlSly anu
proudly at its best, is the one
Mr.. Breen has put together. A
whole new life floods into
Gershwin's music in the voices
of Miss Price, Scott, Cab Gallo
way, John McCurry, Helen Thig-
pen, Joseph James, Helen Dowdy,
Colbert and so many others.
Save for the happy expec-
fancy. one might never before
have heard Summertime" MY
Mans Gone Now" Il Got Plenty
of Nuttin," and the others until
they are heard again (and again
and AGAIN. in context. There
are rarely such moments of joy
and heartbreak as when Miss
Price and Scott sing, "Bess, You
Is My Woman Now" or that
equally haunting duet, II Love
You. Porgy."
Singly and chorally, the voices
of this "Porgy and Bess" are