Gershwin: Porgy & Bess [Original 1935 Production Version] (2006)

This two-disc Porgy and Bess records not an entirely new version of the Gershwin opera, but a claimed improvement on the "complete" version that surfaced in the 1970s and changed the opera from a series of set pieces to a living work of drama.
Using notations made on the original orchestral parts, conductor John Mauceri and a team of researchers have reconstructed Porgy and Bess as it was heard on the occasion of its New York premiere in 1935. The work as Gershwin originally wrote it, and as it had been performed in Boston previews, ran for nearly three and a half hours, and Gershwin made 45 minutes of cuts during the New York rehearsals. Thus, the producers argue, this was what might be called the "composer's cut" of the opera – Gershwin's best intention for how it should sound. One motivation for the cuts, however, was to let suburban patrons make the last trains north out of Manhattan, which departed at midnight. It's a shame to lose the "Buzzard Song," which fills out Porgy's knowing pessimism and paves the way for the opera's denouement.

Tracklist:

CD 1
CD 1: Gershwin: Porgy & Bess – Original 1935 Production Version
Act 1
1 Introduction
The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
2 Summertime
Nicole Cabell, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
3 Seems like these bones don’t give me nothin’ but boxcars tonight
Robert Mack, Nashville Symphony Chorus, Leonard Rowe, Chauncey Packer, Monique McDonald, Barron Coleman, Justin Lee Miller, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
4 Summertime
Nicole Cabell, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
5 What, that chile ain’t asleep yet?…A woman is a sometime thing
Robert Mack, Nashville Symphony Chorus, Leonard Rowe, Chauncey Packer, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
6 Honey man! Honey man! Here come de honey man
Alvy Powell, Robert Mack, Calvin Lee, Linda Thompson Williams, Leonard Rowe, Chauncey Packer, Barron Coleman, Justin Lee Miller, Monique McDonald, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
7 They pass by singin’
Alvy Powell, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
8 Here comes Big Boy!
Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Chauncey Packer, Leonard Warren, Justin Lee Miller, Lester Lynch, Monique McDonald, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
9 Crown cock-eyed drunk…Oh, little stars
Alvy Powell, Robert Mack, Nashville Symphony Chorus, Justin Lee Miller, Chauncey Packer, Leonard Rowe, Lester Lynch, Barron Coleman, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
10 Oh stop them! Don’t let them fight!
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Linda Thompson Williams, Chauncey Packer, Leonard Rowe, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
11 Wake up an’ hit it out. You ain’t got no time to lose
Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Lester Lynch, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
12 Gone, gone, gone…Overflow
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, Leonard Rowe, Monique McDonald, Linda Thompson Williams, Calvin Lee, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
13 Um! A saucer-buryin’ setup, I see
Alvy Powell, Richard Daniel, Monique McDonald, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, Calvin Lee, Leonard Rowe, Paul Bracy, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
14 My man’s gone now
Monique McDonald, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
15 How de saucer stan’now, my sister?
Alvy Powell, Justin Lee Miller, Monique McDonald, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
16 Leavin’ for the Promise’ Lan
Marquita Lister, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
Act 2
17 Oh, I’m a-goin’ out to the Blackfish Banks
Nicole Cabell, Leonard Rowe, Tamica Harris, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
18 Oh, I got plenty o’nuttin’
Alvy Powell, Monique McDonald, Linda Thompson Williams, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
19 Mornin, lawyer, lookin’ for somebody?
Linda Thompson Williams, Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Uzee Brown Jnr., Tiffany Nicole Wharton, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
20 Dey’s a Buckra comin’
Nicole Cabell, Jeremiah Cooper, Tamica Harris, Monique McDonald, Bart Lefan, Chauncey Packer, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
21 ‘Lo Bess, goin’ to de picnic?
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Leonard Rowe, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
22 Bess, you is my woman now
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
23 Oh, I can’t sit down
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri

CD 2
CD 2: Gershwin: Porgy & Bess – Original 1935 Production Version
Act 2
1 Allegretto barbaro…Ha da da, ha da da
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Nicole Cabell, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
2 It ain’t necessarily so
Robert Mack, Nashville Symphony Chorus, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
3 Crown! You know very well dis Crown
4 What you want wid Bess?
Marquita Lister, Lester Lynch, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
5 Honey, dat’s all de breakfast I got time for
Leonard Rowe, Chauncey Packer, Justin Lee Miller, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
6 Well, if it ain’t ole Peter!
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Linda Thompson Williams, Calvin Lee, Monique McDonald, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
7 Oh Doctor Jesus
Alvy Powell, Monique McDonald, Calvin Lee, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
8 Oh dey’s so fresh an’ fine…I’m talkin’ about devil crabs
Alvy Powell, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, Chauncey Packer, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
9 Porgy, Porgy, dat you there, ain’t it?
10 I loves you, Porgy
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
11 Why you been out on that wharf so long, Clara?
Nicole Cabell, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
12 Storm
The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
13 Oh, de Lawd shake de Heavens
Alvy Powell, Robert Mack, Nicole Cabell, Chauncey Packer, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, Monique McDonald, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
14 One of dese mornin’s…Oh, dere’s somebody knockin’ at de do’
Nicole Cabell, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
15 You is a nice parcel of Christians
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Lester Lynch, Monique McDonald, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
16 A red-headed woman
Lester Lynch, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
17 Jake’s boat in de river, upside down!
Marquita Lister, Nicole Cabell, Alvy Powell, Lester Lynch, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
Act 3
18 Clara, Clara, don’t you be downhearted
Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
19 Ha ha ha
Robert Mack, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
20 Summertime
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
21 Introduction, Wait for us at the corner
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Richard Daniel, Tamica Harris, Monique McDonald, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, Talmage M. Watts, Paul Bracy, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
22 Listen: There’s a boat dat’s leavin’ soon for New York
Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
23 Occupational humoresque (Good mornin’)
Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, Robert Mack, Nicole Cabell, Nashville Symphony Chorus, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
24 It’s Porgy comin’ home
Alvy Powell, Nashville Symphony Chorus, Linda Thompson Williams, Tiffany Nicole Wharton, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
25 Oh, Bess, oh where’s my Bess
Alvy Powell, Linda Thompson Williams, Monique McDonald, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri
26 Where’s Bess gone? Oh Lawd, I’m on my way
Alvy Powell, Chauncey Packer, Linda Thompson Williams, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, John Mauceri




Composer: George Gershwin
Performer: Alvy Powell, Marquita Lister, John Mauceri
Orchestra: The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Chorus