To: Mr. Anthony Tommasini
Music Editor
New York Times
Dear Sir:
I was fascinated but troubled by your March 20 article: “All-Black Casts For ‘Porgy’? That Ain’t Necessarily So.” You make some very good points, but miss some more important ones.
I am one of two African American general directors of an opera company in America, and was the first-ever African American artistic director of a major opera company (Greater Miami Opera, now Florida Grand Opera). After having served in major artistic and administrative positions throughout the almost thirty years of my professional career, I feel that I am in a prime position to respond to your article.
First of all, let me say that the solution to the problem posed in your article, if there is one, rests not with the Gershwin estate “ending its casting directive,” and not necessarily with opera companies, it lies with society and the world in general. Until America—and the world—is completely color-blind, we cannot break down the barriers that continue to block African-American opera singers from ascending to the top ranks of their field. There is no question that many of the singers who have come through Porgy and Bess productions, beginning with Houston Grand Opera’s landmark production from 1976, have had the talent and training to sing major roles with major companies. Many of them did go on to have “nice” or “substantial” careers; others fell by the wayside. However, even now, in 2002, there is a noticeable absence of black artists on America’s operatic stages.
One major problem is still the fact that the people in charge of making the casting decisions perceive that their audiences will not “accept” anyone who does not conform to how THEY think a character should look. I have heard more than a few stage directors say, “there would NEVER have been” a black this, or a black that. I have had to sit through many auditions, and have had many conversations and casting sessions in which stage directors want to preserve some sense of “visual truth” to their productions, because they think that’s all that the audience will buy.
For a long time, Porgy and Bess has been, and continues to be, one of the ONLY vehicles for aspiring black opera singers to get jobs with opera companies. Many look at it as a way of getting their foot in the door. Many others have tried to break out of the “P & B” mold by auditioning with standard repertory arias, only to find the door closed to them for mainstream roles. Your assertion that “it is hard to imagine an opera company today hesitating to cast a vocally gifted artist of any race in any role” is noble and well principled, but is not supported by fact.
The Gershwins insisted on an all-black cast for “authenticity,” at least in this country. George Gershwin wanted his music performed in the way that he envisioned it –with jazz and “folk” idioms which he picked up while spending time on Tin Pan Alley and in Charleston. To properly perform Porgy, it is essential to be in tune with both classical training and a soulful, jazz-inflected, almost improvisatorial vocal style. There is a natural rhythm, which Gershwin so wonderfully and amazingly captured in his score, and which (I will go out on a limb here) would, frankly, be lost on much of white America. THIS is what would make it difficult for non-blacks to perform Porgy and Bess. I personally feel “Porgy” should only be performed by blacks, but by blacks who are classically trained and who can “get down” and properly perform it idiomatically, as Gershwin’s music calls for. I don’t remember Verdi or Puccini or Mozart making such stipulations.
Would opening up Porgy and Bess to white singers encourage more heads of opera companies to open up more roles to qualified black singers? Probably not. The ultimate answer, then, is not bringing whites into Catfish Row, but bringing more blacks into Valhalla!!
Sincerely,
Willie Anthony Waters
General and Artistic Director
Connecticut Opera
Artistic Advisor/Conductor
Houston Ebony Opera Guild
