Porgy & Bess – not the normal music review (for this blog)

M and I went to see Porgy and Bess at the Festival theatre. Really good productionalthough I must say that the lead singers were sounding a wee bit tired. and the guy who played Sportin’ Life had the odd tuning issue – but that also sounded like a result of too many times the same thing. Porgy was excellent – African american bass that sounded like caramel. Stunning. I liked the slight jazz to the opera and the bleak macabre nature of the story. The only serious criticism i have doesn’t relate to the music –  is that the surtitles were totally out of sync and often incorrectly translated. On some occassions they were ahead of themselves and so ruined the effect of the next line (really frustrating). But good that we saw it. M even liked it (there you’re secret is out!!). It was surprising to hear so many songs that we knew without ever associating them with the musical – Summertime, I got plenty of Nothing etc.