Lesbian director Francesca Zambello has some amazing and timely memories working on her production of Porgy and Bess, a work many critics consider to be "The Great American Opera."
The first time Zambello staged the 1935 Broadway "folk opera" composed by George Gershwin with a libretto co-written by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, it was in 2005 for Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. It was in wake of Hurricane Katrina, which gave the production a painful emotional relevancy because a major plot point in Porgy and Bess concerns a devastating hurricane and its impact on an African-American community living on the South Carolina coast.
"We were very brought together, all of the cast because many people had relatives [in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast]," Zambello said in a recent telephone interview. "When we did it again in Chicago, it was in 2008 on the eve of Barack Obama's presidential election, so that was an amazing experience."
Zambello would restage her Porgy and Bess again for San Francisco Opera in 2009, which was documented with a recent DVD release and a TV broadcast on PBS last month. Zambello's production of Porgy and Bess returns to the repertory of the Lyric Opera of Chicago in a revival that plays for 13 performances between Monday, Nov. 17, to Saturday, Dec. 20.
A few singers like baritone Eric Owens as Porgy and soprano Karen Slack as Serena reprise their roles from the San Francisco production. Others from the 2008 Lyric Porgy and Bess return like tenor Jermaine Smith as the drug pusher Sportin' Life and baritone Eric Green, who switches roles from the family man Jake to the murderous villain Crown. Others are new, like soprano Adina Aaron tackling the enigmatic title role of goodtime girl Bess, and South African soprano Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi plays the new mother Clara, who sings the opera's best-known number "Summertime."
"Usually, it's better than it was at the premiere just because you get to take out things that didn't work and you fix it," said Zambello about restaging her productions, though she says that hasn't been an issue so much with her Porgy and Bess, which she updated to the 1950s and relocated to a much more industrial, run-down factory-town setting. "Porgy is so dependent on absolute ensemble performances. It just doesn't work if everyone isn't on the same page together."
Although much of Zambello's early directing career was as a jet-setting journeyman, she now tends to stay wedded to the two companies that she runs as the artistic director of Washington National Opera in the District of Columbia and as the general director of the summer Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York.
"I spend a lot of my time curating and putting together a season, so I don't spend as much time on the road directing," Zambello said. "I'm really much more interested in forming a bigger vision by my leadership with these companies. I still do new productions, but I tend to do them in my own theaters where I've got time to look after everything else."
Although Zambello does go elsewhere to stage new productions ( like Show Boat for the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2012 ), lately it has been largely restaging revivals of her past work. In addition to Porgy and Bess for the Lyric, Zambello's restaged productions this season include Salome for Dallas Opera and Daniel CatÃˇn's Florencia en el Amazonas and Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd, both for Los Angeles Opera.
As for her theater work, Zambello said her theme-park productions of Aladdin for Disneyland and Walt Disney World are still going strong. So far, Zambello hasn't heard from Disney if they plan on closing the theme park Aladdins in light of the new musical production that opened on Broadway last season.
Zambello is also no longer attached to the musical The First Wives Club, which she directed in 2009 in San Diego. When asked about the revamped First Wives Club which plays Chicago this season, Zambello had no comment.
"I'm always grateful to revisit it," said Zambello about returning to Porgy and Bess and to consider its open-ended conclusion which can be interpreted rather bleakly or optimistically when Porgy leaves his insular community. "I think that the issue of civil rights in America, which is in Porgy in some ways—I think of it especially when he breaks out at the end. It has a huge parallel with gay rights which have so radically changed in the past decade since the first time that I did that piece. I think revisiting it always brings back those issues to the forefront to me."
The Lyric Opera of Chicago's revival of Porgy and Bess plays at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., for 12 performances Nov. 17-Dec. 20. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17, 19, Dec. 2, 5, 8, 13, 16 and 20 with 2 p.m. matinees Nov. 23, 26, 28 and Dec. 11. Tickets are $20-$249. Call 312-827-5600 or visit www.lyricopera.org .
