Examining Power, Politics of ‘Porgy and Bess’

For the historical newsreel and performance footage alone, “Porgy and Bess: An American Voice” (tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28) is essential. But this documentary--produced by James A. Standifer and written by Gloria Naylor and Ed Apfel--offers much more as it airs the many differing opinions of African Americans about Gershwin’s famous work.

These views range from outright rejection (“Black people don’t feel that it’s something they can relate to”; “a pompous, elitist pursuit”; “the usual cliches”) to embracement (“Who could resist that story? No one”; “It is a truth, a human truth”). And a host of opinions in between.

Major singers from the original 1935 production down to the Met’s in 1985 and the epic 1993 TV production have their say. Damon Evans, a famous Sportin’ Life, says that turning down the Met was a decision he “never regretted” because he regarded the production as a token effort.

Simon Estes, the Met Porgy, however, says, “I was thrilled to do it.” But he adds that management grew angry when he voiced his expectation that African American artists would continue to be booked there after “Porgy” closed.

The opera has been a lightning rod from its beginnings. Critics savaged the original production with at best snooty and at worse outright racist remarks. On the other hand, the U.S. State Department used the work to help quell criticism of American race relations by sending it on a European tour in 1952. Yet, for all that, careers are made and performance opportunities are opened up.

Ideas and emotions spill out of the 83-minute frame of this documentary. It remains shocking and offensive to see African American nurses, on strike in Charleston in 1969, pummeled and herded into police wagons only a year before the city pats itself on the back for presenting the work before its first integrated audience. Bitterness remains.

The production offers no single conclusion or consensus, only the promise that as American race relations evolve, so will attitudes toward “Porgy and Bess.”

Prepare to shed tears and take notes.

* “Porgy and Bess: An American Voice” airs tonight at 10, KCET-TV Channel 28.