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This Porgy is the best!Roshan SewpersadHighlights from Porgy and Bess The Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Texas, USA, includes an eight-strong contingent of South African students — many of whom hold prestigious music scholarships — under the supervision of Prof Barbara Hill-Moore. Prof Hill-Moore, herself an accomplished international opera performer, has taught at numerous South African universities. This tour by her company will visit the Universities of Port Elizabeth, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town and South Africa. Porgy and Bess, Gershwin’s masterpiece jazz-based folk opera, might also be called the American opera, and is easily one of the most recognisable operas of the twentieth century. Almost every opera and jazz diva has included songs from Porgy and Bess in her repertoire. And with good reason — the music is brilliant. And brilliant, too, are the cast of young performers whose immense talent and enthusiasm performing this major work earned them standing ovations from a very discerning audience. In fact, this is the first standing ovation I’ve experienced for a student performance at the Baxter. Stars of the night were certainly the leads — UCT graduate Simphiwe Qavane as Porgy and ex-Durbanite and Fulbright scholar Bronwen Forbay as Bess. In fact, the entire cast deserve unreserved praise for their superb singing and equally superb acting. It is a joy to experience opera performers adept at all aspects of their art. The Meadows School can proudly claim to be producing the new breed of opera performer — reminiscent of the legendary Leontyne Price and Sarah Vaughan, both noted interpreters of Porgy and Bess, and equally ravishing to look at. This concert version of Porgy and Bess is also effectively styled and choreographed, with the cast making full use of all entrances of the theatre and dressed in simple, elegant black. Mention must also be made of the other award-winning South Africans in the cast, Conroy Cupido as Sportin’ Life, Derick Ellis as Peter, Lucretia Geswint as Strawberry Woman and Maria, Otto Maidi as Crown and Patrick Tikolo.
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