Download Trailblazer: George Shirley

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began making their way onto commercial
phonograph records, which also helped crystallize their music and words even while allowing
for different interpretations in performance. The
most popular spirituals got a lot of exposure. By
the time the Victor company released Marian
Anderson’s recording of “Ev’ry Time I Feel the
Spirit,” in 1940, a dozen competing versions of
the song were already in the marketplace.
“Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit” is heard in
an a cappella choral version by William L. Dawson published in 1944. Dawson (1899–1990), an
Alabama native, earned his master’s degree at
the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago
and taught from 1931 to 1956 at the Tuskegee Institute, where he developed the Tuskegee Institute Choir into a world-famous ensemble. His
Negro Folk Symphony made quite a splash in
1932, when it was introduced by Leopold
Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Hall Johnson (1888–1970), arranger of “On
Ma Journey Now” and “My God is So High,”
was born in Georgia, studied violin and at Juilliard, was violist in the much-applauded Negro
String Quartet beginning in 1923, and played in
the orchestra for the original run of Shuffle
Along, the 1921 Broadway hit by Noble Sissle
and Eubie Blake. In 1925 he founded the
Harlem Jubilee Singers, later known as the Hall
Johnson Choir. It was featured through international touring and on radio, television, and
in many Hollywood films (including Frank
Capra’s Lost Horizon, Vincente Minnelli’s Cabin
in the Sky, and Walt Disney’s Song of the South).
The group appeared on New York Philharmonic
concerts at Lewisohn Stadium annually from
1928 through 1933 and then returned in 1938.
Like Scott Joplin, George Gershwin achieved
success in an essentially popular domain of
Trailblazer: George Shirley
George Shirley (b. 1934) was the first African American tenor, and the second African-American male singer
(following baritone Robert McFerrin), to star in a role at The Metropolitan Opera. Having won the company’s
National Council Auditions, he was spotlighted there as Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 1961 (in a production that also served for the debuts of sopranos Teresa Stich-Randall and Phyllis Curtin). “Here is a sensitive musician, an expert actor and an intelligent artist who approaches every assignment with taste and
resourceful technique,” wrote The New York Times. He would rack up 251 performances at The Met by the
time his last one arrived, in 1973.
New York Philharmonic audiences had to settle for 19 appearances, from 1965 through 1973, where he was featured in
rarely heard works by Haydn (scenes from the opera L’incontro improvviso) and Mozart (the cantata Davide penitente), as
well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, conducted in 1965 by
Leonard Bernstein; in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted in 1966 by Lorin Maazel; and in Verdi’s Requiem, which
he sang in 1969 in performances conducted by Bernstein.
He has also made an indelible impact apart from the concert platform, hosting an important mid-1970s radio series on
WQXR, Classical Music and the Afro-American, and serving
since 1987 as voice professor at the University of Michigan,
where he still maintains a studio. When President Obama presented him with the National Medal of Arts in September, it
was to the words of this commendation: “As a pioneer and as
a teacher, Mr. Shirley has paved the way for generations of
African American opera singers.”
George Shirley
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music while aspiring to greatness in the classical realm.
As early as the autumn of 1926 he read DuBose Heyward’s recently published novel Porgy
and, struck by its theatrical possibilities, asked
permission to turn it into an opera libretto. Heyward’s wife, Dorothy, had already been adapting the novel into a stage play, and the two
projects would be too close for comfort. The
play was unveiled in 1927 to considerable acclaim, but after the excitement died down,
Gershwin contacted Heyward again, in 1932.
Heyward viewed this as providential, since he
was suffering greatly through the downturn of
the Depression. He suggested that Gershwin’s
brother, Ira, be enlisted to assist with the lyrics
of the songs themselves.
Gershwin pursued his project with the fervor
of an anthropologist and spent a good deal of
time observing Gullah fishermen in their South
Carolina communities, the better to capture the
flavor of Heyward’s characters and their world.
At some point a bold idea surfaced: Porgy and
Bess would feature an all-black cast. It was an
unusual conception at the time, although not
unprecedented, since Virgil Thomson’s opera
Four Saints in Three Acts was unveiled with
such a cast in 1934.
From the outset Porgy and Bess was presented as a hybrid work. Gershwin called it a
folk opera, but had it produced not in an opera
house but rather on the musical theater stage.
His music required operatically trained singers,
but the staging would have struck audiences as
Selections from Porgy and Bess
George Gershwin
Born: September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York
Died: July 11, 1937, in Hollywood, California
Work composed: mostly in 1934–35, although preliminary work extended back at least to 1932;
libretto by DuBose Heyward (derived from his novel
Porgy), with song lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin
World premiere: September 30, 1935, in Boston;
Broadway premiere at New York’s Alvin Theatre on
October 10 of that year
New York Philharmonic premiere: these songs
from Porgy and Bess, premiered July 9, 1936, in a
concert performance of the work, Alexander Smallens,
conductor, Todd Duncan, baritone, and Anne Brown, soprano, as soloists
Most recent New York Philharmonic performances:
these selections from Porgy and Bess, June 29, 2003,
at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, Lorin Maazel,
conductor, Eric Owens, bass-baritone, and Indra
Thomas, soprano, as soloists
Eric Owens and Laquita Mitchell in the title roles of
Porgy and Bess at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2014
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Estimated duration: ca. 8 minutes
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more closely allied to Broadway musicals than
to what was generally considered grand opera.
During previews, the Boston audience was enthusiastic about this musical tale of earnest,
good-hearted Porgy and his unwavering love
for Bess, despite her propensity to cave in to the
wicked influences of the hucksters and dopepushers that surround her.
The piece was much cut for its New York opening. The audience responded enthusiastically,
but the critics were more cautious. By and large,
drama critics liked the new work and music critics did not. Porgy and Bess had a respectable run
of 124 performances, although its producers lost
money on the venture. Gershwin never doubted
the value of his opera, but he did not live to see
its fortunes soar. In 1976 the Houston Grand
Opera gave the first production of the uncut
score since the Boston premiere, signaling a
change in critical opinion that led to the work’s
being offered in several seasons by The Metropolitan Opera as well as by other leading opera
companies in the United States and abroad.
Giuseppe Verdi’s early operas prolonged
Gioachino Rossini’s bel canto ideals of vocal
style, and he never forgot his indebtedness to
his distinguished predecessor. When Rossini
died, in 1868, Verdi felt the loss deeply, and he
devised a plan whereby 13 composers would
contribute one movement each to a composite
Requiem Mass — not a huge imposition on anyone and therefore achievable in time for a performance on the first anniversary of Rossini’s
death. In the end, bickering torpedoed the
scheme and the piece was not performed.
Then, on May 22, 1873, Verdi’s other cultural
hero — Alessandro Manzoni — died. The author’s
novels served much the same political function
that some of Verdi’s operas did in the Italy of the
“Ingemisco,” from Requiem
Giuseppe Verdi
Born: October 9 or 10, 1813 (he was baptized on the 11th), in Roncole, near Busseto, Italy
Died: January 27, 1901, in Milan
Work composed: May 1873 to April 15, 1874
World premiere: May 22, 1874, at the Church of San Marco, Milan, Italy, with the composer conducting, and Giuseppe Capponi as soloist
New York Philharmonic premiere: December 11, 1896, with Walter Damrosch conducting
the New York Symphony (a forebear of the New
York Philharmonic), George Hamlin, soloist
Most recent New York Philharmonic
performance: January 17, 2015, Alan Gilbert,
conductor, Russell Thomas, soloist
Estimated duration: ca. 4 minutes
Russell Thomas singing “Ingemisco” in the Philharmonic’s
complete performance of Verdi’s Requiem in January 2015
that also featured Eric Owens
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