I like Out West Arts' take on the planned remake of Porgy and Bess:
At the crux of Sondheim’s ill-advised tirade against this prospective Broadway revival is the contention that there is a “difference between reinterpretation and wholesale rewriting” and that the first is permissible while the second is not... Most operatic works have been tinkered with to greater or lesser extents over the course of their lives, and most live on in versions not precisely imagined that way by their composers. So what?...If Porgy and Bess is half the opera Sondheim thinks it is, I’m sure it will survive whether or not this particular team rewrites huge sections of the piece for this particular production.
I couldn't motivate myself to go see the SF Opera production several years ago. Who knows, maybe this version will spark some interest.
Comments