Hana S. Sharif, Director
Laquita Mitchell, Bess
Lester Lynch, Crown
Larry Hylton, Sportin' Life
(Courtesy Arcadia Productions)
Reyna Carguill, Serena
Jasmine Habersham, Clara
Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Hello Morgan Fine Arts Community,
Last
night, just two weeks after premiering a new commission with the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the Morgan State University Choir was the
official chorus for the Baltimore Symphony’s current semi-staged
production of Porgy and Bess. At first, I had to decide if we
could sing the piece on the level required by the BSO, only two weeks
after singing with Philadelphia, but I could not say NO, wanting to give
as many of our students an opportunity to perform this extraordinary
piece for the first time.
Porgy and Bess is
inarguably, the greatest American opera, where Gershwin somehow managed
to totally capture the entire American spirit in one way or another.
The songs such as “Summertime" and "I Got Plenty of Nothing" are as
iconic as any song in the standard operatic literature. Without a
doubt, the role of the chorus in Porgy and Bess is more important than any other opera in the standard repertoire.
Although
the Morgan choir has performed this opera many times over years, often
with the now defunct Baltimore Opera Company, we have not performed the
piece since 2016. For many current choir members, this was their first
exposure to the full chorus part of the opera which is not an easy task
to sing.
I
must say, that I was pleased that the Morgan Choir sang the piece so
convincingly last night during our first performance with the BSO at the
Music Center at Strathmore (only one performance at that venue).
The
person who originally was contracted to sing the role of Porgy had to
cancel at the last minute, so the BSO hired current Morgan State
University lecturer Robert Cantrell to sing the title role of Porgy. Current Morgan State Choir member Larry Hylton, sang the role of
Sportin’ Life. The BSO had so much faith in our music program at
Morgan, that they hired several of our undergraduate choir students to
sing some of the smaller roles on stage during this production, such as
the roles of Jake - Joshua Jones, Robbins - Darrin Scott, Maria -
Alexandria Crichlow-Bradshaw, which was great experience for our
students.
All
in all, this has been a wonderful experience for the choir, but
exhausting. I always tell those who hire the choir for these
productions that they are students first, and artists second! I thank
my Morgan faculty for excusing some of the students from their classes
for needed staging and musical rehearsals.
If
you are free this weekend, tickets are still available with an 8PM
performance Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13, and a 3PM matinee
performance on Sunday, April 14, 2019. See link below to the BSO
website. Even if you have heard the piece before, one can always hear
his great music again. All of the performers - professionals and
students are first-rate. I hope that you can attend. See program and
pics attached.
Eric
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