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Gareth loves his Porgy and Bess
INTERVIEW: Gareth valentine
Musical
Supervisor, Porgy and Bess
YOU can hear traditional opera critics already sharpening their pencils in readiness to having a go at Trevor Nunn’s musical adaptation of George Gershwin’s great opera, Porgy and Bess.
But Gareth Valentine, who as musical supervisor of the production is responsible for turning the original four-plus-hour opera into a two-and-a-half hour musical, argues that Gershwin’s music shines through.
“Trevor Nunn felt strongly that the piece should be no more than two-and-a-half hours,” Gareth tells me in the maze-like backstage of the Savoy Theatre where the show opens on November 9.
He adds: “The opera is still there but much of the original recitative is eminently expendable. It is over-complex and overblown. So the scenes are going to be spoken rather than sung, so the pace is much faster.
“We have also chosen actors who can sing. In opera singers have very beautiful voices, in musicals they do not. They have voices that thrill in other ways. They can be very powerful, it is a whole other technique. In opera singers tend to sing at the audience, in musicals there is greater veracity.”
One of the problems that Gareth Valentine, whose music can also be heard in the West End show Wicked, faced was the pitch of the original. The soprano part is terrifically high so needed modulating to a lower key.
He says: “I had to take it down by a fourth or fifth, which is a big jump. But another problem was I could not take the men’s voices a similar interval down as it would be beyond the human register so I had to bring Porgy up.”
But while the length of the piece has been reduced, the powerful original songs remain, such as I Loves You Porgy, It Ain’t Necessarily So and, of course, Summertime.
This song, one of the most covered songs in musical history just behind the Beatles’ Yesterday, is reprised four times including one version when it is sung in tandem with It Ain’t Necessarily So.
Gareth says: “That was a particularly enjoyable moment. You have the lines saying ‘Summertime, and the living in easy’ and lower down comes: ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’.”
Gareth also had to write original dance music for the newly choreographed scenes.
He adds: “It was original but was in the style of Gershwin and refers to his own work.”
One of the debates that has often dogged Gershwin’s music is whether it was jazz, classical or a combination. Gareth is quite sure.
He says: “It really stems from Broadway and classical music. Gershwin actually asked Ravel for lessons but was refused, Ravel said he didn’t need him and was writing in his own unique voice.
“It is classical music. There was no one else who wrote like this.
“This show has been a labour of love. Porgy and Bess is a masterpiece and this show the apogee of my career.”
Ring 0870 164 8787 for tickets.
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