Cheryl Crawford'sPorgy and Bess: Navigating Cultural Hierarchy in 1941

Abstract

AbstractThis article analyzes the revisions producer Cheryl Crawford and her team made toPorgy and Bessfor a revival that opened in Maplewood, New Jersey, in 1941 and moved to Broadway in early 1942. Crawford's revisions addressed criticisms of the opera that had first been issued at its premiere in 1935, especially complaints about its dramatic viability and the appropriateness of African American performers in opera. The revisions distancedPorgy and Bessfrom the practices of the Metropolitan Opera House, which the press routinely criticized as antiquated and dull. They also reduced the amount of operatic recitative, which Crawford saw as “out of keeping with the black milieu,” strategically reserving the device for specific moments that played into the stereotype of African Americans as naturally musical. In her marketing of the show, Crawford reframed the critical discussion ofPorgy and Bessby deflecting attention away from disputes over genre and race and toward the structural and formal qualities of the work. These strategies, which were aimed at attracting a broad audience with divergent values and aesthetic preferences, proved successful. Whereas the 1935 production was a commercial failure, Crawford'sPorgy and Bessbecame a hit, marking a crucial step toward the establishment of the work in the American operatic repertoire.