Great Scenes from Gershwin's Porgy & Bess

RCA's 1963 highlights disc brought the stars of the early-1950s revival of the work, Leontyne Price and William Warfield, together again. By this time, however, Price was well advanced on her meteoric rise to operatic stardom and Warfield was gaining renown as a recitalist. Both are glorious here and Price's shimmering "Summertime" is worth the price of the disc. A plus is the spirited Sportin' Life of John W. Bubbles, who created the role in the original 1935 production; an old-time vaudevillian, he wrings fun and irony from his all-too-short excerpts. Henderson conducts with vigor and RCA's "High Performance" sound, when heard on a good system, is remarkable.--Dan Davis

G. Gershwin - Porgy & Bess-Hlts (CD NEW) Label: Rca Format: CD Release Date: 09 Mar 1999 No. of Discs: 1 UPC: 090266331222 Album Tracks 1. Porgy And Bess: Introduction; Summertime 2. Porgy And Bess: A Woman Is A Sometime Thing 3. Porgy And Bess: Gone, Gone, Gone 4. Porgy And Bess: My Man's Gone Now 5. Porgy And Bess: I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' 6. Porgy And Bess: Bess, You Is My Woman 7. Porgy And Bess: It Ain't Necessarily So 8. Porgy And Bess: What You Want Wid Bess ? 9. Porgy And Bess: I Loves You, Porgy 10. Porgy And Bess: There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York 11. Porgy And Bess: Oh Bess, Oh, Where's My Bess 12. Porgy And Bess: Oh, Lawd, I'm On My Way