Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
November 26, 2016

For all the debate and controversy that has swirled around George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess ever since it premiered in 1935 – is it an opera, folk opera or musical? Should an all-white writing team have told an African American story? Are the characters racial stereotypes? – it’s a remarkable piece, which was forward-thinking in its day and which the Gershwin estate still insists is performed by African Americans.

^{Nicole Cabell and Alfred Walker in Porgy and Bess. Photo by Keith Saunders}

This concert version by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, featuring the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and a wonderful cast led by 20 international classical soloists, is a rich musical and emotional experience. For starters, Porgy and Bess has a glorious score, punctuated by exciting brass, woodwind and percussion, which is brought to soaring, sensual life by the SSO under Chief Conductor David Robertson.

What’s more, even in this semi-staged setting, the characters come across as full-blooded, three-dimensional people doing their best to get by in difficult circumstances, and the journey they take us on is very moving. It’s just a shame that over-amplification of the...