Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 11

to have the orchestra be in a starring
role with the piece and the performers
is inspiring.
Porgy is a uniquely American story.
How to you relate to it as a
non-American?
One of the very interesting things about
being European is that one grew up
being almost bombarded — bombarded
is too strong a word — by American
culture. Certainly, the African-American
experience aligned with the black British
story, the Caribbean story, the African
story. We saw ourselves more through
the lens of the American experience than
we did with any other. I don’t feel like
a foreigner at all as I delve into Porgy’s
themes. It feels very specific to a culture
I’ve been reared in all of my life. It would
be different for me if I were, say, working
in China. I have not been reared on the
cultural product of China. Many of us
feel that we are an extended member of
the family, if not one that sits around the
immediate dinner table.
Porgy and Bess has not always been
praised as a flattering depiction of
African-Americans. How do you feel
about that?
That’s a very good question. In the world
we live in now, there is such diversity of
storytelling from the African-American
perspective — from Barack Obama to
Scandal on television to plays by Dominique
Morisseau and Katori Hall. Today, Porgy
doesn’t live as the only depiction of the
African-American community. Therein
lies its freedom and its truth. An interpreter
can see the truth when Porgy says, “Bess,
you is my woman now.” One can access
the story of deep love and of societal
manipulation. It’s a historical document as
well as an investigation into love.
It sounds like you might not be behind
taking down statues of Confederate
war heroes and renami