Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 30

{ program notes
Marin Alsop

For Marin Alsop’s bio., please see pg. 12.

Kwame Kwei-Armah

For Kwame Kwei-Armah’s bio.,
please see pg. 19.

Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Friday, April 8, 2016 — 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 10, 2016 — 3p.m.
Music Center At Strathmore

Saturday, April 9, 2016— 8 p.m.
Presenting Sponsor:
Marin Alsop, Conductor
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Director
Cast
Porgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Derrick Parker
Bess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laquita Mitchell
Clara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Onadek Winan
Sportin’ Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Larry D. Hylton
Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lester Lynch
Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Morgan State University Choir
Performance
ACT I

ACT III

Scene I
Overture—Jasbo Brown (Chorus)
“Summertime” (Clara)
“Roll dem bones” (Sportin’ Life, Chorus)
“A woman is a sometime thing” (Jake, Chorus)
“They pass by singin’ ” (Porgy)
Craps game (Porgy, Crown, Sportin’ Life,
Bess, Jim, Robbins, Maria, Chorus)

Scene 1
“Porgy, Porgy, that you there ain't it?...I loves
you Porgy” (Bess, Porgy)
Hurricane scene (Clara, Maria)

Scene 2
Funeral Scene: “Where is brudder Robbins?”
—“Fill up de saucer till it overflow” (Chorus)
“My man's gone now” (Serena, Chorus)
“Oh we're leavin' for the Promise' Land”
(Bess, Chorus)
ACT II
Scene 1
“I got plenty o' nuttin' ” (Porgy, Chorus)
“Bess, you is my woman now” (Porgy, Bess)
“Oh, I can't sit down” (Chorus)
Scene 2
“It ain't necessarily so” (Sportin’ Life, Chorus)
“Shame on all you sinners” (Serena)
“Crown!...What you want wid Bess?”
(Bess, Crown)

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Scene 2
“Clara, Clara, don't you be downhearted”
(Chorus)
“Summertime [reprise]” (Bess)
ACT IV
Scene 1
“There’s a boat that's leaving soon
for New York” (Bess, Sportin’ Life)
Scene 2
“How are you dis mornin'?“ (Chorus)
“Welcome home Porgy...Bess is gone”
(Porgy, Mingo, Serena, Maria, Chorus)
Finale: “Oh Lawd, I'm on my way”
(Porgy, Chorus)
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
The concert will end at approximately 9:55 p.m.
on Friday and 4:55 p.m. on Sunday.
Music Center At Strathmore
The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.

Derrick Parker
Porgy

Derrick Parker’s many
operatic performances
include Alidoro in
La cenerentola with Portland Opera, Fort
Worth Opera and Utah Opera; Colline
in La bohème with Fort Worth Opera,
Cleveland Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas
City and Shreveport Opera; Raimondo
in Lucia di Lammermoor with Fort Worth
Opera and Banquo in Macbeth with
Anchorage Opera.
The bass-baritone made his European
operatic debut in performances of Mel
in Sir Michael Tippett’s The Knot Garden at the Scottish Opera and recently
sang Crown in Porgy and Bess with Cape
Town Opera.
Mr. Parker has joined both the Dallas
Symphony and Pacific Symphony for
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; Utah
Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem and
Bernstein’s Mass; BSO and Orquestra
Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, both
conducted by Marin Alsop as well as
Poland’s Sinfonia Cracovia for Gershwin’s
Porgy and Bess suite.
Mr. Parker is the recipient of a Richard
F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshanna
Foundation as well as a Sullivan Foundation Award. He is a former member of the
prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio
Program as well as Glimmerglass Opera’s
Young American Artist program, Wolf
Trap Opera’s Filene Young Artist Program,
and the programs of the Opera Theatre of
Saint Louis and Chautauqua Opera. He
holds a Master of Music from Eastman
School of Music and earned his Bachelor
of Music from Florida State University.
Derrick Parker last appeared with
the BSO in July 2012, performing
as part of the July 4th program, with
Robert Franz conducting.