A compelling theatrical experience

Porgy and Bess marked the pinnacle of Gershwin’s ambitions to be taken seriously as a composer and is by far his most substantial work. At its try-out in Boston in September 1935, the opera’s running

Premières Symphonies Works by Bizet, Gounod and Saint-Saëns Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo/Kazuki Yamada Alpha Classics ALPHA1149 89:27 mins (2CD) The most familiar of these three classically

Purcell Dido and Aeneas Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Fatma Said et al; Il Pomo d’Oro/ Maxim Emelyanychev Erato 2173228488 52:43 mins It’s been a mystery why Joyce DiDonato appeared to have bypassed

A man in a bow tie is unpacking items from a small trolley. To the table set up on the manicured, now yellowing lawn he adds a white tablecloth and silver cutlery. His equally well-attired picnickers

The grand parade of lifeless packaging? Far from it, as this much-delayed blockbuster reissue of one of prog’s most fascinating and frustrating albums finally proves.

Predating Porgy and Bess by 13 years, George Gershwin’s Blue Monday was similarly written for an entirely Black cast. Set in a Harlem basement cafe, the jazz-infused opera’s title reflects the theory