Who Am I This Time?
OCP fave Gregg Baker cedes the Crown and becomes Porgy.
; "ON A ROLE: Baker sang Crown 44 times at the Met.")
ON A ROLE: Baker sang Crown 44 times at the Met. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION) |
Philly fan favorite Gregg Baker has tried out many major roles here, including Verdi's Macbeth, Puccini's Scarpia and Stravinsky's Nick Shadow. This month at Opera Company of Philadelphia the tall, stage-savvy baritone adds a new portrait to his gallery: the crippled, noble Porgy from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Stefan Lano conducts; Walter Dallas of Freedom Theatre directs a huge ensemble. For decades, Baker reigned supreme onstage — and continues to reign on DVD — as the gambler Crown, Porgy's flashier rival for Bess' affection. Philadelphia sees his long-awaited first Porgy. Baker has a unique background: Serious college football and the Chicago Symphony Chorus led him to Broadway stagings and tours of Timbuktu, Raisin and The Wiz. He's logged over 75 performances at the Metropolitan Opera — including works by Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Donizetti and Leoncavallo. He's sung all over the U.S. and in many major European capitals. The OCP production boasts a wonderful cast, including local favorites Angela Brown (doing her first onstage Bess), Lisa Daltirus (Serena, who sings "My Man's Gone Now") and Karen Slack (Clara, who opens the show with the immortal "Summertime"). I talked to Baker about adjusting, enduring and reinventing.
City Paper: You sang Crown at the Met 44 times — more than five times as many as anybody else and surely a permanent record. How many times have you sung him altogether?
Gregg Baker: I don't even know! That should tell you something. All I can say is that I sang Crown for 14 consecutive years. I come from the theater, where there's a tradition that once you have done all you can with a role, you give it up. And that's what I did with Crown [onstage] in 1992. I am very, very grateful to Crown for the doors he opened for me — that role is what gave me the format to cross over from musical theater to opera; it was great to have the opportunities it allowed me all those years. But then I had to take some years away from this character and this show.
CP: In October you sang Crown in concerts of Porgy in California with Angela Brown, your Bess here in Philly, and a frequent co-star in Verdi's Aida. What did that feel like?
GB: It felt weird! Doing that was a favor to John de Main, the conductor [and a major player in Porgy revivals]. But Angela is terrific. I've known her since she was right out of college. It's funny, very early on in her career and those of Denyce Graves and Marquita Lister, they were involved in Porgy projects with my Crown. I'm proud to have seen them go on to great things professionally.
CP: Have you ever tackled a second role in a show before?
GB: I experienced this on the Broadway tour of Raisin, many years ago: I had been playing Willie Harris, a supporting character, then suddenly I took over Walter Younger, the lead. The young man who's singing Crown with us, Lester Lynch, is very talented; when rehearsals began he told me that he had learned Crown from watching me in the role, which was very respectful. We have a good relationship and he's doing very well. But it's strange — every time someone onstage mentions Crown, I turn around. My brain cells are a bit confused! But I'm really happy to be doing Porgy here, which was always my dream: OCP is like my home, they've been great to me, and you try things out with family first, it's a natural fit.
CP: Will your actual family be able to come?
GB: Yes, I am bringing my kids up from Florida to see it, absolutely. That's very important to me.
CP: Is there still any objection to Porgy in parts of the African-American community?
GB: There was some when I was younger. I think that comes mainly from people who haven't seen it and feel it shows the community in a bad light. But this stuff was real; the people on Catfish Row endure and survive, a close-knit community. Hey, disenfranchised communities in America still have to be self-supporting. I have my own take on the role: I don't want anyone to pity my Porgy. We've made him a wounded vet from one of the black battalions in World War I, which explains why he's a hero in the neighborhood. We're not having a goat cart at the end: Porgy takes off [in search of Bess, who's left for New York] with nothing but faith: He is undaunted.
Porgy and Bess, Feb. 9-24, Opera Company of Philadelphia at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., $7-$195, 215-893-1018, www.operaphilly.com.
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