The delicate little enameled music box was in a cardboard box full of nothing. Its lid had come unattached and lay bottom-up right next to it. The writing inside the lid was a tiny script that I could barely read, so I picked it up for a closer look.
At the top was a musical scale, and beneath it was this message:
“It Ain’t Necessarily So,”
a highlight of Act II of George Gershwin’s
PORGY AND BESS
as designed by Robert O’Hearn
for the Metropolitan Opera
Now, I surely was interested in this little nugget I had just found at auction, not only because of its history but its looks. It was in full color and very detailed, and was trimmed in gold-tone. The enameled top showed Porgy and Bess embracing, while along the sides were other characters from the play. The set and costumes on the box were perhaps the same designed by O’Hearn in the Metropolitan performance.
The bottom of the music box was also inscribed, with the name of the maker – Halcyon Days Enamels – along with “The Metropolitan Opera. In an edition limited to 750 the number of this box is 151.”
The story of Porgy and the woman Bess whom he loved and tried to rescue is a familiar one among theater-goers and others. I saw a more recent version of the play on Broadway two years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it – despite my reticence about seeing it. I expected it to contain all of the stereotypes that were inherent in most portrayals of African Americans during the time it was written and performed in the 1920s and 1930s.
Even before seeing the play, I had picked up a four-album set from the original 1935 opera, with performances by Todd Duncan as Porgy and Anne Brown as Bess, along with the Eva Jessye Choir. It apparently was the first of two volumes – this one released in 1940 and the other in 1942.
The first Broadway production of “Porgy and Bess” was performed in October 1935, written by George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward about African Americans in a community called Catfish Row in Charleston, SC. A preview performance had been held a month earlier in Boston.
The play was based on a novel titled “Porgy” written in 1925 by Heyward, who grew up in the city and had heard about a disabled man whose story he embellished and turned into a book. Heyward and his wife Dorothy had written a play in 1927 based on the book.
“Porgy and Bess” has been performed numerous times, both in this country and especially abroad. The Metropolitan Opera in New York held its first production in 1985 on the 50th anniversary of the play. It had been staged a decade earlier by the Houston Grand Opera, giving it a stamp of approval. The nod from the Metropolitan seemingly solidified its importance as an opera.
The sold-out production featured Simon Estes as Porgy and Grace Bumbry as Bess, and the play got positive reviews in The New York Times and some other publications.
The music box I bought at auction is circa 1985. It’s a sweet oval-shaped box, about 1 ½” x 2 ¾” in size. To make sure I didn’t misplace the top, I re-glued it. Did that decrease the value? I don’t know. I’m keeping the box, so it doesn’t matter to me (I found very few of them for sale on the web). Now it’s perfect – not a scratch or nick on it. Whoever owned it took very good care of it. I assumed the top was not glued as securely as it should have been when purchased.
The box has “Reuge Ste Crox” on the Swiss movement, which you can see through the clear plastic cover. Sainte-Croix is the Swiss village where Reuge music boxes were first made around 1886.
It still plays, although the sound is a little tinny, and I had to listen closely to actually recognize the tune. Maybe it needs a little servicing.
