Porgy and Bess - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Porgy and Bess is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin

George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

, libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

by DuBose Heyward

DuBose Heyward

Edwin DuBose Heyward was a white American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. This novel was the basis for the play by the same name and, in turn, the opera Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin.-Life and career:Heyward was born in 1885 in Charleston, South Carolina and was a...

, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....

and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy
Porgy
Porgy is a novel written by American author DuBose Heyward in 1925, as well as a play Dorothy Heyward helped him to write which debuted in 1927....

and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward

Dorothy Heyward

Dorothy Heyward Dorothy Heyward Dorothy Heyward (née Kuhns, (June 6, 1890 – November 19, 1961) was an American playwright.Born in Wooster, Ohio, she was married to the author DuBose Heyward, and adapted several of his scripts for the stage, including Porgy.-External links:...

. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row (based on the area of Cabbage Row) in Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

, in the early 1920s.

Originally conceived by George Gershwin as an "American folk opera", Porgy and Bess premiered in New York in the fall of 1935 and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. Gershwin chose the African-American musician Eva Jessye

Eva Jessye

Eva Jessye was an African American who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissance, who created her own choral group featured widely in performance. Her professional influence...

as the choral director for the opera.

The work was not widely accepted in the United States as a legitimate opera until 1976, when the Houston Grand Opera production of Gershwin's complete score established it as an artistic triumph. Nine years later, the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

of New York gave their first performance of the work. This production was also broadcast as part of the ongoing Saturday afternoon live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts

Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts

The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...

. The work is now considered part of the standard operatic repertoire and is regularly performed internationally. Despite this success, the opera has been controversial; some critics from the outset have considered it a racist

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

portrayal of African Americans.

The song "Summertime

Summertime (song)

"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....

" is the best-known selection from Porgy and Bess. Other popular and frequently recorded songs from the opera include "It Ain't Necessarily So

It Ain't Necessarily So

"It Ain't Necessarily So" is a popular song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess where it is sung by the character Sportin' Life, a drug dealer, who expresses his doubt about several statements in the Bible.The role of...

", "Bess, You Is My Woman Now

Bess, You Is My Woman Now

"Bess, You Is My Woman Now" is a duet with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. This song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess where it is sung by the main character Porgy and his beloved Bess. They express their love for each other and say that they now belong...

" and "I Got Plenty 'o Nuttin'". The opera is admired for Gershwin's innovative synthesis of European orchestral techniques with American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

and folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

idioms.

Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black beggar living in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin' Life, the drug dealer. Where the earlier novel and stage-play differ, the opera generally follows the stage-play.

Composition history

In 1926 George Gershwin read Porgy by DuBose Heyward

DuBose Heyward

, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and immediately wrote to the author suggesting that they collaborate on a folk opera based on the novel. Heyward was enthusiastic, but it was 1934 before Gershwin's composing and performing schedules permitted him to begin actual work on the project. Meanwhile, Heyward and his wife Dorothy dramatized Porgy for a 1927 production which incorporated spirituals into the action. This Theatre Guild

Theatre Guild

The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...

presentation of Porgy ran for 367 performances and elicited interest from others, among them Al Jolson

Al Jolson

Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....

, in using it as a basis for some sort of musical production. However, nothing immediately came of these ideas.

In the fall of 1933 Gershwin and Heyward signed a contract with the Theatre Guild to write the opera. In the summer of 1934 Gershwin and Heyward went to Folly Beach, South Carolina, (a small island near Charleston) where Gershwin got a feel for the locale and its music. He worked on the opera there and in New York. Ira Gershwin, in New York, wrote lyrics to some of the opera's classic songs, most notably "It Ain't Necessarily So". Most of the lyrics, including "Summertime", were written by Heyward, who also wrote the libretto.

1935 Original Broadway production

Gershwin's first version of the opera, running four hours (counting the two intermissions), was performed privately in a concert version in Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, in the fall of 1935. He chose as his choral director Eva Jessye

Eva Jessye

, who also directed her own renowned choir. The world premiere performance took place at the Colonial Theatre in Boston on September 30, 1935—the try-out for a work intended initially for Broadway where the opening took place at the Alvin Theatre in New York City on October 10, 1935. During rehearsals and in Boston, Gershwin made many cuts and refinements to shorten the running time and tighten the dramatic action. The run on Broadway lasted 124 performances. The production and direction were entrusted to Rouben Mamoulian

Rouben Mamoulian

Rouben Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Tbilisi, Georgia to an Armenian family, Rouben relocated to England and started directing plays in London in 1922...

, who had previously directed the Broadway productions of Heyward's play Porgy. The music director was Alexander Smallens

Alexander Smallens

Alexander Smallens was a Russian-born American conductor and music director.Smallens was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the United States as a child, becoming an American citizen in 1919...

. The influential vaudeville artist John W. Bubbles

John W. Bubbles

John William Sublett , known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer, dancer, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:...

created the role of Sportin' Life.

After the Broadway run, a tour started on January 27, 1936, in Philadelphia and traveled to Pittsburgh and Chicago before ending in Washington, D.C., on March 21, 1936. During the Washington run, the cast—as led by Todd Duncan—protested segregation

Racial segregation in the United States

Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...

at the theatre. Eventually management gave in to the demands, resulting in the first integrated audience for a performance of any show at the National Theatre

National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)

The National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C., and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....

.

Around 1938, the original cast reunited for a West Coast

West Coast of the United States

West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

revival; the exception being that Avon Long

Avon Long

Avon Long was an American Broadway actor and singer.-Life:Long was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He performed in a number of Broadway shows, including Black Rhythm , Porgy and Bess , and Beggar's Holiday...

took on the role of Sportin' Life. Long continued to reprise his role in several of the following productions.

1942 Broadway revival

The noted director and producer Cheryl Crawford

Cheryl Crawford

Cheryl Crawford was an American theatre producer and director.Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation, she moved to New York City and enrolled at the Theatre Guild's school...

produced professional stock theater in Maplewood, New Jersey

Maplewood, New Jersey

Maplewood is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 23,867.-History:...

for three very successful seasons. The last of these closed with Porgy and Bess. In re-fashioning it in the style of musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

which Americans were used to hearing from Gershwin, Crawford produced a drastically cut version of the opera compared with the first Broadway staging. The orchestra was reduced, the cast was halved, and many recitative

Recitative

Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

s were reduced to spoken dialog.

Having seen the performance, theater owner Lee Shubert

Lee Shubert

Levi "Lee" Shubert was a Polish-born American theatre owner/operator and producer and the oldest of seven siblings of the theatrical Shubert family....

arranged for Crawford to bring her production to Broadway. The show opened at the Majestic Theatre in January 1942. Duncan and Brown reprised their roles as the title characters, with Alexander Smallens again conducting. In June the contralto Etta Moten, whom Gershwin had first envisioned as Bess, replaced Brown in the role. Moten was such a success that Bess became her signature role. The Crawford production ran for nine months and was far more successful financially than the original.

European premieres

On March 27, 1943, the opera had its European premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre

Royal Danish Theatre

The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...

in Copenhagen. This performance is notable as it was performed by an all-white cast in blackface

Blackface

Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...

during the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

occupation. After 22 sold-out performances, the Nazis closed the production. Other all-white or mostly-white productions in Europe took place in Zurich in 1945 and 1950, and Gothenburg and Stockholm in 1948.

1952 touring production

Blevins Davis and Robert Breen produced a revival in 1952 which restored much of the music cut in the Crawford version, including many of the recitatives. It divided the opera into two acts, with the intermission occurring after Crown forces Bess to stay on Kittiwah Island. This version restored the work to a more operatic form, though not all of the recitatives were retained. In this version, Porgy and Bess was warmly received throughout Europe. The London premiere took place on October 9, 1952 at the Stoll Theatre, where it remained until February 10, 1953.

Notable also was this production's original cast, with Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price

Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...

as Bess, William Warfield

William Warfield

William Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town...

as Porgy, and Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....

as Sportin' Life, a role that was conceived with him in mind. The small role of Ruby was played by a young Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...

. Price and Warfield met and wed while on the tour. The role of Porgy was the first for Warfield after his very successful appearance as Joe in the 1951 MGM film of Show Boat

Show Boat (1951 film)

Show Boat is a 1951 Technicolor film based on the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and the novel by Edna Ferber....

.

After a small tour of Europe financed by the United States Department of State

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

, the production came to Broadway's Ziegfeld Theatre

Ziegfeld Theatre

The Ziegfeld Theatre was a Broadway theater located at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1927 and, despite public protests, was razed in 1966....

in March 1953. It went on the road again in the fall of 1954 to Latin America, the Middle East and Europe. Price and Warfield had left the production after New York.

During this tour, Porgy and Bess was presented at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

in Milan for the first time, in February 1955. A historic yet tense premiere took place in Moscow in December 1955, the first time an American theater group had been to the Soviet capital since the Bolshevik Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

. Author Truman Capote

Truman Capote

Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

traveled with the cast and crew, and wrote an account included in his book The Muses Are Heard
The Muses Are Heard
The Muses Are Heard is an early journalistic work of Truman Capote. Originally published in The New Yorker, it is a narrative account of the cultural mission by The Everyman's Opera to the U.S.S.R. in the mid-1950s....

.

1976 Houston Grand Opera production

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Porgy and Bess mostly languished on the shelves, a victim of its perceived racism in a racially charged time. Though new productions took place in 1961 and 1964 along with a Vienna Volksoper

Vienna Volksoper

The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....

premiere in 1965 (again with William Warfield as Porgy), these did little to change many African Americans' opinions of the work (many called it racist). And many music critics still had not accepted it as a true opera.

A new staging of Porgy and Bess was produced by the Houston Grand Opera

Houston Grand Opera

Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...

in 1976; it restored the complete original score for the first time. Following its debut in Houston, the production opened on Broadway at the Uris Theatre on September 25, 1976 and was recorded complete by RCA Records

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

. This version was very influential in turning the tide of opinion about the work. For the first time, an American opera company, not a Broadway production company, had tackled the opera. This production was based on Gershwin's original full score and did not incorporate the cuts and other changes which Gershwin had made before the New York premiere, nor the ones made for the 1942 Cheryl Crawford revival or the 1959 film version. It allowed the public to take in the operatic whole as first envisioned by the composer. In this light, it became clear that Porgy and Bess was indeed an opera. Donnie Ray Albert

Donnie Ray Albert

Donnie Ray Albert is an American operatic baritone who has had an active international career since 1976.-Life and career:...

, Clamma Dale

Clamma Dale

Clamma Dale is an African-American operatic soprano. She is best known for portraying the role of Bess in the highly successful 1976 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess...

and Larry Marshall starred, respectively, as Porgy, Bess and Sportin' Life. This production won the Houston Grand Opera a Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

—the only opera ever to receive one—and a Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

Subsequent productions

Another Broadway production was staged in 1983 at Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...

, based on the Houston production.

The Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

finally presented a production of Porgy and Bess in 1985 after toying with the idea since the 1930s. It opened February 6, 1985 with a brilliant cast, including Simon Estes

Simon Estes

Simon Estes is an operatic bass-baritone of African-American descent who had a major international opera career since the 1960s...

, Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry , an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years...

, Bruce Hubbard

Bruce Hubbard

Bruce Hubbard was an African-American operatic baritone. He attended Indiana University. He was a music major and helped coach actors that appeared in musicals.-Biography:...

, Gregg Baker and Florence Quivar

Florence Quivar

Florence Quivar is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who is considered to be "one of the most prominent singers of her generation." She has variously been described as having a "rich, earthy sound and communicative presence" as "always reliable" and as "a distinguished singer, with a warm, rich...

. The Met production was directed by Nathaniel Merrill

Nathaniel Merrill

Nathaniel Merrill was a celebrated American stage director and opera director. He was the resident stage director at the Metropolitan Opera from 1956-1985. During his 28 seasons at the Met he staged a total of 14 new productions in addition to directing several revivals. He also served as the...

and designed by Robert O'Hearn. The conductor was James Levine

James Levine

James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...

. The production received 16 performances in its first season and was revived in 1986, 1989 and 1990 for a total of 54 performances.

Trevor Nunn

Trevor Nunn

Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...

tackled the work in an acclaimed 1986 production at England's Glyndebourne Festival. The 1986 Trevor Nunn production was scenically expanded and videotaped for television in 1993 (see below in "Television"). These productions were also based on the "complete score," without incorporating Gershwin's revisions. A semi-staged version of this production was performed at the Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...

in 1998.

The centennial celebration of the Gershwin brothers from 1996–1998 included a new production as well. On February 24–25, 2006, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra

Nashville Symphony Orchestra

The Nashville Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in Nashville, Tennessee. The orchestra performs 140 concerts annually.-History:...

, under the direction of John Mauceri

John Mauceri

John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer and arranger for theatre, opera and television. For fifteen years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. He was a protege of Leonard Bernstein...

, gave a concert performance

Porgy and Bess (2006)

Porgy and Bess , first studio cast recording directly based on the original 1935 production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess...

at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center

Tennessee Performing Arts Center

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center, or TPAC, is located in the James K. Polk Cultural Center at 505 Deaderick Street in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, occupying an entire city block between 5th and 6th Avenues North and Deaderick and Union Streets. Also housing the Tennessee State Museum, the...

. It incorporated Gershwin's cuts made for the New York premiere, thus giving the audience an idea of what the opera sounded like on its Broadway opening. In 2000 and 2002 the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

had a revival directed by Tazewell Thompson

Tazewell Thompson

Tazewell Thompson , is a playwright, a director, and former Artistic Director of the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut.He was born in New York City....

. In 2007, Los Angeles Opera

Los Angeles Opera

The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...

staged a revival directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by John DeMain, who led the history-making Houston Opera revival of Porgy and Bess in 1976.

South Africa's Cape Town Opera

Cape Town Opera

Cape Town Opera is a professional opera company located in Cape Town, South Africa. CTO was founded in 1999 by the management and staff of the former South Africa Arts Council Opera...

, has frequently performed Porgy and Bess abroad, most notably with the Welsh National Opera

Welsh National Opera

Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...

, NorrlandsOperan, Deutsche Oper Berlin

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...

and at the Wales Millennium Centre

Wales Millennium Centre

Wales Millennium Centre is an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of . Phase 1 of the building was opened during the weekend of the 26–28 November 2004 and phase 2 opened on 22 January 2009 with an inaugural concert...

, Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...

and Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

The Edinburgh Festival Theatre is a performing arts venue located on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh Scotland used primarily for performances of opera and ballet, large-scale musical events, and touring groups. After its most recent renovation in 1994, it seats 1,915...

. In October 2010, its planned tour of the opera to Israel was criticised by Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...

2006 The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Nunn adaptation)

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess premiered on November 9, 2006, at the Savoy Theatre

Savoy Theatre

The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...

(London), directed by Trevor Nunn. Nunn had previously directed the full opera at the Glyndebourne Festival and in a videotaped production for television, both with operatic bass-baritone Willard White

Willard White

Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...

. For this production, he adapted the lengthy opera to fit the conventions of musical theatre

Musical theatre

. Working with the Gershwin estate, Nunn used dialogue from the original novel and subsequent Broadway stage play to replace the recitative

Recitative

Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

s with naturalistic scenes. He did not use operatic voices in this production, but relied on musical theatre actors as leads. Gareth Valentine

Gareth Valentine

Gareth Valentine is a British composer, conductor and musical director. He has worked extensively in London's West End on musical productions and also conducted both the BBC Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra...

provided the musical adaptation. Despite mostly positive reviews, Nunn's production closed months early due to poor box office.

This original cast of this version included Clarke Peters

Clarke Peters

Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...

as Porgy, Nicola Hughes

Nicola Hughes

Nicola Hughes is an English dancer, singer and actress of Antiguan descent.Hughes’ first principal theatre role was in The Who's Tommy, playing the Acid Queen at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1996...

as Bess, O. T. Fagbenle as Sportin' Life, and Cornel S. John as Crown.

2011 The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Paulus adaptation)

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, directed by Diane Paulus

Diane Paulus

Diane Paulus is an American director of theater and opera who became Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in 2009. Paulus was nominated for the Best Director Tony Award for her revival of Hair...

, with book adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks

Suzan-Lori Parks

Suzan-Lori Parks is an African American playwright and screenwriter. She received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001, and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Topdog/Underdog.-Early years:...

, and music adapted by Diedre Murray

Diedre Murray

Diedre Murray is an American cellist and composer specializing in jazz, improvised music, opera, and contemporary classical music. She is also active as a producer, and curator...

, was presented at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

. Previews started August 17, and the show opened August 31, 2011.

In 2011, the Gershwin and Heyward estates initiated another production to adapt the opera for the musical theatre stage. Again they used the revised title including the Gershwin name. This adaptation is noted for its "fleshing out" of characters and tightening scenes to increase the pace and clarity of the drama. Again spoken dialogue, here written by Parks, replaced the opera's sung recitatives.

The production gained some controversy when prior to the opening, statements by Paulus, Parks and Murray were published in the press about the production's primary goal to "introduce the work to the next generation of theatergoers". They discussed changes to the opera's plot, dialogue and score that were being explored to make the work more appealing to a contemporary audience. In response, Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...

wrote an editorial letter taking exception to the concept that the original opera was a flawed work that needed to be improved. Later, critic Hilton Als

Hilton Als

Hilton Als is an American writer and theater critic who writes for The New Yorker magazine.Als is a former staff writer for The Village Voice and former editor-at-large at Vibe magazine....

countered in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

that Sondheim had very little exposure to black culture and that the Paulus version succeeded in "humanizing the depiction of race onstage."

Early reviews of the show were positive to mixed. All cited Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald

Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...

's performance of Bess as brilliant, but critics were divided on the success of the adaptation, staging and stage setting. Some praised the clear, intimate scale of the drama and the believability of the performances; others found the staging to be unfocused and the settings to lack atmosphere. The original cast included Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis

Norm Lewis

Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway as well as in regional theatre.-Life:Lewis was born in Tallahassee, Florida and grew up in Eatonville, Florida...

as Porgy, David Alan Grier

David Alan Grier

David Alan Grier , also known as "D.A.G." , is an American actor and comedian known for his work on the sketch comedy television show In Living Color.-Early life:...

as Sporting Life, Philip Boykin as Crown, Nikki Renee Daniels as Clara, and Joshua Henry

Joshua Henry

Joshua Anthony Charlton Henry is an African-American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for portraying Haywood Patterson in Kander and Ebb's 2010 musical The Scottsboro Boys, for which he received a Tony Award nomination...

as Jake. The production is scheduled for a run on Broadway, opening in January 2012.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast 30 September 1935 (Conductor: Alexander Smallens Alexander Smallens Alexander Smallens was a Russian-born American conductor and music director.Smallens was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the United States as a child, becoming an American citizen in 1919... )
Porgy, a disabled beggar	bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...	Todd Duncan Todd Duncan Robert Todd Duncan was an American baritone opera singer and actor.-Biography:Todd Duncan was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1903. He obtained his musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in music followed by an M.A...
Bess, Crown's girl	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Anne Brown Anne Brown Anne Wiggins Brown was an African American soprano who created the role of "Bess" in the original production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer...
Crown, a tough stevedore Stevedore Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Warren Coleman Warren Coleman Warren Coleman was an American operatic baritone. He created the roles of Crown in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and the role of John Kumalo in Weill's Lost in the Stars, in the premiere of both shows on Broadway....
Sportin' Life, a dope peddler	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	John W. Bubbles John W. Bubbles John William Sublett , known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer, dancer, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:...
Robbins, an inhabitant of Catfish Row	tenor	Henry Davis Henry Davis (performer) Henry Davis was an American Broadway actor and singer. He created the role of Robbins in Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess and appeared on Broadway stages between 1900 and 1942....
Serena, Robbins' wife	soprano	Ruby Elzy Ruby Elzy Ruby Elzy , was a pioneer African American operatic soprano.-Early life:Elzy was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi and educated at Rust College, the Ohio State University and the Juilliard School,...
Jake, a fisherman	baritone	Edward Matthews Edward Matthews Edward Matthews was a pioneering African American opera singer. In 1934, he created the role of "Ignatius of Loyola" in Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts, which he reprised in the 1952 revival of the opera - his last appearance on Broadway...
Clara, Jake's wife	soprano	Abbie Mitchell Abbie Mitchell Abriea "Abbie" Mitchell , also billed as Abbey Mitchell, was an American soprano opera singer who sang the role of "Clara" in the premier production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1935....
Maria, keeper of the cook-shop	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	Georgette Harvey Georgette Harvey Georgette Harvey was an American singer and actress, perhaps most famous for creating the role of Maria in the original 1935 Broadway production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.-External links:*...
Mingo	tenor	Ford L. Buck
Peter, the honeyman	tenor	Gus Simons
Lily, Peter's wife	soprano	Helen Dowdy Helen Dowdy Helen Dowdy was a Broadway actress and singer who played the role of Queenie in the 1946 revival of Kern & Hammerstein's Show Boat . She created the roles of Lily and the Strawberry Woman in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess — roles she played for nearly twenty years in several productions...
Frazier, a black "lawyer"	baritone	J. Rosamond Johnson J. Rosamond Johnson John Rosamond Johnson , most often referred to as J. Rosamond Johnson, was an American composer and singer during the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson is most notable as the composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing which has come to be known in the United States as the "Black National Anthem"...
Annie	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Olive Ball
Strawberry woman	mezzo-soprano	Helen Dowdy Helen Dowdy Helen Dowdy was a Broadway actress and singer who played the role of Queenie in the 1946 revival of Kern & Hammerstein's Show Boat . She created the roles of Lily and the Strawberry Woman in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess — roles she played for nearly twenty years in several productions...
Jim, a cotton picker	baritone	Jack Carr
Undertaker	baritone	John Garth
Nelson	tenor	Ray Yeates
Crab man	tenor	Ray Yeates
Scipio, a small boy	boy soprano Boy soprano A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...
Mr. Archdale, a white lawyer	spoken	George Lessey George Lessey George Lessey was an American actor and director of the silent era. He appeared in 123 films between 1910 and 1946. He also directed 76 films between 1913 and 1922. Lessey also appeared in the original Broadway production of Porgy and Bess in one of the few white roles, that of the lawyer Mr...
Detective	spoken	Alexander Campbell
Policeman	spoken	Burton McEvilly
Coroner	spoken	George Carleton
The Eva Jessye Choir, led by Eva Jessye Eva Jessye Eva Jessye was an African American who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissance, who created her own choral group featured widely in performance. Her professional influence...

With the exception of the small speaking roles, all of the characters are black

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

Synopsis

Place: Catfish Row, a fictitious black tenement (once, a mansion of the aristocracy) on the waterfront of Charleston, South Carolina.

Time: The 'recent past' (c. 1930).

Act 1

Scene 1: Catfish Row, a summer evening

The opera begins with a short introduction which segues into an evening in Catfish Row. Jasbo Brown entertains the community with his piano playing. Clara, a young mother, sings a lullaby to her baby ("Summertime

Summertime (song)

") as the working men prepare for a game of craps

Craps

Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...

("Roll them Bones"). One of the players, Robbins, scorns his wife Serena's demands that he not play, retorting that on a Saturday night, a man has the right to play. Clara's husband, the fisherman Jake, tries his own lullaby ("A Woman is a Sometime Thing") with little effect. Little by little, other characters in the opera enter Catfish Row, among them Mingo, another fisherman, and Jim, a stevedore who, tired of his job, decides to give it up and join Jake and the other fishermen. Porgy, a disabled beggar, enters on his goat cart to organize the game. Peter, an elderly "honey man" returns, singing his vendor's call. Crown, a strong and brutal stevedore

Stevedore

Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....

storms in with his woman, Bess, and buys cheap whiskey and some "Happy Dust

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

" off the local dope peddler Sportin' Life. Bess is shunned by the women of the community, especially the pious Serena and the matriarchal cookshop owner Maria, but Porgy softly defends her. The game begins. One by one, the players get crapped out, leaving only Robbins and Crown, who has become extremely drunk. When Robbins wins, Crown attempts to prevent him from taking his winnings. A brawl ensues, which ends when Crown stabs Robbins with a cotton hook, killing him. Crown runs, telling Bess to fend for herself but that he will be back for her when the heat dies down. Sportin' Life gives her a dose of Happy Dust and offers to take her with him when he goes to New York, but she rejects him. He flees, and Bess begins to pound on doors, but is rejected by all of the residents of Catfish Row, with the exception of Porgy, who lets her in.

Scene 2: Serena's Room, the following night

The mourners sing a spiritual to Robbins ("Gone, Gone, Gone"). To raise money for his burial, a saucer is placed on his chest for the mourners' donations ("Overflow"). Bess enters with Porgy and attempts to donate to the burial fund, but Serena rejects her money until Bess explains that she is now living with Porgy. A white detective enters and coldly tells Serena that she must bury her husband the next day, or his body will be given to medical students. He suddenly accuses Peter of Robbins's murder. Peter denies his guilt and says Crown was the murderer. The Detective orders Peter to be arrested as a material witness

Material witness

A material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of 1984 most recently amended the text of the statute, and it is now codified at...

, whom he will force to testify against Crown. Serena laments her loss in "My Man's Gone Now

My Man's Gone Now

My Man's Gone Now is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by DuBose Heyward, written for the folk opera Porgy and Bess . Sung in the original production by Ruby Elzy, it has been covered by many female singers notably Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, and Shirley Horn, among...

". The undertaker enters. The saucer holds only fifteen dollars of the needed twenty-five, but he agrees to bury Robbins as long as Serena promises to pay him back. Bess, who has been sitting in silence slightly apart from the rest of those gathered, suddenly begins to sing a gospel, and the chorus joyfully join in, welcoming her into the community. ("Oh, the Train is at de Station")

Act 2

Scene 1: Catfish Row, a month later, in the morning

Jake and the other fishermen prepare for work ("It take a long pull to get there"). Clara asks Jake not to go because it is time for the annual storms, but he tells her that they desperately need the money. This causes Porgy to sing from his window about his new, happy-go-lucky outlook on life. ("I got plenty o' nuttin"). Sportin' Life waltzes around selling "happy dust", but soon incurs the wrath of Maria, who threatens him. ("I hates yo' struttin' style"). A fraudulent lawyer, Frazier, arrives and farcically divorces Bess from Crown. When he discovers Bess and Crown were not married, he raises his price from a dollar to a dollar and a half. Archdale, a white lawyer, enters and informs Porgy that Peter will soon be released. The bad omen of a buzzard flies over Catfish Row and Porgy demands that it leave now that he finally has found happiness. ("Buzzard keep on flyin' over".)

As the rest of Catfish Row prepares for the church picnic on nearby Kittiwah Island, Sportin' Life again offers to take Bess to New York with him; she refuses. He attempts to give her some "happy dust" despite her claims that she's given up drugs, but Porgy grabs his arm and scares him off. Sportin' Life leaves, reminding Bess as he goes that her men friends come and go, but he will be there all along. Bess and Porgy are now left alone, and express their love for each other ("Bess, You Is My Woman Now

Bess, You Is My Woman Now

"). The chorus re-enters in high spirits as they prepare to leave for the picnic ("Oh, I can't sit down"). Bess is invited to the picnic by Maria, but she demurs as Porgy cannot come (due to his disability, he cannot get on the boat), but Maria insists. Bess leaves Porgy behind as they go off to the picnic. Porgy watches the boat leave ("I got plenty o' nuttin" reprise).

Scene 2: Kittiwah Island, that evening

The chorus enjoys themselves at the picnic ("I ain't got no shame"). Sportin' Life presents the chorus his cynical views on the Bible ("It Ain't Necessarily So

It Ain't Necessarily So

"), causing Serena to chastise them ("Shame on all you sinners!"). Everyone gets ready to leave. As Bess, who has lagged behind, tries to follow them, Crown emerges from the bushes. He reminds her that Porgy is "temporary" and laughs off her claims that she has been living decently now. Bess wants to leave Crown forever and attempts to make him forget about her ("Oh, what you want wid Bess?") but Crown refuses to give her up. He grabs her and will not let her go to the boat, which leaves without her, and then forcefully kisses her. He laughs at his conquest as her resistance begins to fail, and commands her to get into the woods, where his intentions are only too clear.

Scene 3: Catfish Row, a week later, just before dawn

A week later. Jake leaves to go fishing with his crew, one of whom observes that it looks as if a storm is coming in. Peter, still unsure of his crime, returns from prison. Meanwhile, Bess is lying in Porgy's room delirious with fever, which she has had ever since returning from Kittiwah Island. Serena prays to remove Bess's affliction ("Oh, doctor Jesus"), and promises Porgy that Bess will be well by five o'clock. As the day passes, a strawberry woman, Peter (the Honey Man) and a crab man each pass by with their wares ("Vendor's Trio"). As the clock chimes five, Bess recovers from her fever. Porgy tells Bess that he knows she has been with Crown, and she admits that Crown has promised to return for her. Porgy tells her she is free to go if she wants to, and she tells him that although she wants to stay, she is afraid of Crown's hold on her. Porgy asks her what would happen if there was no Crown, and Bess tells Porgy she loves him and begs him to protect her, and he promises that she will never have to be afraid again ("I Loves You, Porgy").

Clara watches the water, fearful for Jake. Maria tries to allay her fears, but suddenly the hurricane bell begins to ring.

Scene 4: Serena's Room, dawn of the next day

The residents of Catfish Row are all gathered in Serena's room for shelter from the hurricane. They drown out the sound of the storm with prayers and hymns ("Oh, Doctor Jesus") while Sportin' Life mocks their assumption that the storm is a signal of Judgment Day. Clara desperately sings her lullaby ("Summertime" [reprise]). A knock is heard at the door, and the chorus believes it to be Death ("Oh there's somebody knocking at the door"). Crown enters dramatically, having swum from Kittiwah Island, seeking Bess. He shows no fear of God, claiming that after the long struggle from Kittiwah, God and he are friends. The chorus tries to drown out his blaspheming with more prayer, and he taunts them by singing a vulgar song. ("A red-headed woman"). Suddenly, Clara sees Jake's boat float past the window, upside-down, and she runs out to try to save him, handing her baby to Bess. Bess asks that one of the men go out with her, and Crown taunts Porgy, who cannot go. Crown goes himself, yelling out as he leaves "Alright, Big Friend! We're on for another Bout!" The chorus continue to pray as the storm rises.

Act 3

Scene 1: Catfish Row, the next night

A group of women mourn Clara, Jake, and all of the other fishermen, who have been killed in the storm ("Clara, Clara, don't you be downhearted"). When they begin to mourn for Crown as well, Sportin' Life laughs at them and is told off by Maria. He insinuates that Crown may not be dead, and observes that when a woman has a man, maybe she's got him for keeps, but if she has two men, then it's highly likely she'll end up with none. Bess is heard, singing Clara's lullaby to her baby, whom she is now taking care of. ("Summertime" [reprise]). Once Catfish Row is dark, Crown stealthily enters to claim Bess, but is confronted by Porgy. A fight ensues which ends when Porgy kills Crown. Porgy exclaims to Bess, "You've got a man now. You've got Porgy!"

Scene 2: Catfish Row, the next afternoon

The detective enters and talks with Serena and her friends about the murders of Crown and Robbins. They deny knowledge of Crown's murder, frustrating the detective. Needing a witness for the coroner's inquest, he next questions an apprehensive Porgy. Once Porgy admits to knowing Crown, he is ordered to come and identify Crown's body. Sportin' Life tells Porgy that corpses bleed in the presence of their murderers, and the detective will use this to hang Porgy. Porgy refuses to identify the body, but is dragged off anyway. Bess is distraught, and Sportin' Life puts his plan in action. He tells her that Porgy will be locked up for a long time, and points out that he is the only one still here. He offers her "happy dust", and though she refuses, he forces it on her. After she takes it, he paints a seductive picture of her life with him in New York ("There's a boat dat's leavin' soon for New York"). She regains her strength and rushes inside, slamming the door on his face, but he leaves a packet of Happy Dust on her doorstep, and settles down to wait.

Scene 3: Catfish Row, a week later

On a beautiful morning, Porgy is released from jail, where he has been arrested for contempt of court after refusing to look at Crown's body. He returns to Catfish Row much richer after playing craps with his cellmates. He gives gifts to the residents, and pulls out a beautiful red dress for Bess. He does not understand why everyone seems so uneasy at his return. He sees Clara's baby is now with Serena and realizes something is wrong. He asks where Bess is. Maria and Serena tell him that Bess has run off with Sportin' Life to New York ("Oh Bess, Oh Where's my Bess?"). Porgy calls for his goat cart, and resolves to leave Catfish Row to find her. He prays for strength, and begins his journey. ("Oh, Lawd, I'm on my way")

Racial controversy

From the outset, the opera's depiction of African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s attracted controversy. Problems with the racial aspects of the opera continue to this day. Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...

, a white American composer, stated that "Folk lore subjects recounted by an outsider are only valid as long as the folk in question is unable to speak for itself, which is certainly not true of the American Negro in 1935." Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

stated "the times are here to debunk Gershwin's lampblack Negroisms." (Ellington's response to the Breen revival was, however, almost completely the opposite. His telegram to the producer read: "Your Porgy and Bess the superbest, singing the gonest, acting the craziest, Gershwin the greatest." ) Several of the members of the original cast later stated that they, too, had concerns that their characters might play into a stereotype that African Americans lived in poverty, took drugs and solved their problems with their fists.

A planned production by the Negro Repertory Company of Seattle in the late 1930s, part of the Federal Theatre Project

Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre Project was a New Deal project to fund theatre and other live artistic performances in the United States during the Great Depression. It was one of five Federal One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration...

, was cancelled because actors were displeased with what they viewed as a racist

Racism

portrayal of aspects of African American life. The director initially envisioned that they would perform the play in a "Negro

Negro

The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...

dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

." These Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

African American actors, who did not speak in dialect, would be coached in it. Florence James attempted a compromise of dropping the use of dialect but the production was canceled.

Another production of Porgy and Bess, this time at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

in 1939, ran into similar troubles. According to Barbara Cyrus, one of the few black students then at the university, members of the local African-American community saw the play as "detrimental to the race" and as a vehicle that promoted racist stereotypes. The play was cancelled due to pressure from the African-American community, which saw their success as proof of the increasing political power of blacks in the Twin Cities.

The belief that Porgy and Bess was racist gained strength with the American Civil Rights and Black Power

Black Power

Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...

movements of the 1950s, '60s and '70s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

. As these movements advanced, Porgy and Bess was seen as more and more out of date. When the play was revived in the 1960s, social critic and African-American educator Harold Cruse

Harold Cruse

Harold Wright Cruse was an American academic who was an outspoken social critic and teacher of African-American studies at the University of Michigan until the mid-1980s. The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual is his best-known book....

called it, "The most incongruous, contradictory cultural symbol ever created in the Western World." African-American historian John Hope Franklin

John Hope Franklin

John Hope Franklin was a United States historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and...

did not totally agree with this view, stating in his introduction to Three Negro Classics, "Sportin' Life clowns but not for white audiences. Porgy's clowning is a deliberate frustration of white power. Porgy also plays Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom is a derogatory term for a person who perceives themselves to be of low status, and is excessively subservient to perceived authority figures; particularly a black person who behaves in a subservient manner to white people....

, but he is never servile and lives for no white master."

Gershwin's all-black opera was also unpopular with some celebrated black artists. Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

declined to play Porgy in the late 1950s film version, so the role went to Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier

Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...

. Betty Allen, president of the Harlem School of the Arts, admittedly loathed the piece, and Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry , an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years...

, who excelled in the 1985 Metropolitan Opera production as Bess, made the often cited statement:

I thought it beneath me, I felt I had worked far too hard, that we had come far too far to have to retrogress to 1935. My way of dealing with it was to see that it was really a piece of Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...

, of American history, whether we liked it or not. Whether I sing it or not, it was still going to be there.

Over time, however, the opera gained acceptance from the opera community and some (though not all) in the African-American community. Maurice Peress stated in 2004 that "Porgy and Bess belongs as much to the black singer-actors who bring it to life as it does to the Heywards and the Gershwins." Indeed, Ira Gershwin stipulated that only blacks be allowed to play the lead roles when the opera was performed in the United States, launching the careers of several prominent opera singers.

That Gershwin sought to write a true jazz opera, and that he believed that Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

staff singers could never master the jazz idiom, but could instead only be sung by a black cast, seems to indicate he did not intend the work to belittle African-Americans. Some black singers were overjoyed at Gershwin's work going so far as to describe him as the "Abraham Lincoln of Negro music". The source of much of the racial controversy seems to arise from the miscegenation of Gershwin's jazz experience. Gershwin wrote Porgy through an idiom of jazz that was influenced by Western European opera traditions, African-American music, and Russian-Jewish music.

During the era of apartheid in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, several South African theatre companies planned to put on all-white productions of Porgy and Bess. Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....

, as heir to his brother, consistently refused to permit these productions to be staged. But in 2009, Cape Town Opera

Cape Town Opera

Cape Town Opera is a professional opera company located in Cape Town, South Africa. CTO was founded in 1999 by the management and staff of the former South Africa Arts Council Opera...

's production, set in 1970s South Africa and inspired by life in Soweto

Soweto

Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...

, toured Britain, opening at the Wales Millennium Centre

Wales Millennium Centre

in Cardiff and going on to the Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall

in London and Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

. Most of the cast were black South Africans; American singers involved in the production have found the "passionate identification with the opera" by the South African singers "a wake-up call".

Musical elements

In the summer of 1934, George Gershwin worked on the opera in Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

. He drew inspiration from the James Island Gullah

Gullah

The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands....

community, which he felt had preserved some African musical traditions. This research added to the authenticity of his work.

The music itself reflects his New York jazz roots, but also draws on southern black traditions. Gershwin modeled the pieces after each type of folk song which the composer knew about; jubilees, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, praying songs, street cries, work songs, and spirituals are blended with traditional aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

s and recitative

Recitative

Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

s.

In addition to being influenced by New York jazz and southern black music, as many biographers and contemporaries have noted, for many numbers Gershwin used melodies from Jewish liturgical music

Jewish music

Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish People which have evolved over time throughout the long course of Jewish History. In some instances Jewish Music is of a religious nature, spiritual songs and refrains are common in Jewish Services throughout the world, while other times, it is...

. Gershwin biographer Edward Jablonski

Edward Jablonski

Edward Leon Jabłoński was a Polish soccer midfield player who represented both Cracovia and the Polish National Team. Born on October 13, 1919 in Krakow, Jabłoński was one of the few players who participated in games of the national team both before and after Second World War...

has claimed that the melody to "It Ain't Necessarily So" was taken from the Haftarah blessing, and others have attributed it to the Torah blessing

Torah reading

Torah reading is a Jewish religious ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the Torah scroll from the ark, chanting the appropriate excerpt with special cantillation, and returning the scroll to...

. Allusions to Jewish music have been detected by other observers as well. One musicologist detected "an uncanny resemblance" between the folk tune Havenu Shalom Aleichem and the spiritual "It Take a Long Pull to Get There".

The score makes use of a series of leitmotif

Leitmotif

A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...

s. Many of these represent individual characters: some of these are fragments of the opera's set numbers (Sporting Life, for example, is frequently represented by the melody which sets the title words of "It Ain't Necessarily So"). Other motifs represent objects (such as the sleazy chromatic 'Happy Dust' motif) or places, notably Catfish Row. Many of the through-composed passages of the score combine or develop these leitmotifs in order to reflect the on-stage action. Particularly sophisticated uses of this techniques can be seen after the aria "There's a boat dat's leaving soon for New York" in act 3, scene 2. The opera also frequently reprises its set numbers (these might be considered extended Leitsektionen). Notable in this respect are the reprises of "Bess, you is my woman now" and "I got plenty o' nuttin" which conclude act 2, scene 1. The song "Summertime

Summertime (song)

" is stated four times alone.

Recordings

Excerpts

Days after the Broadway premiere of Porgy and Bess with an all-black cast, two white opera singers, Lawrence Tibbett

Lawrence Tibbett

Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was a great American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera company more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950...

and Helen Jepson

Helen Jepson

Helen Jepson was an American lyric soprano noted for being a "stunning blond beauty" as well as for her voice....

, both members of the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

, recorded highlights of the opera in a New York sound studio, released as Highlights from Porgy and Bess
Highlights from Porgy and Bess
Highlights from Porgy and Bess, the 1935 album of George Gershwin's opera, was recorded just days after Porgy and Bess opened on Broadway on October 10, 1935. While the opera was performed by an all-African American singing cast, the 1935 album featured mostly white opera singers attempting...

.

Members of the original cast were not recorded until 1940, when Todd Duncan

Todd Duncan

Robert Todd Duncan was an American baritone opera singer and actor.-Biography:Todd Duncan was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1903. He obtained his musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in music followed by an M.A...

and Anne Brown

Anne Brown

Anne Wiggins Brown was an African American soprano who created the role of "Bess" in the original production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer...

recorded selections from the work. Two years later, when the first Broadway revival occurred, American Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

rushed other members of the cast into the recording studio to record other selections not recorded in 1940. These two albums were marketed as a two-volume 78 rpm set Selections from George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess
Selections from George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess
Decca Presents Selections from George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess consists of two volumes of records, the first from 1940, and the next from 1942....

. After LPs had begun to be manufactured in 1948, the recording was transferred to LP, and subsequently, to CD.

Also in 1940, baritone Bruce Foote released a 78-RPM album of selections from "Porgy and Bess".

In 1942, Mabel Mercer

Mabel Mercer

Mabel Mercer was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the...

and Cy Walter

Cy Walter

Cy Walter was an American café society pianist based in New York City for four decades. Dubbed the "Art Tatum of Park Avenue," he was praised for his extensive repertoire and improvisatory skill...

released a 78-RPM jazz album of excerpts from the opera on an obscure label.

Although members of the jazz community initially felt that a Jewish piano player and a white novelist could not adequately convey the plight of blacks in a 1930s Charleston ghetto, jazz musicians warmed up more to the opera after twenty years, and more jazz-based recordings of it began to appear. Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

and Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

recorded an album in 1957 in which they sang and scatted Gershwin's tunes. The next year, Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

recorded what some consider a seminal interpretation

Porgy and Bess (Miles Davis album)

Porgy and Bess is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1958 on Columbia Records. The album features arrangements by Davis and collaborator Gil Evans from George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4, and August 18,...

of the opera arranged for big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

.

In 1959, Columbia Masterworks Records

Columbia Masterworks Records

Columbia Masterworks Records was a record label started in 1927 by Columbia Records.It was intended for releases of classical music and artists, as opposed to popular music, which bore the regular Columbia logo. Masterworks Records' first release, in 1927, was a complete performance of the...

released a soundtrack album of Samuel Goldwyn's film version of Porgy and Bess, which had been made that year. It was not a complete version of the opera, nor was it even a complete version of the film soundtrack, which featured more music than could be contained on a single LP. The album remained in print until the early 1970s, when it was withdrawn from stores at the request of the Gershwin estate. It is the first stereo album of music from Porgy and Bess with an all-black cast. However, according to the album liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....

was under contract to another recording company, and his vocal tracks for the film could not be used on the album. Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....

substituted his own vocals of Sportin' Life's songs. Robert McFerrin

Robert McFerrin

Robert McFerrin Sr. was the first African-American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...

was the singing voice of Porgy, and Adele Addison

Adele Addison

Adele Addison is an African American lyric soprano who was an acclaimed figure in the classical music world during the 1950s and 1960s. Although she did appear in several operas, Addison spent most of her career performing in recital and concert...

the singing voice of Bess. The white singer Loulie Jean Norman

Loulie Jean Norman

Loulie Jean Norman was a famous coloratura soprano who worked with famed arranger Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins and Norman collaborated on a number of albums...

was the singing voice of Clara (portrayed onscreen by Diahann Carroll), and Inez Matthews the singing voice of Serena (portrayed onscreen by Ruth Attaway).

In 1963, Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price

and William Warfield

William Warfield

, who had starred in the 1952 world tour of Porgy and Bess, recorded their own album of excerpts from the opera for RCA Victor. None of the other singers from that production appeared on that album, but John W. Bubbles

John W. Bubbles

John William Sublett , known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer, dancer, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:...

, the original Sportin' Life, substituted for Cab Calloway (who had played Sportin' Life onstage in the 1952 production). The 1963 recording of Porgy and Bess excerpts remains the only official recording of the score on which Bubbles sings Sportin' Life's two big numbers.

In, 1976, for RCA Victor, Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

and Cleo Laine

Cleo Laine

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...

recorded an album of excerpts in which the two of them sang several roles. The album was arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol. It featured the organ of Joe Sample, the trumpet of Harry Edison and guitar work of Joe Pass, Lee Ritenour and many others. It was jazz-based with full orchestrations, but the orchestrations used were not Gershwin's.

Complete recordings

1951: Columbia Masterworks: the company recorded a 3-LP album of what was then the standard performing version of "Porgy and Bess" – the most complete recording made of the opera up to that time. It was billed as a "complete" version, but was complete only insofar as that was the way the work was usually performed then. (Actually, nearly an hour was cut from the opera.) Because album producer Goddard Lieberson
Goddard Lieberson
Goddard Lieberson was the president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971, and from 1973 to 1975. He was also a composer, and studied with George Frederick McKay, at the University of Washington, Seattle....

was eager to bring as much of Porgy and Bess as he felt was practical on records at the time, the recording featured more of Gershwin's original recitatives and orchestrations than had ever been heard before. The recording was conducted by Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...

, and starred Lawrence Winters
Lawrence Winters
Lawrence Winters , bass-baritone, was an African American opera singer who had an active international career from the mid 1940s through the mid 1960s. He was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who...

and Camilla Williams
Camilla Williams
Camilla Ella Williams is an American operatic soprano and the first African American to receive a contract with a major American opera company.-Biography:...

, both from the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

. Several singers who had been associated with the original 1935 production and the 1942 revival of "Porgy and Bess" were finally given a chance to record their roles more or less complete. The album was highly acclaimed as a giant step in recorded opera in its time. It was re-released at budget price on the Odyssey label in the early 1970s. It has subsequently appeared on CD on Sony's "Masterworks Heritage" CD series, and on the Naxos label as well. The album is not sung in as directly "operatic" a style as later versions, treading a fine line between opera and musical theatre.
1952: Guild (not released until 2008): A live recording of a September 21, 1952, performance of Porgy and Bess, starring Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Cab Calloway and the rest of the cast of the 1952 Davis-Breen revival. This is the only known recording of an actual performance made from the historic and highly acclaimed 1952 world tour of the opera. While the opera itself is not performed truly complete, it is a complete recording of that specific performance. Alexander Smallens
Alexander Smallens
Alexander Smallens was a Russian-born American conductor and music director.Smallens was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the United States as a child, becoming an American citizen in 1919...

, who led the original 1935 production and the 1942 revival, conducts. Some of the sung recitatives are still performed as spoken dialogue in the production.
1956: Bethlehem Records
Bethlehem Records
Bethlehem Records was a record label based in New York and Hollywood founded by Gus Wildi in 1953. It was bought by King Records in the early 1960s....

: A version of the opera more heavily oriented toward jazz than the original. Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

sings Porgy and Frances Faye
Frances Faye
Frances Faye was an American cabaret and show tune singer and pianist. She was born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. She was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye.-Career:...

is Bess. The only 3-LP version of most of the opera with white singers. (Released on CD by Rhino Records.)
1976: Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

: The first complete recording of the opera based on Gershwin's original score, restoring the material cut by Gershwin during rehearsals for the New York premiere in 1935, was made by the Cleveland Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...

under Lorin Maazel
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...

in 1976 for Decca Records in the UK and London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....

in the U.S., in time for the U.S. Bicentennial. It starred Willard White
Willard White
Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...

singing his first Porgy, and Leona Mitchell
Leona Mitchell
Leona Mitchell , is an African-American and Chickasaw operatic soprano and an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee....

as Bess. The recording was praised by critics for its performance quality and racial significance, but at the same time was highly criticized by some for not bringing out the "jazzier" qualities of the score.
1977: RCA Victor: A subsequent complete recording of the opera by the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...

based on the complete original score.
1989: EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

: The Glyndebourne album
Porgy and Bess (Glyndebourne album)
Porgy and Bess is a recording of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera version of the George Gershwin opera of the same name. The cast were accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Simon Rattle. The recording took place in February 1988 in No.1 Studio of Abbey Road in London...

also based on the complete original score, without Gershwin's cuts.
2006: A recording of the opera made by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra
Nashville Symphony Orchestra
The Nashville Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in Nashville, Tennessee. The orchestra performs 140 concerts annually.-History:...

under John Mauceri
John Mauceri
John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer and arranger for theatre, opera and television. For fifteen years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. He was a protege of Leonard Bernstein...

is the first to observe Gershwin's cuts and thus present the opera as it was heard in New York in 1935. The musical cuts made on this album coincide almost exactly with those in the 1951 album, with the exception that "The Buzzard Song", usually cut in early productions, is heard on the 1951 album, and the "Occupational Humoresque", heard on the 2006 album, is not heard on the 1951 album at all. This version stars Marquita Lister
Marquita Lister
Marquita Lister is an American operatic soprano. She has sung with major companies in the U.S. and abroad, specializing in the lirico-spinto repertoire...

as Bess.
2010: RCA Victor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement...

, an unusual choice for this Gershwin opera, has recently conducted a new recording of an almost complete Porgy and Bess, which was released in the U.S. in September 2010. Gregg Baker, who sang Crown in the 1985 Metropolitan Opera production, the 1986 Glyndebourne production, the 1989 EMI recording made with the Glyndebourne cast, and in the 1993 television adaptation of that production, repeats his performance here, but the roles of Porgy and Bess are taken by two singers virtually unknown in the U.S., Jonathan Lemalu
Jonathan Lemalu
Jonathan Fa'afetai Lemalu is a New Zealand opera singer, of Samoan descent. Born in Dunedin, he sings in the bass baritone register....

and Isabelle Kabatu.

The 1976 and 1977 recordings of the opera won Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording, making Porgy and Bess the only opera to win this award over two consecutive years.

1959 film

A 1959 film version

Porgy and Bess (1959 film)

Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical film directed by Otto Preminger. It is based on the 1935 opera of the same name by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin, which is in turn based on Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, and the subsequent 1927 non-musical stage adaptation he co-wrote...

, produced in 70 mm Todd-AO

Todd-AO

Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

by Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...

, was plagued with problems. Rouben Mamoulian, who had directed the 1935 Broadway premiere, was hired to direct the film, but was subsequently fired in favor of director Otto Preminger

Otto Preminger

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...

after a disagreement with the producer. Mamoulian urged making the film on location in South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

after a fire on the sound stage destroyed the film's sets. Goldwyn, who never liked making films on location, considered Mamoulian's request a sign of disloyalty. Robert McFerrin

Robert McFerrin

Robert McFerrin Sr. was the first African-American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...

dubbed the singing voice for Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier

's Porgy as did Adele Addison

Adele Addison

for Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress...

's Bess. Ruth Attaway's Serena and Diahann Carroll's Clara were also dubbed. Although Dandridge and Carroll were singers, their voices were not considered operatic enough. Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....

, Brock Peters

Brock Peters

Brock Peters was an American actor, best known for playing the role of Tom Robinson in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird...

and Pearl Bailey

Pearl Bailey

Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...

(who played Sportin' Life, Crown and Maria) were the only principals who provided their own singing. Andre Previn

André Previn

André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...

's adaptation of the score won him an Academy Award, the film's only Oscar.

The Gershwin estate was disappointed with the film, as the score was substantially edited to make it more like a musical

Musical theatre

. Much of the music was omitted from the film, and many of Gershwin's orchestrations were either changed or completely scrapped. It was shown on network television in the U.S. only once, in 1967. Critics attacked it for not being faithful to Gershwin's opera, for over-refining the language grammatically, and for its "overblown" staging. The film was removed from release in 1974 by the Gershwin estate and can now only be seen in film archives or on bootleg videos.

Other films

The 1945 Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

film biography of Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue (film)
Rhapsody in Blue is a 1945 fictionalized screen biography of the American composer and musician George Gershwin . Starring Robert Alda as Gershwin, the film features a few of Gershwin's acquaintances playing themselves...

, featured an extended musical scene recreating the opening of the original Broadway production of Porgy and Bess. Included was the original Bess, Anne Brown, recreating her performance. The scene includes a more elaborate arrangement for the film of the song "Summertime", sung by Miss Brown as Bess with full chorus.

The 1985 film White Nights featured a scene in which Gregory Hines

Gregory Hines

Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...

performed "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York" as Sportin' Life. Hines' rendition, before a Siberian audience, included a tap dancing

Tap dance

Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...

sequence. Director Taylor Hackford

Taylor Hackford

Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director, and the current president of the Directors Guild of America.-Early life:Hackford was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Mary , a waitress, and Joseph Hackford...

pointed out in a special edition DVD release of the film that it was necessary to locate a Russian woman of color (Helene Denbey) to portray Bess, as per Gershwin's stipulations.

Television

In 1993, the Glyndebourne Festival stage production of Porgy and Bess was greatly expanded scenically and videotape

Videotape

A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...

d in a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

studio without an audience. It was telecast by the BBC in England and by PBS in the United States. It was directed by Trevor Nunn and featured a cast of American singers, with the exception of Willard White, who is Jamaican but sounded American, as Porgy. Cynthia Haymon

Cynthia Haymon

Cynthia Haymon-Coleman is an American soprano, born September 6, 1958 in Jacksonville, Florida. She is known for the beauty of her voice and seeming ease with which she uses it. She obtained her Bachelor's degree of Music in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University...

sang the role of Bess. Nunn's "opening up" of the stage production was considered highly imaginative; his cast received much critical praise, and the three-hour production retained nearly all of Gershwin's music, heard in the original 1935 orchestrations. This included the opera's sung recitatives, which had occasionally been turned into spoken dialogue in earlier productions. No extra dialogue was written for this production, as had been done in the 1959 film.

This "Porgy and Bess" production was subsequently released on VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

, and is, so far, the only version of the opera to officially appear in those formats. It has won far greater acclaim than the 1959 film, which was widely panned by most critics. The 1993 television production of "Porgy and Bess" was nominated for four Emmy Awards, and won for its art direction. It also won a BAFTA Award for Best Video Lighting.

In 2002, the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

telecast its new version of the Houston Opera production, in a live performance from the stage of Lincoln Center. This version featured far more cuts than the previous telecast, but, like nearly all stage versions produced since 1976, used the sung recitatives and Gershwin's orchestrations. The telecast also included interviews with director Tazewell Thompson

Tazewell Thompson

Tazewell Thompson , is a playwright, a director, and former Artistic Director of the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut.He was born in New York City....

and was hosted by Beverly Sills

Beverly Sills

Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...

Radio

On December 1, 1935, during the Broadway run, Todd Duncan and Anne Brown performed "Summertime", "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" and "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" on NBC's The Magic Key of RCA
The Magic Key of RCA
The Magic Key of RCA was an American variety radio show that featured an unusually large and broad range of entertainment stars and other noted personalities...

radio program. Duncan and Brown also appeared on the 1937 CBS Gershwin memorial concert on September 8, 1937, broadcast from the Hollywood Bowl

Hollywood Bowl

The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...

less than two months after the composer's death, along with several other members of the Broadway cast, including John W. Bubbles

John W. Bubbles

John William Sublett , known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer, dancer, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:...

and Ruby Elzy

Ruby Elzy

Ruby Elzy , was a pioneer African American operatic soprano.-Early life:Elzy was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi and educated at Rust College, the Ohio State University and the Juilliard School,...

. They performed several selections from the opera.

The complete Porgy and Bess was broadcast live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera three times as part of the Met's regular radio broadcast series

Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts

. The 1985 broadcast performance starred Simon Estes

Simon Estes

Simon Estes is an operatic bass-baritone of African-American descent who had a major international opera career since the 1960s...

and Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry

Grace Bumbry , an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years...

. In 1986 Bumbry was heard again with Robert Mosely as Porgy. In 1990, Estes and Leona Mitchell

Leona Mitchell

Leona Mitchell , is an African-American and Chickasaw operatic soprano and an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee....

sang the leads in the third broadcast.

Concert adaptations

Gershwin prepared an orchestral suite containing music from the opera after Porgy and Bess closed early on Broadway. Though originally titled "Suite from Porgy and Bess", Ira later renamed it Catfish Row
Catfish Row
"Catfish Row", originally titled "Suite from Porgy and Bess", is an orchestral work by George Gershwin based upon music from his famous opera. Gershwin completed the work in 1936 and it premiered at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on January 21 of that year, with Alexander Smallens conducting...

.

In 1942 Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...

arranged a medley (rather than a suite) for orchestra which has often been heard in the concert hall, known as Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture
Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture
Arranged by Gershwin's good friend and sometimes assistant Robert Russell Bennett in 1942, Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture includes most of the best-known songs from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess, although not exactly in the order of their appearance...

. It is based on Gershwin's original scoring, though for a slightly different instrumentation (the piano was removed from the orchestral texture at the request of the conductor Fritz Reiner, for whom the arrangement was made). Morton Gould

Morton Gould

Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.Born in Richmond Hill, New York, Gould was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six...

also arranged an orchestral suite in the 1950s.

Bennett's 40-minute Porgy and Bess: Concert Version for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra was prepared in 1956. It is based very closely on Gershwin's original instrumental and vocal scoring, the principal recasting being the use of standard concert-orchestra instrumentation, eliminating the clarinet-saxophone doubling specified in Gershwin's 1935 orchestration.

Piano

In 1951, Australian-born composer Percy Grainger

Percy Grainger

George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...

, who was an admirer, performer and arranger of Gershwin's music, completed a twenty minute piece for two pianos titled Fantasy on George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess".

The late pianist Earl Wild

Earl Wild

Royland Earl Wild was an American pianist widely recognized as a leading virtuoso of his generation. Harold C. Schonberg called him a "super-virtuoso in the Horowitz class". He was known as well for his transcriptions of classical music and jazz...

prepared a virtuoso piano arrangement in the manner of Liszt, entitled, Fantasy on Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess".

Jazz versions

Miles Davis

and Gil Evans

Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...

recorded jazz arrangements of Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess (Miles Davis album)

. Released as an LP in 1958 by Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, it was highly successful and was re-released in 1997.

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

recorded ten titles from the opera on his 1959 album Oscar Peterson Plays Porgy & Bess
Oscar Peterson Plays Porgy & Bess
Oscar Peterson Plays Porgy & Bess is a 1959 studio album by Oscar Peterson, playing selections from George Gershwin's 1935 opera, Porgy and Bess...

.

In 1997, saxophonist Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson

Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...

recorded a jazz version of the opera

Porgy & Bess (Joe Henderson album)

Porgy & Bess is a 1997 album by jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson, released on Verve Records. It contains Henderson's arrangements of music from George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.-Personnel:*Joe Henderson, tenor saxophone*Conrad Herwig, trombone...

with the participation of several eminent jazz musicians.

Songs

Porgy and Bess contains many songs that have become popular in their own right, becoming standards in jazz and blues in addition to their original operatic setting.

Some of the most popular songs are:

"Summertime
Summertime (song)
"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....

", act 1, scene 1
"A Woman is a Sometime Thing", act 1, scene 1
"My Man's Gone Now
My Man's Gone Now
My Man's Gone Now is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by DuBose Heyward, written for the folk opera Porgy and Bess . Sung in the original production by Ruby Elzy, it has been covered by many female singers notably Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, and Shirley Horn, among...

", act 1, scene 2
"It Take a Long Pull to Get There", act 2, scene 1
"I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'", act 2, scene 1
"Buzzard Keep on Flyin'", act 2, scene 1
"Bess, You Is My Woman Now
Bess, You Is My Woman Now
"Bess, You Is My Woman Now" is a duet with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. This song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess where it is sung by the main character Porgy and his beloved Bess. They express their love for each other and say that they now belong...

", act 2, scene 1
"Oh, I Can't Sit Down," act 2, scene 1
"It Ain't Necessarily So
It Ain't Necessarily So
"It Ain't Necessarily So" is a popular song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess where it is sung by the character Sportin' Life, a drug dealer, who expresses his doubt about several statements in the Bible.The role of...

", act 2, scene 2
"What you want wid Bess", act 2, scene 2
"Oh, Doctor Jesus", act 2, scene 3
"I Loves You, Porgy", act 2, scene 3
"A Red-Haired Woman", act 2, scene 4
"There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York", act 3, scene 2
"Bess, O Where's My Bess?", act 3, scene 3
"O Lawd, I'm On My Way", act 3, scene 3

Some of the more celebrated renditions of these songs include Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

's "It Ain't Necessarily So" and the versions of "Summertime" recorded by Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis

Porgy and Bess (Miles Davis album)

, John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

, and Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...

in his own transcriptions for violin and piano. Numerous other musicians have recorded "Summertime" in varying styles, including both instrumental and vocal recordings. Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin

Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

recorded a Blues rock version of "Summertime" with Big Brother and The Holding Company

Big Brother and the Holding Company

Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...

. Sublime

Sublime (band)

Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...

recorded a (radically reworked) version, as well. Billy Stewart

Billy Stewart

Billy Stewart was an American musical artist, with a highly distinctive scat-singing style, who enjoyed popularity in the 1960s.-Biography:...

's version became a Top 10 Pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

and R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

hit in 1966 for Chess Records

Chess Records

Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....

.

Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...

recorded several Porgy and Bess songs. She made her debut in 1959 with a version of "I Loves You, Porgy", which became a Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

top 20 hit. Other songs she recorded included "Porgy, I's Your Woman Now" [i.e. "Bess, You Is My Woman Now"], "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now".

The violinist Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...

and the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber

Julian Lloyd Webber

Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...

both recorded instrumental versions of "Bess, You is My Woman Now".

Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

performed "I Loves You, Porgy" in a tribute to the Nina Simone version at the 2008 Grammy Nominations Concert.

"Summertime" may be the most popular cover

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

song in popular music. Even seemingly unlikely performers such as The Zombies

The Zombies

The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1961 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent, on piano and keyboards, and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group scored a UK and US hit in 1964 with "She's Not There"...

have made recordings of it. An international group of collectors of recordings of "Summertime" by the name "The Summertime Connection" claims more than 30,000 recorded performances (many live) in their collection.

Commendations

On July 14, 1993, the United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

recognized the opera's cultural significance by issuing a commemorative 29-cent postage stamp.

In 2001, Porgy and Bess was proclaimed the official opera of the state of South Carolina.

The 1940/1942 Decca Porgy and Bess recording with members of the original cast was included by the National Recording Preservation Board

National Recording Preservation Board

The United States National Recording Preservation Board selects recorded sounds for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The National Recording Registry was initiated to maintain and preserve "sound recordings that are culturally, historically or aesthetically...

in the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, National Recording Registry

National Recording Registry

The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...

in 2003. The board selects recordings on an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

External links

Porgy and Bess NPR webcast of full opera, staged Nov. 12, 2005 at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
Article on Porgy and Bess by Jane Erb, hosted by classical.net
"Porgy and Bess: An American Voice" Online version of PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

documentary on the opera
Hypertext edition of the novel Porgy
"Jazzbo: Why we still listen to Gershwin" The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

article by Claudia Roth Pierpoint
Internet Broadway Database listings for all Broadway productions
Ovrtur.com Entry
"75 years Porgy and Bess"

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Composition history

1935 Original Broadway production

1942 Broadway revival

European premieres

1952 touring production

1976 Houston Grand Opera production

Subsequent productions

2006 The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Nunn adaptation)

2011 The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (Paulus adaptation)

Roles

Synopsis

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Racial controversy

Musical elements

Recordings

Excerpts

Complete recordings

1959 film

Other films

Television

Radio

Concert adaptations

Piano

Jazz versions

Songs

Commendations

Further reading

External links