Porgy and Bess

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Bess (Laquita Mitchell) is horrified that Porgy (Eric Owens) has killed Crown (Lester Lynch): San Francisco Opera production, 2008-09 season.

and universities and expanding awareness of their culture. It is in this environment that Porgy and Bess made its initial appearance. Gershwin’s research into the Low Country of the Charleston area opened his eyes to exciting and strange customs and music. This was an opportunity to create an “authentic” American opera even though Gershwin did not use the songs and rhythms of the Gullah people. How could he duplicate such unique sounds? With Heyward’s story as the frame, Gershwin composed musical numbers that almost overshadowed the storyline. His “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” and “I Loves You, Porgy” not only demonstrated musical greatness; “Summertime” proved to be the creation of a genius. Punctuated with strange rhythms in “Strawberry Woman’s Call/Crab Man’s Call” and “My Man’s Gone Now,” audiences over the years came to recognize Porgy and Bess as more than just another opera; this was a historical event. Porgy and Bess hired the first African

American choral director, Eva Jessye, and the Theatre Guild hired its first all African American cast. The production was presented in a theater rather than an opera house. It told an African American love story, with a “hopeful” ending. Even W. E. B. Du Bois, who disliked the negative images, was “proud of the African American performers.” Over the years, the Porgy novel and play have faded as commercial works, but Porgy and Bess has continued to be revised for more than 79 years. As a controversial work, each generation seeks to adapt it to a changing audience, whether that means eliminating the vicious term “nigger”; taming the dialect to make it more understandable; integrating the 1936 Washington, D. C. audience; adding successful stars such as Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge to a movie version; presenting the grandeur of Houston Grand Opera’s 1976 production; or, in 2011, creating a post-modern adaptation by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and director Diane Paulus, with more dialogue and less music.

African American scholar Harold Cruse believed Porgy and Bess “belongs in a museum.” However, performance art should stir the audience’s emotion and cause them to be involved in the experience. Gershwin’s opera has managed to captivate audiences both positively and negatively over the years, and the music has proved timeless and lasting. Artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Leontyne Price, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, and even Tupac Shakur have recorded songs from the opera, and the iconic characters of Porgy, Bess, Crown, and Sportin’ Life have become a part of our cultural lexicon. While this is certainly a “Negro” opera, the universal appeal of Porgy and Bess is that it is a tragic love story between two fallen people, surrounded by tragic circumstances, struggling to survive the tragic natural elements of their environment, and ultimately leaving the audience with a fateful ending as Porgy rides his goat cart (or limps on his crutches) from Charleston to New York City to find his Bess. Regardless of the time period, or the cultural values or mores, every audience understands

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