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TERRENCEMcCARTHY /SANFRANCISCOOPERA
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