George Gershwin

Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward

Inception#

The origin of Porgy and Bess is DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel Porgy. Heyward produced a play by the same name with Dorothy Heyward. George Gershwin read Porgy in 1926 and proposed to Heyward to collaborate on an operatic version. In 1934, Gershwin and Heyward began work on the project by visiting the author’s native Charleston, South Carolina. In a 1935 New York Times article, Gershwin explained his motivation for calling Porgy and Bess a folk opera: Porgy and Bess is a folk tale. Its people naturally would sing folk music. When I first began work on the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folksongs. But they are still folk music—and therefore, being in operatic form, Porgy and Bess becomes a folk opera.

Composition history#

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, in the fall of 1935. He chose as his choral director 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, who had previously directed the Broadway productions of Heyward’s play Porgy. The music director was Alexander Smallens. The leading roles were played by Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. Brown was a 20-year-old student at Juilliard, the first African-American vocalist admitted there; when she read that George Gershwin was going to write a musical version of Porgy, she wrote him and asked to sing for him, and Gershwin’s secretary invited her. Gershwin was impressed and began asking Brown to come and sing the songs as he composed them for Porgy. The character of Bess was originally a secondary character, but as Gershwin was impressed with Brown’s singing, he expanded the part of Bess and cast Brown. When they had completed rehearsals and were ready to begin previews, Gershwin invited Brown to join him for lunch. At that meeting, he told her, “I want you to know, Miss Brown, that henceforth and forever after, George Gershwin’s opera will be known as Porgy and Bess.” Influential vaudeville artist John W. Bubbles created the role of Sportin’ Life; the role of Serena was created by Ruby Elzy. After the Broadway run, a tour started on January 27, 1936, in Philadelphia and traveled to Pittsburgh and Chicago before ending in Washington, DC, on March 21, 1936. During the Washington run, the cast—as led by Todd Duncan—protested segregation at the National Theatre. Eventually management gave in to the demands, resulting in the first integrated audience for a performance of any show at that venue. In 1938, many of the original cast reunited for a West Coast revival that played in Los Angeles and at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Avon Long took on the role of Sportin’ Life for the first time, a role he continued to play in many productions over a long career.

1942 Broadway revival#

Noted director and producer Cheryl Crawford produced professional stock theater in Maplewood, New Jersey, for three very successful seasons. The last of these closed with Porgy and Bess, which she co-produced with John Wildberg. In refashioning it in the style of musical theater 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 recitatives were reduced to spoken dialog. Duncan and Brown reprised their roles as the title characters, with Alexander Smallens again conducting. In June, 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. Radio station WOR in New York broadcast a live one-hour version on May 7, 1942. The cast included Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, Ruby Elzy, Eloise C. Uggams, Avon Long, Edward Matthews, Harriet Jackson, Georgette Harvey, Jack Carr, and the Eva Jessye Choir; the WOR Symphony was conducted by Alfred Wallenstein. The 12-inch-diameter 78 rpm, glass base, lacquer-coated disks were transferred to open-reel tape on February 6, 1975.

European premieres#

On March 27, 1943, the opera had its European premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. Performed during the Nazi occupation of the country, this performance was notable for being performed by an all-white cast made up in blackface. After 22 sold-out performances, the Nazis forced the theater to close the production. Other all- or mostly white productions in Europe, reflecting contemporary demographics in the countries, took place in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1945 and 1950, and Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden, 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 the opera continued until February 10, 1953. This production’s original cast featured Americans Leontyne Price as Bess, William Warfield as Porgy, and Cab Calloway as Sportin’ Life, a role that Gershwin had composed with him in mind. The role of Ruby was played by a young Maya Angelou. Price and Warfield met and wed while on the tour. The role of Porgy was the first for Warfield after his appearance as Joe singing “Ol’ Man River” in the popular 1951 MGM film of Show Boat. After a tour of Europe financed by the United States Department of State, the production came to Broadway’s Ziegfeld Theatre in March 1953. It later toured North America. After completing its North American run in Montreal, the company embarked on an international tour, with LeVern Hutcherson as Porgy and Gloria Davy as Bess. The production first performed in Venice, Paris, and London, and in other cities in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. The company also made a stop at the Cairo Opera House in Egypt in January 1955. In 1955–1956 the company toured in cities in the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Latin America. During this tour, Porgy and Bess was presented for the first time at La Scala in Milan in February 1955. A historic yet tense premiere took place in Leningrad in December 1955; it was during the Cold War and the first time an American theater group had been to the Soviet capital since the Bolshevik Revolution. Author Truman Capote traveled with the cast and crew, and wrote an account included in his book The Muses Are Heard.

1965 New Zealand Opera production#

This 1965 production by New Zealand Opera included several Māori opera singers, deemed by the Gershwin trust to be consistent with the requirement for black artists as the cast. The experience of working with a Broadway musical director, Ella Gerber, and being in the cast (from chorus to a minor character role) was a unique opportunity for New Zealand opera singers.

1965 Volksoper Vienna production#

As opposed to the American productions from 1942 up until 1976, the 1965 Volksoper production was performed as an opera as George Gershwin conceived it and was based on the original 1935-Broadway production, i.e., restoring the sung recitatives as well as opening cuts similar to 1935. The conductor and stage director were Americans, and the lead roles as well as most small parts were sung by Black-Americans. Only the chorus was the Volksoper’s own white chorus. The Volksoper orchestra used the original instrumentation, though its string section was larger than the original Broadway. The production was revived several times up into the first half of the 1970’s

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. Though new productions took place in 1961 and 1964, along with a Vienna Volksoper premiere in 1965 (again with William Warfield as Porgy), these did little to change many African Americans’ opinions of the work. 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 in 1976, directed by Jack O’Brien with musical direction by John DeMain; 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. 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. It did not incorporate the cuts and other changes that 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, Porgy and Bess was accepted as an opera. Donnie Ray Albert and Robert Mosley alternated performances in the role of Porgy. Clamma Dale and Larry Marshall starred, respectively, as Bess and Sportin’ Life. This production won the Houston Grand Opera a Tony Award—the only opera ever to receive one—and a 1978 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. The conductor was John DeMain.

Subsequent productions#

Another Broadway production was staged in 1983 at Radio City Music Hall with conductor C. William Harwood, based on the Houston production. The Metropolitan Opera presented a production of Porgy and Bess in 1985 after considering it since the 1930s. It opened February 6, 1985, with a cast including Simon Estes, Grace Bumbry, Bruce Hubbard, Gregg Baker and Florence Quivar. The Met production was directed by Nathaniel Merrill and designed by Robert O’Hearn. The conductor was James Levine. 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 first 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 in 1998. In 1995, the Houston Grand Opera launched a new tour of Porgy and Bess that travelled to ten cities with co-producing opera companies: Cleveland, Dallas, Irvine, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle; and Japan in 1996. The two-million dollar production included cast members Marquita Lister, Alvy Powell, Terry Cook, Larry Marshall, and Stacey Robinson; musical conductor John DeMain; and director and choreographer Hope Clarke, who became the first African American to direct a professional U.S. staging of Porgy and Bess. The centennial celebration of the Gershwin brothers from 1996 to 1998 included a new production as well. On February 24–25, 2006, the Nashville Symphony, under the direction of John Mauceri, gave a concert performance at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. 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 had a revival directed by Tazewell Thompson. In 2007, Los Angeles Opera 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 has frequently performed Porgy and Bess abroad, most notably with the Welsh National Opera, NorrlandsOperan, Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Wales Millennium Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Edinburgh Festival Theatre. In October 2010, its planned tour of the opera to Israel was criticized by Desmond Tutu.

2006 The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Nunn adaptation)#

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess premiered on November 9, 2006, at the Savoy Theatre (London), directed by Trevor Nunn. (Although that was the title given to this production, the 1993 television adaptation of Nunn’s 1986 production had also used it.) For this new production, he adapted the lengthy opera to fit the conventions of musical theater. Working with the Gershwin and Heyward estates, Nunn used dialogue from the original novel and subsequent Broadway stage play to replace the recitatives with naturalistic scenes. He did not use operatic voices in this production, but relied on musical theater actors and actresses as leads. Gareth Valentine provided the musical adaptation. Despite mostly positive reviews, Nunn’s production closed months early because of poor box office returns. This original cast of this version included Clarke Peters as Porgy, Nicola Hughes as Bess, O. T. Fagbenle as Sportin’ Life, and Cornell S. John as Crown.

2011 The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Paulus adaptation)#

Another production titled The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, directed by Diane Paulus with book adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and music adapted by Diedre Murray, was presented by the American Repertory Theater (ART) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Broadway production was produced by Buddy Freitag and Barbara Freitag. Previews started August 17, and the show opened August 31, 2011. Following Trevor Nunn’s latest production of the work, the ART Porgy was the second production initiated by the Gershwin and Heyward estates to adapt the opera for the musical theater stage. Again spoken dialogue, here written by Parks, replaced the opera’s sung recitatives. William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke created new orchestrations for the production. Before the opening, Paulus, Parks and Murray made statements to the press about the production’s primary goal being 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. The complete text of Sondheim’s letter may be seen at this link. Critic Hilton Als countered in The New Yorker that Sondheim had very little exposure to black culture and that the Paulus version succeeded in “humanizing the depiction of race onstage.” The production began previews on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in December 2011 and officially opened on January 12, 2012. The original cast included Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis as Porgy, David Alan Grier as Sportin’ Life, Phillip Boykin as Crown, Nikki Renee Daniels as Clara, and Joshua Henry as Jake. All of the major roles are played by the same cast as in Cambridge. Early reviews of the show were positive to mixed. All praised McDonald’s performance of Bess, but critics were divided on the success of the adaptation, staging and setting. Some praised the intimate scale of the drama and the believability of the performances; others found the staging to be unfocused and the settings to lack atmosphere. Time magazine ranked the show as its number two choice among theater productions in 2011. The production was nominated for 10 awards in the 2012 Tony Awards, winning Best Revival of a Musical and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for McDonald. The production ran through September 23, 2012. It played 322 performances, 17 more than the 1953 revival, making it the longest-running production of Porgy and Bess on Broadway thus far.

2014 The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (London production)#

This production ran at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre from July 17 to August 23. Cast members included Rufus Bonds Jr (Porgy), Nicola Hughes (Bess), Cedric Neal (Sportin’ Life), Phillip Boykin (Crown), Sharon D. Clarke (Mariah), Jade Ewen (Clara) and Golda Rosheuvel (Serena). The production was directed by Timothy Sheader, and also used the book adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks, It was nominated at the Olivier Awards for Best Musical Revival.

2019 Metropolitan Opera production#

After an absence of nearly thirty years on the Met stage, the company staged the new London production conducted by David Robertson in Fall 2019. It featured a cast including Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Angel Blue, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Denyce Graves, Eric Owens, Frederick Ballentine, Alfred Walker, and Ryan Speedo Green. The production was hailed as “splendid” by The New York Times. A live cast album, released on December 17, 2019, won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Roles#

With the exception of a few speaking roles, all of the characters are black.

Synopsis#

:Place: Catfish Row, a fictitious large black tenement based on Cabbage Row, on the waterfront of Charleston, South Carolina. :Time: The early 1920s.

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”) as the working men prepare for a game of craps (“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 cotton-hauling 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” honey vendor returns, singing his vendor’s call. Crown, a strong and brutal stevedore, storms in with his woman, Bess, and buys cheap whiskey and some “happy dust” 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 Jim’s 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 (for dissection). 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, whom he will force to testify against Crown. Serena laments her loss in “My Man’s Gone Now”. 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 song and the chorus joyfully join in, welcoming her into the community. (“Oh, the Train is at de Station”)

Composer: George Gershwin