The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess

Everyone knows the hits from the opera and 1959 film Porgy and Bess, which include ‘Summertime’, ‘I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’’, ‘Bess, You Is My Woman Now’ and ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’. The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess is a unique opera and a popular favourite in which George Gershwin mixed jazz with the western opera tradition and Afro-American and Russian Jewish music.

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess stirred widespread controversy when it was first staged in 1935, playing into negative clichés surrounding poor black people living on the fringes of society. In fact, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, even though the story is set among Afro-Americans, is mainly a social drama. Gershwin’s infectious music in Porgy and Bess makes it equally beloved by younger audiences. Kids aged 16 and under receive a discount on tickets to this production.

George Gershwin

George Gershwin’s oeuvre bridges the gap between jazz and classical music. It was DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy that inspired him to compose the full-length opera in 1926, with his brother Ira Gershwin writing the libretto. In 1934 George spent the summer composing in South Carolina to immerse himself in the southern atmosphere. In his own words, he wanted this opera to combine ‘the drama and romance of Carmen and the beauty of Meistersinger’.