PORGY AND BESS - OPERA

Music by George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, based on the play by DuBose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward
Premiere: Boston, Colonial Theatre, 30 september 1935

New production

As part of Monaco’s National Day celebrations

Porgy and Bess mirrors the French operas by Ravel and Debussy, which Cecilia Bartoli has been programming at the Opéra since the beginning of her tenure. George Gershwin’s admiration for the former, for instance, is clearly audible in his piano concertos, whereas Ravel was famously impressed by Gershwin‘s compositions, and beyond that excited about American popular music, brought to France in the 1920s by the likes of Josephine Baker. 

Songlike numbers such as “Summertime”, jazzy rhythms, traditional Black American tunes and even street cries, which Gershwin heard during a study period in Charleston, determine his only opera’s sound. But its descriptiveness, the imaginative orchestration, the powerful choruses and dramatic solo parts are direct descendents of Europe’s impressionist and verismo movements. 

The story itself is typical verismo and shows us ordinary people – the inhabitants of a South Carolina fishing town – with their ups and downs, their small joys and far greater pains. At the centre stands an impossible love between the crippled beggar Porgy and the beautiful Bess, whose longing for a better life makes her an easy victim of a former boyfriend‘s violence, and of “happy dust”, pressed upon her by a devilish drugdealer.

Conductor | Lee Reynolds

Director | Jean-Louis Grinda

Sets | Rudy Sabounghi

Costumes | Stéphanie Putegnat

Lighting design | Laurent Castaingt

Choreography | Caroline Roëlands

Costumes | Julien Soulier

Choirmaster | ND

Porgy | Michael Sumuel

Bess | Brittany Olivia Logan

Crown | Bongani Kubheka

Serena | Leah Hawkins

Clara | Brandie Sutton

Maria | Adriana Bignagni Lesca

Jake | Donovan Singletary

Sportin'Life | Chauncey Packer