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Porgy and BessSM
George Gershwin, Dubose & Dorothy Heyward & Ira Gershwin
Protect the one you love
Summertime in the south is gonna be a scorcher! All that spectacular dance and jazz move the lives and lore of Catfish Row where games and murder fill a tumultuous love triangle. Whose dice will come up snake eyes?
Conductor: PETER MARK
Stage Director: GREG GANAKAS
Performed in English
with English Supertitles
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The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess celebrates the production's 75th Anniversary in 2010.
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Study Guides
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Historical Background
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Running time approx: 3 hrs including one intermission
The scene of the opera is Catfish Row in Charleston, SC, in the early 1920s.
ACT I: It is a typical Saturday night. People are outside, relaxing. A young woman named Clara is singing a lullaby to her baby. A group of men are gambling while some of the women look on disapprovingly. Porgy, a young man who is crippled, comes in on a little makeshift cart that serves as his wheelchair and joins the crap game. Someone notices a big stevedore named Crown arriving. Porgy asks if his girlfriend, Bess, is with him. The men tease Porgy for being “soft” on Bess, but he replies that he’s not soft on any woman, that God meant for him to be lonely.
As Crown and Bess join the group, Crown buys liquor from Sportin’ Life, the local dope peddler. Bess drinks too, which disgusts the other women. Porgy defends her. Crown, drunk and belligerent, joins the game. When his luck runs out and a local man named Robbins wins the pot, Crown picks a fight. As the fight becomes more deadly everyone cries out for the men to stop, but to no avail. Crown kills Robbins and everyone scatters. Crown runs off telling Bess he’ll come back for her. Bess is distraught and begs Sportin’ Life for some “happy dust.” He gives her the powdery drug and offers to take her to New York. She refuses him and looks for a safe place to hide. No one will let her in. She tries to flee but hears a police whistle and turns back. One door opens and Porgy stretches his hand toward her. Bess takes it and walks into his room.
Robbin’s wife Serena has laid out his body on the bed in their room. She has placed a saucer on his chest. The mourners sing a spiritual as they put money into the saucer to help pay for the burial. A detective and two policemen interrupt the singing to randomly pick one of the men and badger him for information about the killing. The old man, Peter, cooperates and tells them he saw Crown commit the murder. He is dragged off as a material witness and the detective brusquely advises Serena to bury the body by the next day or it will be turned over to medical students. Serena expresses her heartbreak as the undertaker arrives. He agrees to bury the body even though only fifteen dollars has been deposited in the saucer. The mourners continue to grieve and sing of better days in the Promised Land.
A few weeks pass. Porgy expresses his contentment with life now that Bess is living with him. A swindler “lawyer” shows up to sell Bess a “divorce” from Crown so that she and Porgy won’t be living in “sin.” A white man arrives to tell Porgy that he will post bond for Peter. He is doing so because “his folks used to belong to my family.” Everyone is pleased but suddenly Porgy sees an evil omen. A buzzard is flying overhead and will bring bad luck if it lands on someone’s house. The inhabitants of Catfish Row pray that the buzzard will pass them by.
Bess is left alone as everyone goes home to prepare for a picnic on nearby Kittiwah Island. Sportin’ Life approaches Bess with a proposal that she leave with him for New York. When she rebuffs him he offers her some “happy dust.” She refuses once again before Porgy intervenes and sends him away. Bess and Porgy fervently affirm their commitment to each other. As the inhabitants of Catfish Row leave for the picnic, Porgy convinces Bess to go with them and enjoy herself.
The picnic is a great success. Everyone has eaten their fill, and some have drunk too much. All are feeling lighthearted. Sportin’ Life entertains the crowd with his own special version of “Bible” stories. The sound of the boat whistle signals that it’s time to go home. As Bess hurries to catch the boat, she is startled by the sudden appearance of Crown. He is anxious to resume their relationship, threatening her if she won’t come back to him. Bess tries to explain that now she’s living with Porgy and wants to stay with him. Crown refuses to give her up. Bess finally acquiesces and remains with him on the island.
ACT II: Several days have passed. Bess has returned from the island feverish and delirious, recognizing no one. Serena prays for her. In a short while Bess awakens and calls to Porgy. He soothes her and tells her he knows that she has been with Crown. She begs him to protect her when Crown comes back. He promises, and tells her not to worry.
Clara comes in from the wharf. She is very worried about the weather because her husband and the other fishermen are at sea. The wind begins to rise and the people of Catfish Row become afraid. As the weather worsens the hurricane bell begins to clang. Everyone gathers in Serena’s room to ride out the storm. They sing with fervor and pray for divine intervention. A loud rap at the door startles everyone. It is Crown, who has returned for Bess. He is taunting Porgy when Clara screams for her husband. She has seen that his boat is in trouble and she rushes out into the storm. Bess calls out for someone to help Clara. Crown goes to rescue Clara but warns Bess that he will be back.
When the storm finally ends there is general mourning for Clara, her husband, Crown and the fishermen, all of whom are presumed dead. Sportin’ Life laughs at the mourners and makes light of their sorrow as he leaves. Shortly thereafter, Crown reappears and crawls stealthily toward Porgy’s door. Porgy intercepts him and they struggle. Porgy overcomes Crown’s assault and kills him.
The next day the police arrive and bring the coroner to investigate Crown’s death. At first they grill Serena but she successfully evades their questions. They then focus on Porgy. He professes no knowledge of Crown’s death, but is forced to go with the police to identify the body. Sportin’ Life has been observing the proceedings, and as soon as Porgy is taken into custody he begins to work on the vulnerable Bess. He tells her Porgy will be locked up and gives her drugs. He urges her to go to New York and then leaves more drugs on her doorstep. He walks away confident that Bess will yield.
Porgy remains in jail for several days. He returns to Catfish Row in high spirits carrying presents bought with money he won in crap games. Everyone feels awkward and embarrassed because Bess has left for New York with Sportin’ Life. When Porgy realizes Bess is not there, he calls for her desperately. His friends tell him where she’s gone. He decides quickly to go after her and sets off on his journey with resolution, secure in the knowledge that God will help him find his Bess.
About the Composer
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
George Gershwin, born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898, began his musical training at thirteen. “Swanee,” popularized by Al Jolson in 1919, brought Gershwin his first real fame. In 1924, when George teamed up with his older brother Ira, “the Gershwins” became the dominant Broadway songwriters, creating brisk, infectious rhythm numbers and affectingly poignant ballads, invariably fashioning the words to fit the melodies with a “glove-like” fidelity. This extraordinary collaboration led to a succession of musical comedies, among them Lady, Be Good! (1924), Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927 & 1930), Girl Crazy (1930), and Of Thee I Sing (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. Over the years, Gershwin songs have also been used in numerous films including Shall We Dance (1937), A Damsel in Distress (1937) and An American in Paris (1951). Later years produced the award-winning stage musicals My One and Only (1983) and Crazy for You (1992) which ran four years on Broadway.
Starting with his early days as a composer of songs, Gershwin had ambitions to compose serious music. Rhapsody in Blue (1924) caught the public’s fancy and opened a new era in American music. Many feel that the Concerto in F (1925) is Gershwin’s finest orchestral work. Others opt for his An American in Paris (1928) or his Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra.
Porgy and Bess (co-written with DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin) was the Gershwin brothers’ most ambitious undertaking, tightly integrating unforgettable songs with dramatic incident. Porgy and Bess opened its Broadway run on October 10th, 1935. The opera had major revivals in 1942, 1952, 1976 and 1983 and toured the world. It was made into a major motion picture by Samuel Goldwyn in 1959. Trevor Nunn’s landmark Glyndeboune Opera production was taped for television in 1993.
In 1937, George Gershwin was at the height of his career. It was in Hollywood, while he was working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that George Gershwin collapsed and died of a brain tumor; he was not quite 39 years old.
Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)
Ira Gershwin, the first songwriter to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize (with George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind for Of Thee I Sing), was born on December 6, 1896 in New York City.
His first stage success came under the pseudonym Arthur Francis (taken from the first names of the two younger Gershwin siblings) when he wrote the lyrics to Vincent Youmans’ score for the 1921 musical Two Little Girls in Blue. With his brother George, Ira hit his stride with Lady, Be Good! in 1924, followed by such major works as Oh, Kay!, Strike Up The Band, Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing and Porgy and Bess (with DuBose and Dorothy Heyward). In 1936, the Gershwins went to Hollywood for what became their final collaborations: Shall We Dance, A Damsel In Distress and The Goldwyn Follies. In the years following George’s death in 1937, Ira was instrumental in the creation of two additional Gershwin film scores: The Shocking Miss Pilgrim and Kiss Me, Stupid. With the success of the “new” Gershwin musicals My One and Only and Crazy for You, Ira’s lyrics have been re-discovered by new generations.
Ira also successfully collaborated on films, Broadway shows, and individual songs with other major songwriters, including Harold Arlen, Aaron Copland, Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern, Burton Lane, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren and Kurt Weill. Ira’s book, the acclaimed Lyrics On Several Occasions, was published in 1959.
As important to Ira as his work as a lyricist were his activities as the keeper of the Gershwin flame, attending to the details of his brother's estate and supervising, for donation to the Library of Congress, the organization and annotation of manuscripts pertaining to their careers.
Ira Gershwin died on August 17, 1983 at his home in Beverly Hills, California where he had lived with his wife, Leonore Strunsky Gershwin, for over 40 years.
Photos: Virginia Opera - Porgy and Bess, Anne M. Peterson
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