GEORGE GERSHWIN: PORGY AND BESS

---

Opera in three acts, libretto by DuBose Heyward
With Greek subtitles
Run time 3 hours and 30 minutes (1 interval)

---

George Gershwin’s remarkable opera Porgy and Bess, returns for the first time since 1990 in a new production, directed by James Robinson, which is debuting at the Met. An “American folk opera”, as its creators styled it, it tells the story of the crippled beggar Porgy, here played by Eric Owens, and his beloved Bess, a drug addict played by Angel Blue. David Robertson conducts a brilliant group of performers, who include Donovan Singletary in the role of the fisherman Jake, Golda Schultz as his wife Clara, Latonia Moore as the grieving widow Serena, Frederick Ballentine as the drug dealer Sportin’ Life, Alfred Walker in the role of the muscular stevedore Crown and Denyce Graves as Maria, matriarch of the town and owner of a local cookshop. Packed with well-known tunes such as the eternal favourites Summertime, It Ain’t Necessarily So, Bess, You Is My Woman Now, I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin and My Man’s Gone Now, this new co-production with the English National Opera and the Dutch National Opera was a triumphant hit when it premiered this season in London.