NEW PRODUCTION /FIRST TIME IN HD
By George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess returns to the Met for the first time since 1990, in a new
production directed by James Robinson in his company debut. America’s “folk opera,” as the
1935 creators described it, tells the story of disabled beggar Porgy, sung by Eric Owens, and
his love for the drug-addicted Bess, portrayed by Angel Blue. David Robertson conducts a
stellar cast that also includes Donovan Singletary as fisherman Jake, Golda Schultz as his
wife Clara, Latonia Moore as the bereaved widow Serena, Frederick Ballentine as drug
dealer Sportin’ Life, Alfred Walker as the brutal stevedore Crown, and Denyce Graves as
Maria, town matriarch and operator of the local cook-shop.
Infused with the timeless melodies of the much-loved classics “Summertime,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin,” and “My Man’s Gone Now,” the new co-production with English National Opera and Dutch National Opera was hailed as a triumph at its
premiere in London earlier this year.
