By George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO THE OPERA LOOK-IN Synopsis Selected Act I – Catfish Row, South Carolina, 1950s Characters from It is evening in Catfish Row, an African-American crowded, waterfront Porgy and Bess section of town in Charleston, South Carolina. Jasbo Brown is playing the blues on the piano as people dance. Clara sings a lullaby (“Summertime”) to her baby while streetwise Sportin’ Life, Clara’s husband Jake, Mingo, Robbins, and some of the other men are gambling. Porgy, who is dis- abled, enters. The game gets heated as tensions rise a shopkeeper between losers and winners. Maria- (contralto) The big bully, Crown, kills Robbins, leaving his girl- friend, Bess, behind. Sportin’ Porgy- a disabled beggar (bass-baritone) Life then asks Bess to go to New York with him, but she refuses. Helpless, Bess looks for a safe place to hide, but the religious women of Catfish Row close their doors to her. Only Porgy will give her shelter when the police arrive. The community raises money for Robbins’ funeral. Local resident Peter is arrested for killing Robbins. The undertaker con- soles Robbins’ wife, Serena, by promising to give Robbins a decent burial. Sportin’ Life- the neigh- Act II – Catfish Row, one month later borhood hustler (tenor) Bess- Crown’s girlfriend (soprano) Jake and the fisherman get ready to take Jake’s boat out. Clara begs her husband not to go. Porgy leans out his window singing “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’.” As the rest of Catfish Row gets ready for a picnic on Kittiwah Island, Sportin’ Life again tries to tempt Bess to go with him to New York. She refuses. Porgy warns him to stay away from Bess. Sportin’ Life leaves. Porgy sings “Bess, You Is My Woman.” Everyone is excit- Mingo- a Catfish Clara- Jake’s wife ed about the picnic. Porgy and Row resident (tenor) (soprano) Maria encourage Bess to go to the picnic. Unable to make the trip, Synopsis continued Composer Porgy remains home, but is content with his newfound happiness with Bess. At the picnic, the Catfish Row community has a won- derful time. The Catfish Row residents are entertained by Sportin’ Life until Serena steps in. As everyone is leaving the island, Crown comes out of hiding to take Bess back. Bess fights with Crown and tells him that she is Porgy’s woman now. Unable to resist Crown, Bess misses the boat back to Catfish Row. A week later, Peter is released from jail, yet he never knows why he was arrested. Bess has returned home feverish from Kittiwah Island. Serena prays for her Courtesy of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts.Courtesy of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Used by permission. health. Bess wakes from her fever, talks with Porgy, George Gershwin at the piano, "putting the last note to and then expresses her love for him (“I Loves You, Porgy and Bess," taken at George's apartment in New York, 1935. Porgy”). Porgy promises to protect her from Crown. The hurricane alarm bell sounds. George Gershwin (1898-1937) The community huddles in Serena’s room during the th storm. The door bursts open and Crown is standing in George Gershwin was born at the end of the 19 cen- th the doorway. The community prays to make Crown tury, during the term of William McKinley, the 25 leave. Jake’s boat turns upside down in the river. President of the United States. Born Jacob Gershowitz Clara hands her baby to Bess and rushes out into the in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1898, George storm calling for Jake. Bess calls out for a man to go was the son of immigrants who came to the United after Clara. Crown says that Porgy is not a real man, States from St. Petersburg, Russia. When he was six since he cannot rescue Clara. Then, Crown goes out years old, George Gershwin was captivated by Anton into the storm. The other residents of Catfish Row Rubinstein’s Melodie in F, which he heard played on a pray for the storm to end. piano roll (an automatic piano) in a Harlem penny arcade (like today’s video arcades). At Public School Act III – Catfish Row, the next evening 25, he listened to fellow student Maxie Rosenzweig, It is the night after the hurricane. The residents of who was eight at the time, playing Antonín Dvorˇák’s Catfish Row sing a prayer for all those lost in the Humoresque on the violin. Gershwin would later talk storm—Clara, Jake, and Crown. As Crown sneaks back about this powerful moment: “It was, to me, a flashing to Catfish Row, Porgy catches him by surprise and kills revelation of beauty.” him. When George was 13, the Gershwin family purchased a The police detective wants Porgy to identify Crown’s secondhand piano for George’s older brother, Ira. At body. Porgy is arrested. Sportin’ Life tells age 15, George was offered a job in Broadway’s famed Bess that Porgy will be locked up for a “Tin Pan Alley” playing the piano to sell songs. By the long time and that she should begin a time George was 18, his first original song was pub- new life with him in New York (“There’s lished. In addition to Porgy and Bess, his most famous A Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon For New works include Rhapsody in Blue and the songs “’S York”). Bess is upset, but finally Wonderful” and “I Got Rhythm.” agrees to go to New York. Porgy and Bess opened in 1935 in New York and Porgy returns from jail. He does not Boston to mixed reviews. Two years later, just weeks th understand why the people look so before his 39 birthday, George Gershwin passed sad. He calls for Bess but she does away in Hollywood, California, on July 11, 1937. not answer. Frantic, he cries out to her. Maria and Serena tell him that Bess was tricked by Sportin’ Life and ran off with him to New York. Porgy does not give up on Bess. He leaves for New York to find Bess (“Oh Lawd, I’m On My Way”). 2 Courtesy of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts. Used by permission. (L to R) Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin, their younger brother Arthur Gershwin, and their cousin, Rose Lagowitz. A 1912 photograph, taken at Coney Island. (L to R) George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin. 1935. Courtesy of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts.Courtesy of the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Used by permission. Lyricist Librettists Ira Gershwin (1896-1983) DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) and Dorothy Heyward (1890-1961) Born in New York’s Lower East Side on December 6, 1896 as Israel Gershowitz, Ira Gershwin started to On August 31, 1885, Heyward was born Edwin write lyrics while he was a student at Townsend Harris DuBose Heyward in Charleston, South Carolina. He High School in New York. In 1918, Ira began using a was the son of a mill hand from an upper class pen name, Arthur Frances, after the first name of his Southern family, once-wealthy plantation owners who youngest brother and the first name of his only sister. lost their money after the Civil War. DuBose attended Not until 1924, when the Gershwin brothers wrote the both private and public schools, but began working at musical, Lady, Be Good!, was Ira ready to create the the age of 14 in a hardware store. As a young man, long-standing collaboration with George and drop his DuBose also worked as a checker for a steamship com- pen name. pany alongside stevedores (people who load and Ira received many nominations of excellence from the unload ships, like Crown in Porgy and Bess). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Frequently sick as a child, DuBose contracted polio Oscars), and even received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama when he was 18. Always interested in literature, he for writing the musical comedy Of Thee I Sing in 1932. passed the time in his sickbed writing verses, stories, This was the first musical to ever win the Pulitzer and poetry. At 21, DuBose and a friend organized a Prize. The final project on which the Gershwin broth- real estate and insurance company. Once he had the ers worked together was Porgy and Bess. financial resources to support his writing, DuBose After the passing of his brother, Ira went on to collabo- started to pursue his writing more seriously. rate with more composers. Before his own death, Ira DuBose’s first major published work was Porgy created the Gershwin Archive at the Library of (1925), the book that inspired the opera. The Congress to preserve the Gershwin works. Ira Heywards’ stage adaptation of Porgy opened in 1927. Gershwin died in his Beverly Hills, California, home on Dorothy Heyward wrote other plays including South August 17, 1983. Pacific (1943), which later became a famous musical. The First Porgy and Bess George Gershwin knew that selecting the singers for Porgy and Bess would not be easy. His music required vocalists who had classical training, but were also comfortable singing jazz rhythms and tones. After having traveled nationwide to hear singers, Mr. Gershwin invited the opera singer, Todd Duncan, to his apartment to audition for the role of Porgy. After Mr. Duncan sang just twelve bars of the Italian art song, “Lungi dal caro bene,” Gershwin asked him, “Will you be my Porgy?” That was it! George Gershwin found his Bess in Anne Wiggins Brown.