Porgy & Bess: Affirmative Action for Opera?

So after our chat on Monday, I went over to Grove and Wikipedia and did a little reading on the subject.

The original version of Porgy and Bess was intended as a "folk opera." Gershwin planned it to be his life's work in order to acknowledge the influence of African American music on his own writing style. It was first performed on Broadway with major cuts in order to help the singers make it through the nightly runs. It wasn't until 1976 that the full score would be performed by the Houston Grand Opera. Until then, Porgy and Bess had a really rough road.

First off, both the novel and the “folk opera” were written by white men who were trying to depict the lives of a specific set of people in South Carolina. They were criticized by both Virgil Thomson and Duke Ellington who stated, “the times are here to debunk Gershwin’s lampblack Negroisms.” Many of the cast members had concerns with the characters they were to portray. The Civil Rights and Black Power movements also worked to keep Porgy and Bess off the stages. Actors would refuse to play the parts in film as well.

Ira Gershwin stipulated that only blacks play the lead roles and prevented several all-white productions of the opera from taking place in South Africa. However, in 2009 Cape Town Opera set the story in 1970’s Soweto with a “mostly” black South African cast and toured Britain. Many of the actors in this production actually identified with the characters they portrayed. In an article found here an interview with Xolela Sixaba (Porgy), he states “What is happening here on stage is what really happened in South Africa.” Lisa Daltrius, and American singer who played Bess in the same production says, “I think we’ve got a little jaded in the US with Porgy and Bess. A lot of people just think that this is a show that is lovely to listen to and happened way back when. They’re not thinking that you can still find places where this is real. And if we’re not careful we could be right back there.”

So…I’m thinking after all this reading, “If it’s a folk opera depicting the lives of people who were being oppressed at the time it was written, why can’t it be used as a social message for other groups as well?” If Cape Town Opera can find a way to make it relevant to apartheid era South Africa, why couldn’t anyone else find a way to make it relevant in other places? With other people? I keep thinking, “Ira wanted an all black cast. He insisted upon it. But does that mean he couldn’t be persuaded in changing in his mind if the social message is the same?” The jazz idiom prized so highly by George Gershwin has come a long way and crossed over into so many different people’s lives. We consider it now the only truly “American” music because of its origins. I think a production even with a mixed cast that is brought together because of their social and economical hardships could be just as moving as an all African American cast, if not more so because of the bond that would cross racial boundaries. I think both Gershwins would’ve been surprised had they lived long enough to see Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever” in 1991, when I remember interracial relationships were still a very hot topic. I think Porgy and Bess has the right to evolve alongside those of Mozart and Puccini that are still staged today because of their timeless stories.