Porgy and Bess, produced in 1935, is the American composer George Gershwin's only full-length opera. Its libretto is based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy. Gershwin read the book when touring his own 1926 musical Oh Kay !. At the time he and his lyricist brother, Ira, were successful songwriters, creators of such show-stoppers as Fascinating Rhythm and They Can't Take That Away From Me.
George's music was influenced by black American musical traditions. His 1922 one-act opera Blue Monday (later renamed 135th St. ) about Negro life was orchestrated by the black musician Will Vodery. Contacting Heyward in 1932, he referred to Porgy, by this time adapted for the stage, as ΓÇ£the most outstanding play that I know about the coloured people ". It was to offer him the perfect setting for the marriage of "serious" music and jazz which makes Porgy and Bess unique in the operatic repertoire.
In 1933 George first visited Charleston, South Carolina to work with Heyward and Ira on the libretto and lyrics. The following year he auditioned Todd Duncan, who was to create the role of Porgy. George and Ira, singing in what Duncan called ΓÇ£their awful, rotten, bad voices" performed the score to George's piano accompaniment. Initially the singer was appalled. Then he realised that he was being offered the chance of a lifetime.
It took twenty months to compose and orchestrate the opera. It premiered in Boston and opened in New York on October 10th 1935. Although it ran until January 25th 1936, it was not well received. The Gershwins, however, never lost faith in it. In 1937, when they were working in Hollywood on film scores, they pushed constantly for a film version to be made.
Revivals in the 1940s and 50s, after George's death, lessened expensive rehearsal time by replacing recitative by dialogue. The first European performance was in Copenhagen in 1943. An early 1950s revival, which launched the career of the singer Leontyne Price, toured widely in Europe and America. The piece is now established as part of the operatic repertoire.
