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Analysis Of George Gershwin's 'Porgy And Bess'

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Today, we face the strenuous decision whether to stage or not the controversial opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin. This opera was first exposed to the world on September 30, 1935. It is a love story between Porgy the crippled beggar, and Bess, an addicted woman, as she falls under his mercy when her partner, Crown, kills a man from the community. Since the beginning of this story located in Catfish Row, the tainted mansion in North Carolina, the aficionados have established a disagreement that still causes discomfiture. The controversy was brought to light by Gershwin when he created an opera primarily for a white audience with only African American singers, something new for his time. Gershwin, touched by Dubose Heyward’s 1925 novel …show more content…

Remarkably, it is not changing it that disrupts the opera’s objective. As Gwynne Brown analyzes, “Porgy and Bess relies on African American performers to accept, inhabit, and essentially complete the work.” When Gershwin staged his work, he rigorously searched for a malleable piece that each performer could tune recognizing his limitations. The composer was looking for a collaboration between cast members, directors, members of the Gullah culture, Heyward and himself. Moreover, he wrote this piece by carefully analyzing the music and African American costumes, even traveling to Charlotte and being open to suggestions from the singers as they performed. Interestingly, Gershwin’s idea was to portray an African American Folk Opera, showing their culture, but his idea has grown through the decades, to become part of the American identity. Considering it is an American symbol , our version can show the nation’s core values by uniting the races, as the states united to create this country. We should work to portray in the opera the diversity and freedom that characterize this country. Our Porgy and Bess could become a symbol of the unification of races, allowing the broadening of perspectives of Americans. Then, how do we fashion our standing efforts comprehensible for this

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