Porgy and Bess Program [pdf] - American Repertory Theater

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program notes (continued)
Pearl Bailey, reviews cite the film’s “loss of
authenticity” from the stage versions.
June 25, 1970:
Municipal
Auditorium,
Charleston, South
Carolina
As a featured event
in Charleston’s Tricentennial
celebration,
Porgy and Bess is performed
in the town of its
setting for the first time.
1959 Porgy and Bess
film poster
September 26, 1976:
Houston Grand Opera, Texas
Directors Jack O’Brien and John DeMain restore
many of the cuts that had been made to Porgy
and Bess since the Boston opening in 1935.
This expanded three-hour production becomes
the first opera to win a Tony Award.
February 6, 1985:
Metropolitan Opera, New York City
Fifty years after the premiere, Anne Brown and Todd
Duncan meet with the leads, Simon Estes and Grace
Bumbry, of the Metropolitan Opera production, 1985
Fifty years after its Broadway premiere, Porgy
and Bess is finally performed at the Met. The
production features Grace Bumbry and Simon
Estes in the title roles. James Levine, who
served as music director and conductor for
the production, describes Porgy and Bess as
having “everything great opera has—great
music, great drama and a psychological and
social milieu that is as involving as the milieu
of Don Giovanni or Boris Godunov.”
July 5, 1986:
Glyndebourne Festival, England
British director Trevor Nunn mounts a nearly
four-hour production, which is later scenically
expanded and filmed for television in 1993.
The George and Ira Gershwin
Collection, Library of Congress
Winnie Klotz, photographer,
Metropolitan Opera Association, Inc.,
Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023