The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess can be considered the quintessential American opera of the 20th century. This particular performance is special, however, because it would be showcasing the fruits of the SMTD’s Gershwin Initiative for the first time. George Gershwin died prematurely at 38 and left a trail of hard-to-read handwritten scores that often led to inconsistent musical interpretation. The Gershwin Initiative is a conservation project that aims to analyze and reproduce Gershwin’s work in the way he would’ve wanted it to be shown. Porgy and Bess will be including classics such as “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” “My Man’s Gone Now,” “Summertime” (listen to an amazing Al Jarreau cover here) and “It Ain’t Necessarily So” (I played this for an ABRSM piano exam).
Porgy and Bess will be performed on Saturday February 17 in the historic Hill Auditorium.
