Preview: Porgy and Bess

Published on 14/06/2012 14:39

CATFISH Row, deep in the south of 1920’s America, is known to opera lovers everywhere as home to Porgy And Bess.

Not any more. Following their acclaimed 2009 tour, Cape Town Opera returns to Edinburgh tomorrow with its unique production of Porgy And Bess, which sees the action relocated to the depression-ravaged townships of Soweto.

Written in 1935, the musical boasts some of the most stirring songs of its time, including Summertime, I Got Plenty of Nuttin’, It Ain’t Necessarily So, and I Loves You Porgy.

With music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Heyward, Porgy And Bess is now regarded as one of the greatest pieces of American theatre, but it wasn’t always like that and the work was not recognised as a legitimate opera in the US until 1976.

Cape Town Opera have since made the story of the disabled beggar in search of love, hope and happiness amid a world of poverty and hardship, their own.

Porgy And Bess, Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street, tomorrow-Saturday, 7.30pm (Saturday matinee 2pm) £30-£45, www.fctt.org.uk