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Racial Controversy
From the outset, the opera's depiction of African
Americansattractedcontroversy. Problems with the racial aspects of
the opera continue to this
day. Virgil homson, a white American composer, stated that
!Fol"loresub#ects recounted by an outsider are only valid as long
as the fol" in$uestion is unable to spea" for itself, which is
certainly not true of theAmerican %egro in &().! *u"e
+llingtonstated !the times are here todebun" ershwin's lampblac"
%egroisms.! -+llington's response to the &)/reen revival was,
however, almost completely the opposite. 0is telegram tothe
producer read1 !2our Porgy and /ess the superbest, singing the
gonest,acting the cra3iest, ershwin the greatest.!4 5everal of the
members of theoriginal cast later stated that they, too, had
concerns that their charactersmight play into a stereotypethat
African Americans lived in poverty, too"drugs and solved their
problems with their 6sts.
A planned production by the %egro Repertory Company of 5eattle
in the late&(7s, part of the Federal heatre Pro#ect, was
cancelled because actorswere displeased with what they viewed as a
racistportrayal of aspects ofAfrican American life. he director
initially envisioned that they wouldperform the play in a
!%egrodialect.! hese Paci6c %orthwestAfricanAmerican actors, who
did not spea" in such dialect, would be coached in it.Florence
8ames attempted a compromise of dropping the use of dialect butthe
production was canceled.
Another production of Porgy and /ess, this time at the
9niversity of
:innesotain &(, ran into similar troubles. According to
/arbara Cyrus, oneof the few blac" students then at the university,
members of the localAfrican;American community saw the play as
!detrimental to the race! andas a vehicle that promoted racist
stereotypes. he play was cancelled due topressure from the
African;American community, which saw their success asproof of the
increasing political power of blac"s in :inneapolis
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there was a single blac" person, of those who had never been
associatedwith Porgy, who didn't seriously bad;mouth it.!
%evertheless, a cast wasassembled of African American classically
trained performers from all aroundthe country.
ershwin's all;blac" opera was also unpopular with some
celebrated blac"artists. 0arry /elafontedeclined to play Porgy in
the late &)7s 6lm version,so the role went to 5idney Poitier.
/etty Allen, president of he 0arlem5chool of the Arts, admittedly
loathed the piece, and race /umbry, whoeBcelled in the &)
:etropolitan pera production as /ess, made the oftencited
statement1
@ thought it beneath me, @ felt @ had wor"ed far too hard, that
we had comefar too far to have to retrogress to &(). :y way of
dealing with it was to seethat it was really a piece of Americana,
of American history, whether we li"edit or not. ?hether @ sing it
or not, it was still going to be there
ver time, however, the opera gained acceptance from the opera
communityand some -though not all4 in the African;American
community. :auricePeress stated in 77D that !Porgy and /ess belongs
as much to the blac"singer;actors who bring it to life as it does
to the 0eywards and theershwins.! @ndeed, @ra ershwin stipulated
that only blac"s be allowed toplay the lead roles when the opera
was performed in the 9nited 5tates,launching the careers of several
prominent opera singers.
hat ershwin sought to write a true #a33 opera, and that he
believed that:etropolitan perastaE singers could never master the
#a33 idiom, but could
instead only be sung by a blac" cast, seems to indicate he did
not intend thewor" to belittle African;Americans. 5ome blac"
singers were over#oyed atershwin's wor" going so far as to describe
him as the !Abraham incoln of%egro music.G he source of much of the
racial controversy seems to arisefrom the miscegenation of
ershwin's #a33 eBperience. ershwin wrote Porgythrough an idiom of
#a33 that was inHuenced by ?estern +uropean operatraditions,
African;American music, and Russian;8ewish music.
*uring the era of apartheid in 5outh Africa, several 5outh
African theatrecompanies planned to put on all;white productions of
Porgy and /ess. @raershwin, as heir to his brother, consistently
refused to permit these
productions to be staged. /ut in 77, Cape own pera's production,
set in&>7s 5outh Africa and inspired by life in 5oweto,
toured /ritain, opening atthe ?ales :illennium Centrein CardiE and
going on to the Royal Festival 0allin ondon and +dinburgh Festival
heatre. :ost of the cast were blac" 5outhAfricansI American singers
involved in the production have found the!passionate identi6cation
with the opera! by the 5outh African singers !awa"e;up call.G
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafontehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitierhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harlem_School_of_the_Artshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harlem_School_of_the_Artshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Bumbryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Operahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_Operahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_Operahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sowetohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales_Millennium_Centrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Festival_Hallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Festival_Theatrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafontehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitierhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harlem_School_of_the_Artshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harlem_School_of_the_Artshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Bumbryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Operahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_Operahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sowetohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales_Millennium_Centrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Festival_Hallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Festival_Theatre
