The Gershwins'® Porgy and Bess®, opera

Event accessible

Porgy and Bess echoes the French operas of Ravel and Debussy that Cecilia Bartoli has been programming at the Monte-Carlo Opera since the start of her tenure. George Gershwin's admiration for Ravel can be heard clearly in his piano concertos, while Ravel himself was impressed by Gershwin's compositions and, more broadly, fascinated by American popular music, which was introduced to France in the 1920s by figures such as Josephine Baker.

From "Summertime" to jazz rhythms and even the street cries that Gershwin heard during a study trip to Charleston, all these elements shape the sound palette of his only opera. Yet the work's evocative power, the inventiveness of its orchestration, the strength of its choruses and the dramatic intensity of the solo arias are all rooted directly in the legacy of the European Impressionist and verismo traditions.

At the heart of the drama lies the impossible love between the disabled beggar Porgy and the beautiful Bess, who is a victim both of a former lover and of the "happy dust" offered to her by a drug dealer as seductive as he is demonic.

Opera in three acts

Music by George Gershwin (1898–1937)

Libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, based on the play Porgy by DuBose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward

World premiere: Boston, Colonial Theatre, 30 September 1935

New production

As part of Monaco National Day celebrations