Scene from “Porgy and Bess” at the 2017 Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York, featuring Musa Ngqungwana as Porgy and Talise Trevigne as Bess (photo by Karli Cadel)
The production, part of 250th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence, marks the Lyric’s first presentation of the iconic opera
As the country prepares for its semiquincentennial, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City brings one of the most iconic American operas to the Kauffman Theatre stage.
“Porgy and Bess,” with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, premiered in 1935. The script was adapted by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, based on the novel “Porgy” by DuBose Heyward, published in 1925.
“I think it’s one of the American masterpieces, as far as an opera goes,” said baritone Eric Greene, who has performed the opera more 100 times.
Set in Charleston, South Carolina’s Cannery Row, the story is simultaneously timeless and relevant to today. Just as the score combines elements of jazz and classical music, the story blends harsh realities and sublime ideals.
“It’s a great American story,” said Deborah Sandler Kemper, general director and CEO of Lyric Opera of Kansas City. In 2026, Lyric Opera will present works that “celebrate our country and our country’s history,” said Sandler Kemper. (Along with “Porgy and Bess,” this season Lyric Opera also presents Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men.”)
This is the first time Lyric Opera has presented “Porgy and Bess.” The company had scheduled the opera for the 2020/2021 season but was forced to cancel the production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, they were able to honor most of the previous contracts for the cast assembled this time around.
“We’re bringing a lot of phenomenal performers to us,” said Sandler Kemper. Many of the cast will make their Lyric Opera debuts.
This production, originally presented at the Washington National Opera in 2005, is directed by Francesca Zambello. Zambello’s works are familiar to Lyric Opera patrons from productions of “The Sound of Music,” “La Traviata” and “West Side Story” in recent years.
Baritone Eric Greene has worked with Zambello on many occasions, in multiple performances of “Porgy and Bess.” He first worked with her with Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera, playing Jake. With San Francisco Opera, his performance as Jake is immortalized on DVD (Eric Owens performed the title role). Then with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Greene performed the role of the opera’s
villain, Crown.
And while this is Greene’s Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut, this is not the first time he’s performed Porgy, having premiered the role in a different production with the English National Opera and then with MusikTheater an der Wien, in Austria.
“To come back to this production, the same production and the same Porgy, it feels really like a full circle moment for me,” said Greene, who first studied the opera as an apprentice with Virginia Opera. “I remember hearing some of the veterans say, ‘All of the great Porgys started off as Jake.’”
In the story, Jake is the most upstanding, “the hope of the whole community,” said Greene, while Crown is “the most stained.” The character of Porgy sits somewhere in between.
“Porgy has so many layers to him,” Greene said. “We hear the yearning and the pain in the voice of his melodies … we listen to the words, and we begin to try to make sense of who this man is. Why, why is his cry so loud? Why, why is his pain so deep? What is his longing? What are the things that make him the most human?
“What they said about the role of Porgy sort of came true for me, to go through the two other roles to get to Porgy, growing up within that particular opera. There’s not many operas that people say has that kind of a tradition with it,” said Greene. While Porgy is a favored role for him, he also enjoys playing a range of characters, like Rigoletto and Wotan.
Michelle Bradley is Bess to Greene’s Porgy, making her Lyric Opera debut and role debut. The award- winning soprano has performed globally in title roles for “Tosca” and “Aida,” as well as Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni,” Liù in “Turandot,” Leonora in “Il Travatore,” and concert work with performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Verdi’s Requiem, among other engagements.
The rest of the cast, though new to Kansas City, are established names in both the Gershwin and greater opera universes: Donovan Singletary (Crown), Jermaine Smith (Sportin’ Life), Brandie Sutton (Clara), Norman Garrett (Jake), Katerina Burton (Serena) and La’Shelle Allen (Maria).
Michael Ellis Ingram, chief conductor for the Staatsoperette Dresden, also makes his Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut, conducting the Kansas City Symphony.
While typically the Lyric Opera practices colorblind casting — “we look for the best person to sing any role at any given time,” said Sandler Kemper — with this opera, the Gershwin estate stipulates it must be performed exclusively by Black performers.
Not only are the principals Black, but the opera requires an all-Black chorus, too. The Lyric Opera worked with Black community leaders in the arts, schools and churches to recruit local singers, many of whom had never sung with the Lyric Opera before. (Anecdotally, the director of the 1935 chorus, Eva Jessye, attended college in Kansas City, Kansas, at the now defunct Western University, the first HBCU west of the Mississippi River. She also directed the chorus in subsequent productions.)
Though this production has been modified and tweaked over the last two decades, it retains the essence and details of the 2005 version, with set design by Peter J. Davison, costumes by Paul Tazwell and lighting design by Mark McCullough.
In preparing for this opera, Lyric Opera has also worked closely with community groups in the area. Artists will visit schools, along with “Opera Dives Deep” programs for adults, and community engagement events.
Following “Porgy and Bess,” Lyric Opera continues to explore the art of Black Americans, developing a new presentation based on the life and poetry of Langston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance writer and poet (and Gershwin contemporary), born in Joplin, Missouri, and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. “We will be bringing this program into community spaces,” said Sandler Kemper, “so we’ll be at libraries, we’ll be at community centers, and we’ll be in the schools.”
Alyson Cambridge, who performed with LOKC in “The Sound of Music,” is curating the music and directing. The cast features Lyric Opera’s resident artists.
Though many of the songs from “Porgy and Bess,” like “Summertime,” have permeated the national imagination, Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s presentation, with an influx of new voices, brings to Kansas City a fresh perspective on this American masterpiece.
Lyric Opera of Kansas City presents “Porgy and Bess” at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 6, and at 2 p.m. March 8 at the Kauffman Center. For more information visit kcopera.org.
