Performing Arts Fort Worth Presents PORGY AND BESS 3/3-4

Performing Arts Fort Worth presents The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at Bass Performance Hall on Wednesday and Thursday, March 3-4, 2010, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $30-$65 and are on sale now. Tickets for students with valid IDs are $10.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of George Gershwin's enduring opera classic, a new production of Porgy and Bess has been mounted - with the full approval of the Gershwin estate - by veteran opera producer Michael Capasso, the general director of New York's vibrant Dicapo Opera.
"It has long been a dream of mine to produce this quintessentially American operatic classic," Capasso says. "And I hope and trust that audiences all across the country will share my enthusiasm for this new production of George Gershwin's true masterpiece."

Porgy and Bess is directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, writer and director of the 2009 film, Mama, I Want to Sing; conducted by music director Pacien Mazzagatti; and produced in association with Willette Murphy Klausner, also the producer of Three Mo' Tenors.

Passion, jealousy, murder and poverty make up the heady brew of this evocative story. Porgy, a downtrodden but generous beggar, haunts the streets known as "Catfish Row," a poor district of early 20th century segregated Charleston, South Carolina. Ardently in love with the prostitute Bess, Porgy has to share his affections with her violent former lover Crown and the roguish suitor Sportin' Life.

Written by George Gershwin to a libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess has enjoyed spectacular fame all over the world since its first modest production in New York City in October, 1935. This operatic masterpiece has spawned a string of hit songs that have become international icons of the American tradition, including "Summertime," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' " and "It Ain't Necessarily So."

Although Gershwin had hoped for Porgy and Bess to be premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, his plans were thwarted by the sudden death of Metropolitan Opera Board Chairman Otto Kahn. The opera toured Europe and North and South America throughout the 1950s, and it was the first work by an American to be produced at La Scala in Milan, Italy. It enjoyed tremendous success at the Vienna Volksoper, Leningrad's Palace of Culture, and London's Stoll Theatre, and it was this tour that launched the career of Leontyne Price.

In its 75-year history, no other opera or musical has employed more African-Americans. The opera, over the years, also helped launch the careers of such legendary singers and actors as Price, William Warfield, Cab Calloway and Maya Angelou. Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge starred in the 1959 film adaptation of Porgy and Bess, which won an Oscar, a Grammy® and a Golden Globe.
The cast for the 75th anniversary production includes Leonard Rowe (Porgy); Donita Volkwijn and Kishna Davis (both as Bess); Reyna Carguill (Serena); Phillip Boykin (Crown); and Reggie Whitehead (Sportin' Life).

To charge tickets by phone, call (817) 212-4280 in Fort Worth; 1-877-212-4280 (toll free) outside Fort Worth; or order online at www.basshall.com. Tickets are also available at the Bass Performance Hall ticket office at 525 Commerce Street. Ticket office hours: Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

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