Berliner Philharmoniker / Cape Town Opera Voice of the Nation Chorus

Gershwin’s opera is based on the novel Porgy (1925) by Edwin Du Bose Heyward, and its Pulitzer Prize-winning stage version from 1927. The action is set in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1870, and depicts the Afro-Americans’ tough struggle for survival. Even after the abolition of slavery, they did not find themselves in the Promised Land. They were still socially disadvantaged and subjected to acts of violence. In the three acts of his full-length opera, Gershwin reworked the traditional music of Afro-American culture – spirituals, blues, ragtime and jazz - imitating these various musical styles without using actual samples. The composer convincingly transferred characteristic melodic turns, phrasings, harmonies and rhythms to operatic voices and orchestral parts. As the composer explained, “Porgy and Bess is a folk tale. (…) When I first began work on the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folk songs. But they are still folk music – and therefore, being in operatic form, Porgy and Bess becomes a folk opera.”

Over a decade since making his landmark recording of this great American opera, Sir Simon Rattle finally conducts the work in Berlin. In this performance, exclusively prepared for Musikfest Berlin 2012, the Berlin Philharmonic meets the Cape Town Opera Voice of the Nation Chorus and an outstanding ensemble of soloists led by Measha Brueggersgosman and the legendary Sir Willard White in the title roles. Porgy and Bess is a co-production of the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation (Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker) and the Berliner Festspiele/Musikfest Berlin.

www.berliner-philharmoniker.de
www.capetownopera.co.za