07/04/15 – Porgy and Bess – 1pm

Lyric Opera of Chicago

• by The Gershwins
• Porgy and Bess
  by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin
  In English with projected English texts
• Approximate running time: 3hrs, 10 min

Redemption is hard to find.

Porgy and Bess is the great American opera — bursting with iconic songs that have moved easily into the worlds of jazz and pop, becoming hits again for generation after generation. Six years after its triumphant Lyric debut, Francesca Zambello’s big, beautiful, epic production returns with its finely etched portrait of life in Catfish Row — a vibrant but impoverished African-American community on the South Carolina coast.

There’s Crown, the brutish thug; Sportin’ Life, the smooth-talking drug peddler; Bess, the good-time girl who finally finds love with the goodhearted Porgy; and Porgy himself, the lame beggar who’s the strongest of them all — an unquenchable spirit who’ll stop at nothing to reclaim the woman he loves.

Lyric Opera Presentation. Generous sponsors are the Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust, The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust, Cherryl T. Thomas and Ardmore Associates, and Roberta L. and Robert J. Washlow with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Production owned by Washington National Opera.

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Starring

• 

  Porgy

  Eric Owens

  Eric Owens: From the Met to Covent Garden, this Grammy Award-winning star “is a powerhouse baritone.” (The New York Times) In his grandiose performance “the famous melodies written for Porgy take wing and soar.”concertonet.com
• 

  Bess

  Adina Aaron

  Gorgeous American soprano Adina Aaron is making a splash in Europe. “The voice has softness, heat, and mystery.” Der Westen, Germany
• 

  Sportin’ Life

  Jermaine Smith

  Jermaine Smith frequently steals the show as the oily drug peddler Sportin’ Life, “singing and dancing with enormous panache.” Chicago Sun-Times
• 

  Crown

  Eric Greene

  With his “exuberant, masculine voice” (Washington Times) baritone Eric Greene will be a magnetic Crown, the brutal man who has “that certain something” women can’t resist.
• 

  Clara

  Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi