Hi elaine4golf,
Her name was Anne W. Brown.
Media Business Solutions Presents - The African American Registry
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/608/Anne_W_Brown_the_original_iBessi
Anne W. Brown, the original Bess. (see photo)
Date of Birth: December 6, 1915
"On this date we celebrate the birth of Anne Wiggins Brown in 1915.
She was an African-American singer and entertainer.
Had it not been for Brown, George Gershwin?s folk opera Porgy and Bess
might be known by its original name Porgy. From a well-to-do family in
Baltimore, Maryland, Brown was obsessed with being a star at an early
age. Her mother enrolled her in private schools including the Peabody
School of Music where she constantly ran into the barriers of racism.
Undaunted, she kept her dreams alive, they included plays and musicals
where she sang everything from Bach to Blues.
Her talent came to the attention of Constance Black, the wife of the
owner of the Baltimore Sun who encouraged her to attend Juilliard
School of Music. It was here that Brown won the Margaret McGill
Scholarship that attracted the attention of Gershwin. During her
audition for him her requested of her an unaccompanied rendition of
the spiritual City Called Heaven; hence the emergence of Bess. They
worked closely on the project, not only rewriting act three to have
her sing Summertime, but changing the title of the opera. The premiere
took place on October 10th 1935 at New York?s Alvin Theater."
[edit]
"During a 1953 European tour she developed respiratory problems which
were diagnosed as asthma.
This condition ended her singing career. Although a Norwegian citizen,
Anne Wiggins Brown never forgot her racial struggles in America. In
1935 she led the Porgy and Bess cast in protest when they learned that
the show at the National Theater in Washington D.C. was to be
performed before a segregated audience. She is a sought after teacher
with students such as actress Liv Ullmann and jazz singer Karen Krog
as her former students."
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Nice photo of Porgy and Bess here:
http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/9798/Jan14_98/porgy.htm
Todd Duncan and Anne Brown starred in the original 1935 Broadway
premiere of Porgy and Bess. Photo courtesy the Standifer Video Archive
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Is It A Musical? Or Is It Opera?
http://www.ffaire.com/gershwin/porgy.html
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EZ Essays.com
http://www.ez-essays.com/free/2229.html
"Porgy and Bess symbolizes the end of the black musical tradition that
flourished in the early part of this century. The play showed the height
of white appropriation of what had previously been a black cultural form.
All the creative talent backstage was white. This development had been
occurring slowly, throughout the 1920's, but black artists had often
worked in a variety of creative capacities. "Porgy and Bess" became
a "black musical" in its most minimal sense, only as a definition of the
color of the cast members. Neither the plot nor the music was of black
origin. Musical comedies seemed to be out of fashion in the 20's
due to the dismal revivals of "Shuffle Along" and "Blackbirds". Black
dramas with..."
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Lyrics can be found at:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/newbonham/6/porgy.htm
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Porgy and Bess: A Synopsis (this is a cached version of the website)
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:L4ExIK5QdOwJ:www.usembassy.egnet.net/library/backlog/porgy.htm+Synopsis+Porgy+and+Bess&hl=en&start=3&ie=UTF-8
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Porgy and Bess
Music by George Gershwin
Libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin after the novel and play
Porgy by DuBose Heyward
http://www.usopera.com/operas/porgy.html
Porgy and Bess - Cast of characters
Porgy, b-bar (baritone)
Bess, s (soprano)
[edit]
Residents of Catfish Row
Synopsis:
"On Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, Jasbo Brown is playing
the blues for a group of dancers. Clara sings a lullaby to her child
("Summertime"). The drug dealer Sporting Life, Clara's husband Jake,
and some of the other men are playing craps. Jake sings his child a
lullaby of his own ("A woman is a sometime thing"). The beggar Porgy
comes in to join the game; he defends Crown's woman, Bess, who the
others are talking about. When Jake accuses him of being soft on her,
Porgy says that he isn't soft on any woman; God made him a cripple and
meant him to be lonely.
Crown enters with Bess. He's drunk, and when he loses he starts a
fight and kills Robbins with a cotton hook. Crown runs to..."
[edit]
"Some time later, the fishermen are getting ready to leave as Bess
raves, still delirious after Crown's attack. Peter wants to send her
to the hospital, but Serena would rather pray over her. The street
fills with vendors, and eventually Bess emerges, and explains to Porgy
that she wants to stay with him but that when Crown comes she'll have
to go with him. Porgy tells her that she doesn't have to go with him
("I loves you, Porgy"). A hurricane begins to rise, and Clara,
frightened for her husband, calls out his name.
Everyone, gathered in Clara's room, prays for shelter from the storm."
[edit]
Performance History
World premiere production:
Alvin Theatre
World premiere: 10 Oct. 1935
New York, NY
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Very interesting article: The Complicated Life of Porgy and Bess
http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1997-11/porgy.html
Google Search:
Porgy and Bess original cast
Anne Brown
Todd Duncan and Anne Brown
Gershwin cast Porgy and Bess
Best regards,
tlspiegel |
