George Gershwin’s opera
Porgy and Bess requires a cast entirely comprised of African American singers. Initially, Gershwin had difficulty obtaining financing for the opera’s premiere because he refused Broadway producers’ requests that he use white singers in blackface.
Based upon DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel
Porgy, the opera takes place on Catfish Row, a waterside area in Charleston, South Carolina. And Gershwin and Heyward worked together on the opera on an island near Charleston. Heyward’s plot is replete with racial stereotypes. Yet, thanks to Gershwin, the opera provided African American singers with an opportunity to be spotlighted at a time when they had few opportunities in opera or on Broadway.