Porgy And Bess Analysis

George Gershwin’s “folk opera”, Porgy and Bess, based on Dubuse Hayward’s novel Porgy has often been interpreted and criticized as a work of racial polemic that stereotypes African-American people. During its revival in the 1960’s, sociologist Harold Cruse scathingly described it as, "The most incongruous, contradictory cultural symbol ever created in the Western World … Porgy and Bess belongs in a museum and no self-respecting African American should want to see it, or be seen in it." . On the surface Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess appears to be a stereotypical portrayal of southern folk life; however, it is a work amalgamating theatre, dance, and music into an opera that depicts challenge in the face of crippling social and racial circumstance
An admirer of Wagner, Beethoven, Verdi, and Puccini, Gershwin “was profoundly impressed with those qualities in the works of the great masters of music that gave them their long-lived vitality; the qualities of originality … works to triumph over the changing works of centuries” (381-Out). Influenced by Russian theorist and teacher Joseph Schillinger, Gershwin created works of “cohesion and large scale-planning.” ((out381). From a non-theoretical point of view, Porgy and Bess is a non-stop roller coaster of musical cornucopia partnered with increasingly tear streaming context demonstrating that success of opera is not limited to performance in its entirety, but can be just as effective on its own (source- book purple). Moreover, each individual piece illustrates Gershwin’s desire to reflect the affect of humanity’s rejection and/or its need for acceptance. As civil rights issues came to the surface in the United States, European opera houses were calling for production.(article neh) The work resonated with European audiences who may have been politically removed from the problems in the United States but were no stranger to contentious racial