NCOJ to deliver ‘Porgy and Bess’
Published:Thursday | July 11, 2024 | 12:09 AM
The National Chorale of Jamaica (NCOJ) will present a musical dramatisation of the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess at The Courtleigh Auditorium in Kingston on August 21.
The event will feature the talents of world-renowned vocal soloists: Sir Willard White, bass-baritone, who will perform as Porgy, and Sylvia Kevorkian-White, mezzo-soprano, as Bess. The production, under the direction of conductor Winston Ewart, will also feature Yanique Leiba and Dr Richard Beckford on piano.
Adapted from the 1925 novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward (later recast as a play by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward), Porgy and Bess the musical was composed by Gershwin, with his brother Ira composing the lyrics in collaboration with Heyward. It was first performed in 1935.
One of the most beloved American musicals, it was subsequently adapted into a film in 1959, starring Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis Jr, and was also, in that same year, the inspiration for an acclaimed album by jazz great Miles Davis.
The musical drama focuses on the poverty-stricken residents struggling to survive in the Charleston tenement of Catfish Row. The sultry Bess becomes the object of desire of Porgy, a disabled man who gets around in a cart. But Bess is also involved with the thuggish Crown and the drug dealer Sportin’ Life. Crown kills a man and goes into hiding, and Bess seeks shelter with Porgy. But, when Crown returns, Porgy must take a stand.
Jean Lowrie-Chin, honorary director, NCOJ, promises that “it will be a wonderful experience to hear the interpretation of this great opera”.
The National Chorale of Jamaica was founded in 1972, with the aim of presenting programmes which include the widest variety of music which has found a place in the musical literature of the country over the years, and also promoting the development of young musicians, through their inclusion in concerts and by the provision of scholarships.
The NCOJ has been the recipient of many awards, including the Jamaica Music Industry (JAMI) Award, and has performed extensively across the Caribbean and internationally.