Porgy                Kevin Deas

Bess                 Marlissa Hudson

Crown             Michael Redding

Sportin’ Life  Chauncey Packer

Serina             Aundi Moore

Jake                Edward Pleasant

Carla/Maria  NaGuanda Nobles

Mingo /Peter Robbins   Colin Eaton

Piotr Gajewski, conductor

Groundbreaking, daring, adventurous, genre defying! Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is a work without peer in the history of American music. Described by the composer himself as a “folk opera,” Porgy and Bess features an array of spirituals, folk songs and such classics as Summertime. Since its premiere, with an all African-American cast of classically trained singers, the opera has become a potent symbol of race relations in America, and a work that forever changed the boundaries of opera.

Bass-baritone Kevin Deas “has garnered international acclaim for his portrayal of Porgy in Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess,” –The Morning Call

American soprano Marlissa Hudson has been described as a “superb lyric coloratura.” -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch