I reached middle age without ever seeing an opera. And then I got a chance to do something about that by attending Porgy and Bess, now playing at the Houston Grand Opera through November 15.
Most likely, you already know the song “Summertime,” and everyone is familiar with composer George Gershwin. I would have said Porgy and Bess started out as a Broadway play with spoken dialogue, and there I’d be wrong. Gershwin, who read a play by DuBose Heyward based on his own book, was the one who suggested an opera. Porgy and Bess had its Boston premiere in 1935 and went to Broadway soon after.
Porgy and Bess, Houston Grand Opera 2025 (photo courtesy of HGO)
The opera sat largely unperformed through the 1960s and early 1970s, in part because of discomfort, and distaste, about white creators telling this particular Black story set in Jim Crow-era Charleston, SC. Sidney Poitier played Porgy in the film version after Harry Belafonte turned it down. Poitier’s New York Times obituary said he only took the role because producer Samuel Goldwyn made him.
Things turned around for the work in 1976 when Houston Grand Opera produced it with the complete original score restored for the first time, a landmark production that went on to Broadway and earned HGO both a Grammy and a Tony. The production then became an RCA record and caused people to rethink their earlier assessment.
This season’s presentation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1976 production. HGO also presented Porgy and Bess in the 1986-87 and 1994-95 seasons, making this its first production in 30 years. It is on track to become the second highest-grossing production in company history.
American orchestra conductor Maurice Peress said in 2004 that “Porgy and Bess belongs as much to the black singer-actors who bring it to life as it does to the Heywards and the Gershwins.”
Watching this 2025 version, I’d have to agree. The woman who plays Bess, Angel Blue, won a Grammy for her performance. Donnie Ray Albert played Porgy in the original 1976 Houston Grand Opera production, and in this 2025 version, he plays Lawyer Frazier. That’s why the crowd had such a big reaction when he first appeared on stage.
Houstonian Latonia Moore channeled the devout and sassy Serena. She told KHOU-TV that the first opera she ever saw was Porgy and Bess at HGO in 1995, and that’s what inspired her to become an opera singer. She was a favorite character of mine in the show.
This may be stating the obvious, but almost everything is sung. There are maybe a handful of words spoken, but that’s it. There was a teleprompter above the stage, which initially helped, but once I got swept up in the story, I didn’t need it anymore.
Porgy and Bess, Houston Grand Opera 2025 (photo courtesy of HGO)
Now, I’m an opera newbie. But Emily Leffler, who lives in Shepherd Park Plaza, is not. She and her husband have had HGO season tickets since 2014. They also attend performances at Opera in the Heights and catch shows at UH’s Moores School of Music. In other words, they know what they’re talking about.
I asked Emily what she’d tell someone new to all this. “Go all in,” she said. “Immerse yourself in the full experience.” She and her husband always go to the pre-performance lectures, which happen about an hour before the show starts, and they say it really changes how you understand what you’re about to see.
“It is one thing to listen to a recording of an opera,” she said, “but it is a completely different experience to have the scenery and costumes and sets and choreography to complement the experience.”
The production values for the show were indeed amazing. Catfish Row in the 1920s came alive for me. There was a big cast, and I liked that too, as it brought a lot of energy to the group numbers. There were a few kids in the cast, and I wondered what it must have been like for them to look out and see more than 2,000 in attendance.
I won’t say too much about the plot in case you aren’t familiar with the story, but I wish the ending had been different. Maybe the untidy conclusion is what makes it feel more real.
As a side note, I felt a bit underdressed, but I enjoyed the people-watching immensely. Emily told me people dress up a little more for opening night, so if you go, there may be fewer people in tuxes and floor-length dresses.
What really struck me was how unpretentious it all felt, despite the well-dressed crowd. I’d halfway expected to feel like an outsider – maybe because my baseline was the scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts to Verdi’s La Traviata – but it felt like real culture I could walk into and just enjoy.
First-timer or veteran, you will too.
Porgy and Bess runs through November 15, with Richard Bado conducting the performances on November 11, 13, and 15. If you’re under 40, don’t miss the Under 40 Friday event on Nov. 7 with select Orchestra-level seats for $40. https://www.houstongrandopera.org/