Porgy and Bess

Gershwin’s one full-length opera was adapted from DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy, with a story set among the poor African-Americans living on the waterfront of Charleston, S.C., as a crippled beggar tries to save a woman from her abusive lover and her drug dealer. The opera premiered in Boston in September 1935, with Alexander Smallens conducting. It was poorly received, but its arias and songs have been embraced by jazz and R&B musicians, and a Houston production in 1976 revived its reputation on the stage.