Summertime

Probably no one knows George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess better than British conductor Wayne Marshall. He has conducted it, of course, but he has also listened to it as a singer. And he has made a tight concert version out of the full-length three-act opera. Hits like Summertime or I Got Plenty o‘ Nuttin’ hold the action together: the love story between the disabled Porgy and the carefree Bess, set in the deep south of the USA, in the state of Carolina. Quarrels and compassion, poverty and lust for life and the hope for true love are the ingredients in Gershwin's opera. Full of spiritual, blues and jazz elements, it is simply captivating, especially when it is sung by a seasoned ensemble like the one Marshall and ‘his’ Gershwin are bringing to Basel.