Big Busta
Name: Laidon Piroli
Professor: Mead
The opera Porgy and Bess composed by Gershwin is considered to be one of
the first American folk operas. This opera has been very controversial because some
critics have considered it a racist portrayal of African Americans , even though this opera
is not racist at all. There are many different reasons that this opera is not racist and can
not be considered as racist. Primarily the main themes of the opera are about love,
sympathy, and poverty. The composer’s purpose in this opera is to show of the horrible
life African Americans were living in nineteen thirties. Most of the opera’s libretto is
written by Dubose Heyward who was an author that described the life African
Americans lived very accurately, and he was appreciated for that. Also this opera can’t be
considered racist because it was performed with great professionalism from professional
African American singers.
Porgy and Bess can’t be considered a racist opera because the main theme of it is
about the forbidden love that sparkled between Porgy, a crippled black man living in the
slums of Charleston and Bess, a lonely black woman that was abandoned by her drug
dealer boyfriend. Also poverty among African American people at that time was another
theme of the opera. The poverty theme doesn’t show racism, on the contrary it shows
people the bad conditions African Americans were living in at that time, so every one
would be more aware of that and may be do something to help them get out of that kind
of poverty.
Another reason the opera can’t be considered racist is because before the author,
George Gershwin composed it; he actually went to Charleston, South Carolina to see by
himself how African Americans lived and to get a feel for the local and their
music. The opera is sung in a thick southerner’s African American accent, but that was
the actual way that black people in Charleston spoke. If they...
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