PRESENTED ON THE ESPLANADE FINANCIÈRE SUN LIFE AT THE OLYMPIC PARK

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

Kent Nagano, conductor
Will Liverman, bass
Marie-Josée Lord, soprano
Janai Brugger, soprano
Justin Welsh, baritone
Gardy Fury, tenor
Andrew Megill, chorus master
André Robitaille, presenter
Oriol Tomas, stage director

Gershwin, Porgy and Bess (excerpts) (approx. 90 min.)

Most of us are familiar with the famous song, “Summertime” from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The OSM launches the 6^th edition of the Classical Spree with the best-known melodies of a great classic of American opera.

This grand celebration of music, one Montreal’s simply inescapable cultural events, revisits the moving love story between a disabled street-beggar (Porgy) and a young woman (Bess) trapped in the clutches of a thug. Set in the black slums of South Carolina in the 1930S, its subject matter and its innovative synthesis of classical, pop, and jazz idioms make Porgy and Bess a truly visionary work.

Flanked by a chorus and several soloists including Gardy Fury, Will Liverman and Justin Welsh, the charismatic Marie-Josée Lord appears in the role of Bess. The event is directed by Oriol Tomas and presented by actor André Robitaille. Summertime, and the livin’ is easy…