To celebrate the 75th anniversary of George Gershwin’s enduring masterpiece, a new production of Porgy and Bess is being mounted—with the full approval of the Gershwin estate—by veteran opera producer Michael Capasso (General Director of New York’s vibrant Dicapo Opera). Porgy and Bess, featuring a stellar cast and live orchestra, will be directed by renowned American Charles Randolph-Wright (writer and director of the film “Mama I Want to Sing,” to be released February 2010), conducted by Music Director Pacien Mazzagatti, and produced in association with Willette Murphy Klausner. With a new orchestration by Mr. Mazzagatti, brand-new sets designed by John Farrell, costumes by Ildikó Márta Debreczeni, and lighting by Susan Roth, Porgy and Bess kicks off its 32-U.S. city tour February 18, 2010 in Van Wert, Ohio.

Michael Capasso, who has been the driving force behind the myriad projects produced by Dicapo Opera Theatre, extols the virtues of Porgy and Bess:

Irresistible in its melodies, moving in its depiction of love’s power in the face of all odds, Porgy and Bess stands before the world as the greatest opera ever written by a native-born American.  It has long been a dream of mine to produce this quintessentially American operatic classic, and I hope and trust that audiences all across the country will share my enthusiasm for this new production of George Gershwin’s true masterpiece.

Passion, jealousy, murder, poverty, make up the heady brew of this evocative story. Porgy, a downtrodden but generous beggar, haunts the streets known as “Catfish Row,” a poor district of early 20th century segregated Charleston, South Carolina. Ardently in love with the prostitute Bess, Porgy has to share his affections with her violent former lover Crown and the roguish suitor Sportin’ Life. Written by George Gershwin to a libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess has enjoyed spectacular fame all over the world since its first modest production in New York City October 1935. This operatic masterpiece has spawned a string of hit songs that have become international icons of the American tradition.

Although Gershwin had hoped for Porgy and Bess to be premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, his plans were thwarted by the sudden death of Metropolitan Opera Board Chairman Otto Kahn. The opera toured Europe and North and South America throughout the 1950s, and it was the first work by an American to be produced at La Scala in Milan, Italy. It enjoyed tremendous success at the Vienna Volksoper, Leningrad’s Palace of Culture, and London’s Stoll Theatre, and it was this tour that launched the career of Leontyne Price.  In its 75-year history, no other opera or musical has employed more African-Americans. The work was not widely accepted in the United States as “real” opera until 1976 when the Houston Grand Opera staged Porgy and Bess with the original score and orchestration. Nine years later, the Met gave its first performance of the work, including it in its Saturday afternoon live broadcast series.

In November 2009 Dicapo Opera Theatre entered the “Opera Competition and Festival with Mezzo,” held in cooperation with Hungary’s Mezzo Television in Szeged, Hungary, with a production of Tobias Picker’s acclaimed opera Emmeline, which had received accolades from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Last year, Dicapo won the 2008 Mezzo competition with its production of Robert Ward’s The Crucible; competing against France’s Opéra de Rennes, Germany’s Bremen Theater, Poland’s Baltic Opera, and Hungary’s Szeged National Theatre.

A devotee of the music of Puccini, Mr. Capasso has directed every single opera by the composer, including 100th anniversary performances of all three versions of Madama Butterfly (Milan, Brescia, Paris) in one weekend at the Dicapo -- the first time such a project was ever presented.  He has also directed Verdi’s La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, and Falstaff; plus such 20th century composers as Poulenc and Kurt Weill.  Mr. Capasso continues Dicapo’s ambitious 2009/2010 season with the New York premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s The Hotel Casablanca; the world premiere of Il Caso Mortara by Francesco Cilluffo (commissioned by Dicapo), and the New York premiere of Donizetti’s Requiem.

In addition to his work with the Dicapo Opera Theatre, Mr. Capasso has directed operas at the Toledo Opera, Connecticut Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Opera at Florham, Augusta Opera, Opera Carolina, Montreal Opera, and Orlando Opera.  He also founded the National Lyric Opera in 1991, which brings fully-staged operas to thousands in the Northeast who would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience opera live.  Mr. Capasso is also a writer and his credits include an adaptation of Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” which the Today Show hailed as “the best Christmas Carol in New York;” “Opera Senza Rancor,” a satirical take on the world of opera; a new libretto for La Périchole; translation librettos for Die Fledermaus and The Daughter of the Regiment; as well as a concert/lecture series for the New York Historical Society.  Mr. Capasso’s film on the life and career of Enrico Caruso, which he wrote and produced, was aired on the A&E network’s “Biography” series and is available on DVD.  
 
Mr. Capasso has received numerous awards: the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, a proclamation from the City of New York in conjunction with the Italian Heritage and Culture Month, and the Leonardo Da Vinci Award for Cultural Achievement.  He has appeared numerous times on the popular intermission quiz of the Metropolitan Opera live broadcasts on WQXR Saturday afternoons. Most recently, Mr. Capasso was named “Man of the Year” by the Italian Welfare League and received a Special Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts from the Order Sons of Italy in America.

In the world of cultural arts and entertainment, producer Willette Murphy Klausner has achieved a reputation for being an undaunted creative and entrepreneurial spirit.  A graduate of UCLA, Ms. Klausner was the first African American in fashion merchandising at New York retail giant, Bloomingdale’s, and the first woman to be appointed as corporate vice president for MCA Universal Studios.  She was one of the original producers of Three Mo' Tenors, and for the past six years has been the show's sole producer. Featuring classically trained African American tenors, Three Mo’ Tenors has impressed audiences worldwide. Ms. Klausner is especially determined to ensure the place of the African American tenor in the forefront of the world of opera.

Head of Edgework Productions and WMK Productions, Ms. Klausner has produced a variety of important theatrical stage productions on both the east and the west coasts.  She is currently co-producing the Broadway-bound musical “Twist”, an American version of Oliver Twist, and has co-produced regional versions of the show at both the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  She was a co-producer of the Broadway musical “Kat and the Kings,” and in Los Angeles, Klausner produced “Fully Committed”; "To Take Arms,” starring Hattie Winston and Sanaa Lathan; and co-produced “Hurlyburly” starring Sean Penn and Danny Aiello.  Klausner is married to attorney Manuel S. Klausner. They are co-founding members of the American Institute of Wine and Food.

Charles Randolph-Wright has built a dynamic and diversified career in directing, writing, and producing for theatre, television, and film. Mr. Randolph-Wright has written and directed the film “Mama, I Want to Sing,” based on the renowned stage musical, which will be released commercially in movie theatres in the Fall of 2010, starring Lynn Whitfield, Ciara, Patti LaBelle, Hill Harper, Ben Vereen, and Billy Zane.  Randolph-Wright also directed the television series “Lincoln Heights” (ABC Family) as well as the musical “They’re Playing Our Song,” in Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, Brazil.    

Other theatre credits include “Love Life” with Brian Stokes Mitchell at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; the 50th anniversary tour of “Guys and Dolls,” starring Maurice Hines; and “Blue” with Phylicia Rashad, which broke box office records in its premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., the Roundabout Theatre in New York City, and at the Pasadena Playhouse (also starring Diahann Carroll and Clifton Davis). He directed “Emergency,” with Daniel Beaty at the Geffen Theatre; “Blood Knot,” with music by Tracy Chapman; “Act;” the world premieres of “Senior Discretion Himself” at the Arena Stage; “Tough Titty” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; and “Me and Mrs. Jones” at the Prince Theatre.

Randolph-Wright is also a prolific writer; his latest play “The Night is a Child,” starring Jobeth Williams, recently premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse. He also wrote “Cuttin’ Up,” which has been produced throughout the United States, and co-wrote “Just Between
Friends,” starring Bea Arthur on Broadway.  He directed and co-wrote “The Diva is Dismissed,” with Jenifer Lewis, at the New York Shakespeare Festival and “Homework,” with Kim Coles at the Coast Playhouse, in Los Angeles.   Film credits include directing the award-winning “Preaching to the Choir,” and writing screenplays for Showtime, HBO, Disney, Castle Rock, and Fox.

Heralded by Opera News as “clearly a name to watch,” conductor Pacien Mazzagatti has already garnered considerable critical acclaim for his work conducting opera both in the United States and abroad. Mr. Mazzagatti made his conducting debut at New York’s Dicapo Opera Theatre in 2003 leading performances of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. He was immediately re-engaged and over the course of next two seasons he conducted Madama Butterfly, Falstaff, The Magic Flute, La Traviata, and the New York premiere of Robert Ward’s Claudia Legare. Most notably in 2005 he led the Dicapo orchestra, the combined Fairfield Chorale, Amor Artis and Dicapo choirs and soloists from the Bolshoi and Metropolitan Opera in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s choral symphony The Bells and his seldom-heard opera Francesca da Rimini. In his review for the New York Times Bernard Holland remarked “The chorus sent out warm gales of sound…The orchestra was bathed in a lovely indeterminate haze…The young Pacien Mazzagatti conducted all of these people with energy and considerable effect.”

During the 2007-08 season Mr. Mazzagatti led the first performance in Warsaw in over 60 years of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. He also performed Porgy and Bess with the Russian Philharmonic in Moscow’s International House of Music and at St. Petersburg’s historic Mikhailovsky Theater.  In the autumn of 2008 he traveled to Szeged, Hungary to conduct the Hungarian premiere of Robert Ward’s The Crucible for the Mezzo International Opera Competition and Festival.  In December of 2008 he conducted the Opera Orchestra of New York with opera stars Veronica Villaroel and Fabio Armiliato in a gala in Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s birth.

John Farrell, Set Design, is the resident designer for Dicapo Opera Theatre where he has created over 50 productions since 1992. Mr. Farrell has also designed for Brooklyn Academy of Music, Naked Angels, The Juilliard School, One Dream, The Directors’ Company, AMAS Repertory Theatre, Theatreworks USA, The Arclight, The John Houseman and The Douglas Fairbanks Theater. In Mexico City, Mr. Farrell has done two productions for Morris Gilbert: Fiddler on the Roof and Besame Mucho. Across the United States, some notable productions include Sacco and Vanzetti at the Tampa Opera, La Vie en Bleu at The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, The Summer of ‘69 off-Broadway in New York, and Dodsworth at Casa Mañana in Texas. Mr. Farrell has been the exclusive Set and Illusion Designer for the Magician Criss Angel since 1993, overseeing four seasons of “Mindfreak” for A&E and a live show at the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas.

Susan Roth, Lighting Designer, designs for a number of regional opera companies in the U.S. Recent opera designs include Aida for Tampa Opera, Rigoletto for Augusta Opera and Carmen with Denyce Graves, for Orlando Opera. Ms. Roth is resident designer for Dicapo Opera Theatre in New York, where her recent work includes Falstaff and La Traviata. National theater tour credits include Dreamgirls, Cabaret, Purlie and the first U.S. tours of Little Shop of Horrors and One Mo Time. Ms. Roth also designed the U.S. premier of Public Enemy, a play by Kenneth Branagh, at the Irish Arts Center; West Side Story and Crazy for You at the Westbury Music Fair, and the world premiere of Feau Follet for the Elisa Monte-Dance Company.

Ildikó Márta Debreczeni has been designing the costumes for the Experidance Company for 10 years and she has been working in her profession for 22 years. Her company’s offices are in Budapest and Szolnok, where her team of 25 people works for several Hungarian theatres, including the Hungarian National Theatre, Comedy Theatre of Budapest, Madách Theatre and the Operetta Theatre. In 2008 she was the clothes designer for the most popular talent-spotting competition in Hungary, but it was the Opera Competition and Festival, by Mezzo’s invitation, that provided her professional breakthrough in 2007. She has a three year contract to make all the costumes for these international productions. In addition to this, she is making costumes for numerous German opera houses, was requested to make costumes for the Bayreuth Festival, and has work in Norway and Italy.

Baritone Leonard Rowe (Porgy) is a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts.  During the 2009-10 season he sang the role of Robert Garner with the New York City Opera in Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison’s Margaret Garner; he reprised the role with the Michigan Opera Theater featuring soprano Denyce Graves in performances in Detroit and Chicago.  He has performed the title role in Porgy and Bess abroad in Amsterdam, Cape Town, Brussels, Hamburg, Baden Baden, and Zurich.   
 
Mr. Rowe sang the role of Jake on the world premiere recording of the original 1935 production version of Porgy and Bess released on the Decca label in 2006. He has performed with the Mobile Opera, Atlanta Opera, Nashville Opera, Grand Rapids Opera, Piedmont Opera, Opera Carolina, Opera Company of North Carolina, Roanoke Opera, Opera Tampa, New Orleans Opera, and Virginia Opera.  A winner of both the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation and the Bellini International Voice Competition, he performed in the winner’s recitals of both competitions at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Patrick Blackwell (Porgy) debuted with Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997 as Burnah in the World Premiere of Anthony Davis’s Amistad. Other roles with Lyric Opera of Chicago include: Henry Davis (Street Scene), Cal (Regina), and the Duke of Verona (Roméo et Juliette). Mr. Blackwell studied on full scholarship with Enrico DiGiuseppe at the Juilliard School of Music. A veteran of many distinguished Young Artist Programs including The Santa Fe Opera, Houston Opera Studio, The Merola Opera Program, Opera Music Theatre International with Jerome Hines, and The Aspen Opera Theatre Center, Mr. Blackwell made his New York City Opera debut singing the roles of Dr. Grenvil (La Traviata), and Colline (La Bohème). Mr. Blackwell’s have included are Leporello (Don Giovanni), Zuniga and Morales (Carmen), Joe (Showboat), and the Baron Douphol in La Traviata. He made his Carnegie Hall debut singing the bass solo in Ernestine Rogers Robinson’s Crucifixion. Upcoming roles include Uberto in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona with the New Jersey State Opera in April of 2010, and The Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Opera Illinois.

Following a very successful debut as Bess in a Tulsa Opera production of Porgy and Bess, soprano Donita Volkwijn (Bess) has sung the role in a touring production of the opera throughout Europe. Ms. Volkwijn recently performed with Dicapo Opera Theater as Mimi in La Bohème and Anna in Le Villi.  This season she competed in the Mezzo Competition where she was selected to sing the part of the Condemned Female in David Alagna's Le Dernier Jour d’un Condamné, which she performed in Debrecen and Szeged, Hungary.

Ms. Volkwijn has performed as Musetta in La Bohème and Micaela in Carmen for the Tulsa Opera; Susanna in Le Nozze Di Figaro for the Bellingham Music Festival; Micaela in Carmen for the Hawaii Opera Theatre and Syracuse Opera; Frasquita in Carmen with the San Francisco Opera and Lyric Opera Cleveland; Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking with Opera Pacific, Michigan Opera Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Opera; Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte with the San Francisco Opera Center; and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Merola Opera Program.  In 2003 she made her London debut at the Barbican Center in Philip Glass's opera Galileo Galilei. Ms. Volkwijn made her European debut in 1999 in Amsterdam with concert performances at the International Opera Center of the Netherlands.  A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Ms. Volkwijn earned her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Oberlin College-Conservatory and her Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.  She was a regional finalist in the 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a national winner of the 1995 Leontyne Price Vocal Arts Competition.  Now an American citizen, Ms. Volkwijn lives in New York.

Soprano Kishna Davis (Bess) made her New York City Opera debut singing the role of Bess in their production of Porgy and Bess, conducted by John DeMain, a role she has repeated with the Philadelphia Opera, Virginia Opera and Indianapolis Opera companies as well as in Rome, Sienna and Warsaw.  Ms. Davis appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony (conducted by Leonard Slatkin) in a concert version of Porgy and Bess and returned the following summer to Cleveland to sing Frasquita in Carmen under the baton of Leonard Slatkin and performed as the soprano soloist in a Duke Ellington concert.  She has appeared with the San Francisco, Baltimore, North Carolina, Colorado, Houston, Jacksonville, Virginia, Annapolis, and National symphonies among many others. In Europe, Ms. Davis has performed symphonic concerts in Berlin, Prague, Altenburg and Stuttgart. Operatic engagements include Nedda in I Pagliacci with Opera Memphis; Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking with the Baltimore Opera; the title roles in Tosca and Aida with Metro Lyric Opera; Musetta in La Bohème, the title role in Suor Angelica, and the title role in Carlyle Floyd’s Susannah, conducted by James Conlon, at the Aspen Music Festival.  Ms. Davis holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Morgan State University.

A native of Panamá City, Panamá, soprano Reyna Carguill (Serena) has recently performed the role of Elisabeth in Verdi's Don Carlos with the Sarasota Opera and toured Europe with Porgy and Bess.  Additional highlights include performances as Clara in Porgy and Bess with the Evansville Philharmonic, the title role in Tosca with the Indiana University Opera Theater, as well as the roles of Beatrice in the American Premiere of Sven-David Sandstrom's Jeppe, Rosalinda in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, and Suor Genovieffa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica.  As a concert soloist, Ms. Carguill has been heard in Britten’s War Requiem with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir under Dr. Eric Stark and in performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with conductor David Effron.  A student of Ginger Beazley and Virginia Zeani, Ms. Carguill holds a B.M. in vocal performance from Oakwood College and a graduate degree from Indiana University.  She is a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

Baritone Phillip Boykin (Crown), originally from Greenville, South Carolina, began his opera studies in Performance from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music.  He has performed with the Connecticut Opera Express, Connecticut Concert Opera, Hartford Symphony, Bristol Symphony, New Britain Symphony, Cleveland Pops, and Greenville Symphony in such roles as Leporello/Scarpia in Tosca, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan Tutti, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, Marcello in La Bohème and the title role in Don Giovanni.  Mr. Boykin also appeared in the Langston Hughes musical Black Nativity at the Kennedy Center, directed by Mike Malone.  Recently Mr. Boykin performed in a European tour of Porgy and Bess and was a featured soloist in the “Spiritual Singers of Harlem” annual tour in Asia.  Mr. Boykin received a nomination for Best Actor from the National Broadway Theatre Awards for his performance of Joe in Show Boat.   In the words of Mr. Boykin’s late teacher, Dr. William Warfield, “"Phillip has an extraordinary gift and I'm extremely proud to have worked with him."

Tenor Reggie Whitehead (Sportin' Life) recently performed the role of Sportin’ Life during a 2008 production of Porgy and Bess which toured St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as cities in Poland, Greece, Estonia, and Latvia.  Mr. Whitehead has also been heard in productions of Nunsense-Men, Ain’t Misebehavin, Purlie, A Chorus Line, La Cage aux Folles, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Pippin. Mr. Whitehead received the South Florida Theater Carbonell Award for his performances in The Full Monty, Ken in Smokey Joe’s Café and Zombie Prom.  He divides his time between New York and Miami.