Oneida Public Library News
(Oneida, NY – Oct. 2014) The definitive film version of George Gershwin’s folk opera “Porgy and Bess,” as performed by Willard White and Cynthia Haymon, will be shown on the wide screen at Oneida Public Library Thursday evening, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m.
The 1993 film directed by Trevor Nunn opens up Nunn’s highly acclaimed stage version of the opera performed at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and later at Covent Garden in London. It stars Sir Willard White, the Jamaican-born British bass-baritone, as the crippled Porgy. White has made the role his own in various international stage productions and in award-winning recordings, including one conducted by Lorin Maazel that won him a Grammy Award. Porgy’s tragic love, Bess, is performed by Cynthia Haymon, the American soprano noted for the seemingly effortless beauty of her voice.
“Porgy and Bess” is Gershwin’s masterpiece, filled as it is with Gershwin’s syncopated rhythms, soaring melodies and jazz harmonies. Part Broadway musical and part traditional opera, “Porgy and Bess” combines popular hit songs like “Summertime” and “Oh, I Got Plenty of Nuttin’” with soaring arias like “Bess, You is My Woman Now” and “Oh Lawd, I’m on My Way.”
“Porgy and Bess,” based on the novel and play by DeBose Heyward, tells the tragic love story of the crippled beggar Porgy for the tramp Bess, but it also tells in action and moving music the stories of the other African-American denizens of Catfish Row on the waterfront in Charleston, South Carolina. The highly talented cast brings out these secondary characters with distinction.
Admission to “Porgy and Bess” is free, and refreshments will be served.
For more information, stop by Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., or call 363-3050.
OPL treats preschoolers to a Hallowe’en costume party
On Thursday Oct. 30 at 10 a.m., educator Elaine Clark is hosting a Bell, Book and Candy Hallowe’en Costume Party for preschoolers and their parents or guardians at Oneida Public Library.
Clark invites the guests young and old to dress up in their best trick-or-treat costumes and share in a swirl of crafts, stories, a costume parade though the whole library and a treasure hunt for books and candy.
The Hallowe’en Costume Party is a special edition of the regular OPL preschool program Ready, Set, Read.
For more information, stop by Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., or call 363-3050.