Grammy award-winning recording includes 8 UK Opera vocalists

“Porgy and Bess,” by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin, is one of America’s most popular operas. The 2019-20 production, which ran Sept. 23, 2019, to Feb. 15, 2020, brought Catfish Row back to the Met for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Directed by James Robinson, the cast featured Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the title roles and an ensemble that includes Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Alfred Walker and Ryan Speedo Green.

The eight Wildcats lending their voices as part of the cast and Metropolitan Opera Chorus in “Porgy and Bess” included doctoral candidate Makeda Hampton and alumni La’Shelle Allen, Denisha Ballew, Christine Jobson, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Karmesha Peake, Markel Reed and Reginald Smith Jr. As part of the production, Smith made his Met debut in the role of Jim. Smith is a 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner.

In addition to the UK vocalists, an alumnus of the UK Symphony Orchestra, Seth Morris, served as principal flute in the pit for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The production had yet another connection to UK. Twenty-three of the vocalists performing as part of “Porgy and Bess,” including the eight UK singers, were part of the American Spiritual Ensemble founded by UK Opera Theatre Director Everett McCorvey.

UK Opera Theatre is part of the School of Music at the UK College of Fine Arts. The school has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history.