“Summertime” has endured across generations as one of the most recognizable songs from Porgy and Bess, yet Anne Wiggins Brown, the first soprano to play Bess, remains far less familiar to the wider public. In Gershwin’s Bess, journalist and author Lisa K. Winkler revisits the life of the artist who worked directly with George Gershwin during the creation of the opera and whose contribution ultimately occupied a much smaller place in popular memory than its significance might suggest.
In the interview, Winkler discusses reconstructing Brown’s life through archival documents, concert programs, and historical research, balancing fact with fiction, and making sure the racism Brown faced did not become the only lens through which her story was told. She also reflects on Brown’s decision to build a new career in Europe and settle in Oslo: while race certainly influenced her departure from the United States, Winkler makes an important distinction — “her choice to become Norwegian was an act of love.”
“Summertime” has become familiar to generations of people who may never have heard of Anne Brown. When you began researching her life, what surprised you most about the gap between how important she was to the creation of Porgy and Bess and the place she ultimately occupied in popular memory?
Indeed, “Summertime” is probably the most recognized song from Porgy and Bess. It’s considered one of the most covered songs in history, including renditions by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Janis Joplin, and The Zombies.
My novel, Gershwin’s Bess, tells the story of Anne Wiggins Brown, the first soprano to sing the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess. I read many biographies about George Gershwin to inform my writing. Each book included a chapter about the creation of Porgy and Bess and the cast members, all hand-selected by Gershwin. Regarding Anne Brown, she remained mostly unknown after the opera closed. I became fascinated in her untold story, her journey to become an opera singer, and role in working with Gershwin as he wrote the music.
George Gershwin expanded the role of Bess after meeting Anne, and even the title evolved from Porgy to Porgy and Bess. What does that creative relationship reveal about how much Brown helped shape the character rather than simply performing something that was already fully formed?
Every time Anne visited Gershwin’s apartment to audition and rehearse, he offered her refreshments including his mother’s home-made soups and cabbage rolls, and babka cake. He also expressed an interest in her family life and shared his own experiences with his family as well as his challenges to be taken seriously by the music world. His warm welcome helped Anne relax; giving her the freedom to express her opinions. She found him open to her suggestions.
As a journalist, you work with facts, documents, and evidence, but Gershwin’s Bess is a novel. How did you find the boundary between what is historically known about Anne Brown and what you needed to imagine in order to build her inner life as a character?
After I decided to write Anne Brown’s story, I realized there was very little written about her. There is a small on-line presence and mention of her in all the books about Gershwin. I also had access to her concert programs from Juilliard and her papers stored at the Amistad Research Center based at Tulane University. I wanted to create her journey by showing her childhood, the neighborhood where she grew up, her school years, and her family life. I also wanted to be authentic to the time period and researched the foods, fashions, transportation of the 1920-30s in Baltimore and New York City. It was also important to include what current events were happening as well.
It is possible to tell Anne’s story through the racism that restricted her career in the United States, but that can also risk defining her only by what she endured. How did you work to preserve her ambition, personality, talent, and agency beyond the injustices she faced?
I have to admire Anne Brown’s determination to follow her dream, even knowing she had obstacles before her. She had a strong Juilliard education, love of her family, the encouragement from her friends and the cast of Porgy and Bess to keep her passion alive. Like many in the arts, she knew her future was uncertain but she preserved because she loved the music.
Anne ultimately built a new life and career in Norway. As you researched that transition, did you come to see her departure from the United States primarily as a consequence of doors being closed to her, or also as an act of agency and reinvention.
After Porgy and Bess closed, she had a few roles in small, short-lived musicals that featured an all-Black cast. She sang in the 1942 revival of Porgy and Bess. She decided then to pursue a concert tour in Europe, singing classical arias. In 1948, she married Thorleif Schjelderup, a Norwegian Olympic skier and settled in Oslo, becoming a citizen. She continued to sing and teach and didn’t return to the United States until 1998 when she was awarded the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America. (The Peabody had refused her admittance due to race 70 years earlier.)
Her decision to leave the United States was certainly motivated by race; however, her choice to become Norwegian, was an act of love.
Stories like Anne’s raise a larger question about who gets remembered when we tell the history of art. In your view, why can essential contributions disappear even when the work they helped create remains enormously famous?
This is a common occurrence. The works remain famous; and certainly many of composers, painters, writers, and the like are well-remembered. Not everyone is. Telling a story of an unknown singer, like Anne Brown, serves to deepen the understanding of Porgy and Bess and its importance to black singers today.
As Porgy and Bess marks another anniversary and Anne Brown’s work receives renewed attention, what do you hope someone who has known “Summertime” for years might hear or understand differently after learning her story?
Porgy and Bess is a quintessential American opera. It’s about a community, only a couple of generations removed from slavery, that experiences the entire human experience, from birth to death, love and loss. Gershwin wrote original spirituals to convey the culture of the Gullah people. The opera also includes jazz, blues, and classical orchestrations. The music is magnificent; the story is compelling; and the characters are believable, leading to pathos and empathy.
One needn’t be an opera fan to enjoy reading Gershwin’s Bess. However, I’d love to think that readers may be inspired to learn more about George Gershwin, about Anne Brown and the other real characters in the book, and about opera after reading my book.
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