Lyrics {{multiple image|total_width=350 The scene opens with Bess awakening from her fever contracted on Kittiwah Island. Porgy tells Bess that he knows she has been with Crown, and she admits that Crown has promised to return for her. Porgy tells her she is free to go if she wants to, and she tells him that although she wants to stay ("I wants to stay here"), she is afraid of Crown ("But when he calls, I know I have to go"). Porgy asks her what would happen if there was no Crown, and Bess tells Porgy she loves him ("I loves you, Porgy") and begs him to protect her. Porgy promises that she will never have to be afraid again ("An' remember, when Crown come that's my business"). In the following duet they pledge their love for each other. During the early stages of the opera
Porgy and Bess, Bess' opening stanza was cut out. The re-addition of this stanza into the opera proved crucial in demonstrating Bess' feelings towards Porgy and Crown, as well as showing the extent of Bess's self-understanding. In contrast to the fatal tragedy of
Georges Bizet's title character in
Carmen and
Alban Berg's Marie in
Wozzeck, George Gershwin's Bess is a psychological tragedy. Musicologist Lawrence Starr writes, "she possesses profound self-understanding, and understanding of others, and yet cannot use this knowledge to really help herself do anything more than survive (which of course is already more than Carmen or Marie)."
Music {{image frame|content= \header { tagline = ##f } %\paper { paper-width = 230\mm } \layout { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t indent = 0 line-width = 220\mm ragged-right = ##t ragged-last = ##t \context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" } \context { \Voice \remove "Dynamic_engraver" } \context { \Staff \RemoveAllEmptyStaves } } global = { \key f \major \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \partial 4. } sopranoVoice = \relative c' { \global \autoBeamOff \set midiInstrument = "flute" \tempo 4=60 f8 a c | e g4. r8 f c a | a c4. r8 d, f a | c16 e e4. r8 c a f | \partial 2 a2 \bar "" \break s1*3 | \partial 2. s2. | \partial 4. \tempo 4 = 24 f8 a c | \tempo 4 = 72 e g4.~ g2~ | g2 r8 f c a | a c4.~ c2~ | c2 r8 } verseOne = \lyricmode { \set stanza = "Bess 1." I wants to stay here, but I ain't wor -- thy, you is too de -- "" -- cent to un -- der -- stan',… } verseTwo = \lyricmode { \set stanza = "2." I loves you, Por -- gy, don' let him take me, don' let him han -- dle me an' drive me mad.… \set stanza = "Bess" I loves you, Por -- gy, __ don' let him take me, } bassVoice = \relative c { \global \autoBeamOff \set midiInstrument = "trombone" s4. | s1*3 | \partial 2 s2 \tempo 4 = 108 f2 f | f4 as8 f as f as f | bes2 bes | \partial 2. c2 \tempo 4 = 30 s4 \bar "" \break \partial 4. s4. | r4 c8\pp c a a e4 | e8 e e4 r8 f e e | d d a' a a4 d, | a'8 a4.~ a8 } verse = \lyricmode { \set stanza = "Porgy" There, there Bess, you don' need to be a -- fraid no mo', \set stanza = "Porgy" What you think I is a -- ny -- way, to let an -- oth -- er nig -- ger steal my wo -- man? } right = \relative c' { \global \set midiInstrument = "acoustic grand" s4. | s1*3 | \partial 2 s2 4-.\pp q-. q-. q8-. q-. | r [r q] r q [r q] | 4 q q q8 | \partial 2. r [r q] s4 } left = \relative c { \global \set midiInstrument = "acoustic grand" s4. | s1*3 | \partial 2 s2 4-.\pp q-. q-. 8-. -. | r q-. [r q-.] r q-. [r q-.] | 4 q q 8 | \partial 2. r [r q] s4 } sopranoVoicePart = \new Staff { \sopranoVoice } \addlyrics { \verseOne } \addlyrics { \verseTwo } bassVoicePart = \new Staff { \clef bass \bassVoice } \addlyrics { \verse } pianoPart = \new PianoStaff > \score { > \layout { } \midi { \context { \Score midiChannelMapping = #'instrument } \context { \Staff \remove "Staff_performer" } \context { \Voice \consists "Staff_performer" } } } }} The conversation between Porgy and Bess at the beginning of the scene is sung as a
accompanied recitative with some
ariosos. The duet, in
F major and time, starts with Bess's
da capo aria "I wants to stay here" / "Someday, I know he's coming back" / "I loves you, Porgy". Porgy then responds, accompanied by forceful orchestral chords, assuring Bess of his protection and a future happy life. The second part of Porgy's promises is accompanied by Bess's reprise of "I loves you, Porgy", and the duet ends with "I/you got my/a man." Edward D. Latham contends that Gershwin's experimental use of simple
rondo form with the main theme as the refrain echoes the tension between Porgy and Bess in the duet, "It is as if Bess is clinging to the refrain for dear life, afraid that if she wanders too far from it, she will lose Porgy's love for good. Once again, it is Porgy who guides Bess back to the home key, re-establishing F major with a
half cadence at the end of the B and C sections." Gershwin thereby subverts the rondo forms as a guaranteed sign of confidence and stability into an indication of the situation's volatility. On the technicality of Bess's role in the duet, Helen M. Greenwald, chair of the department of music history at
New England Conservatory and editor of the
Oxford Handbook of Opera, wrote that Bess's solo "requires the legato power of a
Puccini heroine". == Cultural significance ==