In the judgment of many, George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess stands accused of trading in the stereotypes of segregationist America. Transplant the action from 1930s Carolina to apartheid South Africa, and the stereotypes don’t magically fade away, but the resonances shift and the opera once again packs the punch that Gershwin intended.

Post-apartheid South Africa has had more pressing concerns than fostering a multi-racial opera company, so Cape Town Opera, founded 10 years ago, has needed to fight hard to survive. To judge from its production of Porgy and Bess, it’s in good health and well placed to benefit from the cultural capital that will presumably accrue when football’s World Cup finals arrive in South Africa next year.

This performance, part of a short UK tour, marked the company’s London debut, and while the staging has some rough edges, it also has an irresistible vibrancy. Unfortunately the Royal Festival Hall is nobody’s idea of the perfect opera house, and Christine Crouse’s production is necessarily down-graded to semi-concert status. With the orchestra positioned between the singers and the audience, there is a loss of immediacy that undermines some of the more elaborate routines.

Not all the singers get the text across the orchestral chasm, but at least there is no trace of the plumminess that so often afflicts opera in English, for which many thanks.

In any case, several performances are on a scale to transcend the imperfect circumstances. The company has inducted guest artists for some of the key roles, and American soprano Lisa Daltirus fits in perfectly, singing Bess with an ideal combination of soaring finesse and hard-edged passion. The other stand-out performers are all home-grown, including the sonorously named Voice of the Nation Ensemble, singing and dancing with a sometimes frightening intensity that puts the chorus at the very heart of the action.

As the crippled Porgy, Xolela Sixaba doesn’t quite catch the character’s blend of rage and vulnerability, but in the small role of Maria, Miranda Tini is larger than life in every way, while Pretty Yende all but steals the show with her reading of Summertime. David Charles Abell (another US import) conducts with obvious love for the score, but doesn’t let his affection get in the way of the pulsating momentum. Even if occasional longueurs remain, the never-ending sequence of tunes makes Puccini and Verdi seem melodically parsimonious.
 
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