Anne Wiggins Brown (August 9 1912 - March 13 2009)

I previously wrote a blog about my grandmother's cousin Anne Wiggins Brown and how happy I was to find out that one of my relatives was the first one to sing Summertime in George Gershwin's Porgy in Bess. I was so touched as I watched her perform I thought what would be more incredible than to meet this legendary woman... I got goosebumps just thinking about how we shared the same blood and what it would be like to have a conversation with her... I wanted to plan a trip to Norway to visit her this summer and meet up with some of my cousins to share what would have been a phenomenal experience... I was saddened to hear she had passed because I never got a chance to meet her, but somehow I feel closer to her because now she lives on in all of us...



All Things Considered, March 18, 2009 · Composer George Gershwin heard only one Bess sing in Porgy and Bess. This week the opera world learned it had lost her: Soprano Anne Brown died on Friday in Norway at age 96, after a life that was filled with operatic moments both on and off the stage.

For audiences in 1935, Anne Brown must have seemed to own the role of Bess. At a time when there were precious few classically trained black singers, this newcomer was a revelation.

She was a 23-year-old music student when she stood before Gershwin, auditioning with Schubert and Brahms, the classical music she was studying at the Juilliard School. But he wanted to hear her sing a Negro spiritual.

Brown was offended, but she sang "A City Called Heaven" without accompaniment, and Gershwin immediately knew he had his leading lady.

Except that his folk opera didn't have a leading-lady part: In Porgy, the DuBose Heyward novel, Bess is just one of many poor black characters. But Gershwin was so taken with Anne Brown that he kept adding material for her.

One day after a rehearsal, Gershwin sat Brown down and told her the show she was in would no longer be called just Porgy. Brown had literally put the Bess in Porgy and Bess.

There was still one thing she wanted, and after much cajoling, she got it — a reprise of a lullaby sung by another character. It was called "Summertime."