Drawing us in, she turns us, for a few moments, into fellow-inhabitants of Catfish Row.

NEWYORKER: A Man And A Woman

Catfish Row, in which Porgy lived, was not a row at all, but a great brick structure that lifted its three stories about the three sides of a court.

NEWYORKER: A Man And A Woman

When, in the second part of the show, Bess joins a row of Catfish ladies in a dance, we see not a reformed Bess suddenly dancing but a Bess who is learning to dance in a new way, and learning to like it.

NEWYORKER: A Man And A Woman