Shanghai Symphony Orchestra premiered a new production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess on Oct 8 under the baton of US conductor Kazem Abdullah.

The semi-staged production was jointly produced by SSO, Beijing Music Festival, the Cape Town Opera House in South Africa, and KT Wong Foundation. It will have another two performances in Beijing on Oct 12 and 13, as the closing show of the 27th Beijing Music Festival.

This is the first time Abdullah conducted a full-scale production of Porgy and Bess, and he said "there's a dynamism in Gershwin's music that is not just oral but also visual. I think having the orchestra on stage, one sort of sees how the instrumentation of the various groups, streams, brass, winds, percussion, how they relate to the characters on stage in this semi-staged production."

More than 40 members of the Capetown Opera Chorus, recipients of the International Opera Award for best chorus, flew to China to perform in the show, alongside soprano Nonhlanhla Yende playing the heroine Bess, and bass singer Otto Maidi playing the hero Porgy.