Alan D. Valentine, president and CEO of the Nashville Symphony, said, "This version of Porgy and Bess with Gershwin's own personal edits really challenges what has been perceived for the past 70 years as the composer's final vision of the opera."

The performances will take place in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville. Conductor John Mauceri will lead the Nashville Symphony and Nashville Symphony Chorus in semi-staged concert performances, featuring Alvy Powell as Porgy and Marquita Lister as Bess.

Various institutions have recorded and staged Porgy and Bess using the published, edited version, but according to the Nashville Symphony, their production will be the first with Gershwin's approved edits since the original performances in 1935-36.

Musicologist Charles Hamm uncovered Gershwin's handwritten edits in five existing scores and discussed them in a 1987 issue of the Journal of the American Musicological Society, in an article titled "The Theatre Guild Production of Porgy and Bess." Mauceri restored the 1935 version using original materials stored at Yale University; he was assisted by Hamm, among others.

The Nashville Symphony plans to record the original Porgy for the Decca label.