Pale imitation

Hungarian State Opera has come under fire for asking white singers to sign a form declaring that they self-identity as Africanamerican so that it can stage a production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The move was devised to get round the Gershwin estate’s insistence that the opera must be sung by black performers, as stipulated by the composer himself. The company, however, says that a production with no white singers would be near-impossible in Hungary.