Francesca Zambello, the general director of Glimmerglass, described the story of Porgy and Bess, “recounting the twists and turns of a work about love, loss, race, murder, drug use, imprisonment, perseverance and hope. When she set the scene for one aria by saying that ‘a crap game starts,’ a murmur of recognition rippled through the audience. When she said that Crown, the opera’s villain, ‘murders someone impulsively,’ an inmate exclaimed: ‘Oh, man!'”