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George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
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Along with Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, George Gershwin ranks as one of the most important American composers of the first half of the Twentieth Century. Like Berlin and Kern, he was son of immigrant Jews who settled in NYC, had little interest in formal schooling and originally made his mark on Broadway. Unlike the others... Gershwin also proved to be a master classical composer fashioning the familiar "Rhapsody in Blue" (1924) and creating what is arguably the first popular American opera "Porgy and Bess" (1935)....
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On this day in 1935, Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin's opera about black life in the South Carolina town of Charleston at the turn of the century, made its Broadway debut. Karen Grigsby Bates offers an appreciation.
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The "American Opera," as George referred to it, was Porgy and Bess. Porgy and Bess dealt with the poverty of the ghettos and their daily lives and loves. Since the poor showing at the box offices couldn't take care of the show's cost, it was closed shortly after opening. Unfortunately, Porgy, which opened in 1935, became popular only after George's death in 1937. Today, Porgy and Bess represents one of the first efforts to reflect a minority culture in American life and ... is the most successful opera ever written by an American composer. Porgy enjoys a great success today and has been made into motion pictures and television productions.
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Gershwin has won serious attention with his opera Porgy and Bess, a drama of Black America, set at first in Catfish Row, Charleston, South Carolina. There is an effective instrumental suite, Catfish Row, derived from the opera, while the song Summertime has proved particularly attractive and memorable.
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In many compositions Gershwin combined traditional musical forms with jazz and folk themes and rhythms. They include Rhapsody in Blue (1924), a symphonic jazz composition for jazz band, piano, and orchestra; the Piano Concerto in F (1925); An American in Paris (1928), a tone poem incorporating elements of jazz as well as realistic sound effects; Porgy and Bess (1935; from the book by Dubose Heyward), a folk opera about African-American life, which includes the famous song “Summertimeâ€; and Three Preludes (1936), for the piano. Gershwin ... composed music for Hollywood films.
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Gershwin's most enduring and respected Broadway work, Porgy and Bess, was lukewarmly received upon its premiere in 1935. Gershwin's “American Folk Opera” was inspired by the DuBose Heyward novel Porgy and featured a libretto and lyrics by Ira and the husband-wife team of DuBose and Dorothy Heyward.
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Porgy and Bess