GERSHWIN, George.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Porgy and Bess. First edition, signed limited issue, number 229 of 250 copies bound in publisher's full red morocco and signed by George and Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Rouben Mamoulian, this copy in exceptional condition, the vulnerable spine labels present in entirely unrestored condition.In summer 1926, and in one sitting, George Gershwin read DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, about the Gullah community in South Carolina. "The potential of this book to become the basis of a powerful opera – his opera – jumped out at him. In the morning, he wrote to Heyward saying they ought to get together to discuss the idea" (Rimler, p. 21). Heyward's wife thwarted the immediate plan to adapt it into an opera by adapting the novel as a stage play, Porgy and Bess, which opened in 1927.On 3 November 1933, however, it was agreed that Gershwin would write the score, Heyward the libretto, and that Heyward and Ira would collaborate on the lyrics. On its opening night, 30 September 1935, Boston's Colonial Theatre gave the performance a 15-minute standing ovation, and the work is now considered Gershwin's masterpiece. "Combining the dramatic structure of opera and the musical style of jazz and Tin Pan Alley, the work was especially important in the development of American musical theater. Although it did not recoup its investment, Porgy and Bess was an outstanding achievement that brought black singers to the Broadway stage in significant roles" (ANB).

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