Strange Career of Porgy and Bess : Race, Culture, and America's Most Famous Opera.
- Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, (c)2012.
- 1 online resource (440 pages)
Includes bibliographies and index.
A romance of Negro life : Porgy, 1925 -- Interlude : Charleston, 1680-1900 -- A chocolate-covered lithograph strip : Porgy, 1927 -- Interlude : Charleston, 1920 -1940 -- Gershwin's idea of what a Negro opera should be : Porgy and Bess, 1935 -- Neither the measure of America nor that of the Negro : Porgy and Bess, 1952-1956 -- Interlude : Charleston, 1940-1960 -- Forget any version you may have seen before : Porgy and Bess, 1959-2012 -- Epilogue : Charleston, 1970-2005.
Created by George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward and sung by generations of black performers, Porgy and Bess has been both embraced and reviled since its debut in 1935. Ellen Noonan examines the opera's long history of invention and reinvention as a barometer of twentieth-century American expectations about race, culture, and the struggle for equality. Expertly weaving together the wide-ranging debates over the original novel, Porgy, and its adaptations on stage and film with a history of its intimate ties to Charleston, The Strange Career of Porgy and Bess uncovers the complexities behind one of.
Music and race. Race in opera. African Americans in popular culture--20th century. African Americans in popular culture--20th century. Charleston (S.C.)--Race relations. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Porgy and Bess. Heyward, DuBose, 1885-1940. Porgy and Bess. Music and race. Race in opera.