"Porgy and Bess", the first american opera, premiered 1935. The music was written by George Gershwin, texts by Du Bose Heyward and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Its characters speek the language of black Americans in a ghetto of the Southern States. Porgy is a disabled young man, who falls in love with Bess, the girlfriend of a murderer. Many little episodes from everyday life of Afro-Americans parallel the touching love story of "Porgy and Bess".
Gershwins work marks the transition from opera to musical and contains many elements from jazz, spiritual and blues. "Porgy and Bess" nowadays is an inherent part of opera repertoire all over the world.
The American composer James Barnes masterly created a wonderful arrangement of famous "Porgy and Bess" melodies for wind band.
Content:
I Got Plenty O' Nuttin
It Ain't Necessarily So
Summertime
Crab Man and Bess
You Is My Woman Now