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Porgy And Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), Porgy'', itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel ''Porgy (novel), Porgy''. ''Porgy and Bess'' was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway theatre, Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. A 1976 #1976 Houston Grand Opera production, Houston Grand Opera production gained it a renewed popularity, and it is now one of the best known and most frequently performed operas. The libretto of ''Porgy and Bess'' tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black street beggar living in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee (song), Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit "Summertime (George Gershwin song), Summertime". His ''Of Thee I Sing'' (1931) was the first musical theater, musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folly Beach, South Carolina
Folly Beach is a public city on Folly Island in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,617 at the 2010 census, up from 2,116 in 2000. Folly Beach is within the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville metropolitan area and the Charleston-North Charleston Urbanized Areas. History The Folly North Site (38CH1213) and Secessionville Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Geography Folly Beach is south of downtown Charleston at (32.666152, -79.939213), along the Atlantic Ocean. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and , or 33.72%, is water. Known to Charleston locals as "the Edge of America", Folly Beach is home to numerous surf spots, the most popular being the Washout, 10th Street and the Folly Beach Pier. Despite its usually calm conditions, Folly Beach has gained prominence as one of the more popular surf spots along the East Coast. Folly Beach is an ecle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playbill
''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for Audience, theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's Programme (booklet), program. ''Playbill'' was first printed in 1884 for a single theater on 21st Street in New York City. The magazine is now used at nearly every Broadway theatre as well as many Off-Broadway productions. Outside New York City, ''Playbill'' is used at theaters throughout the United States. its Magazine circulation, circulation was 4,073,680. History What is known today as ''Playbill'' started in 1884, when Frank Vance Strauss founded the New York Theatre Program Corporation specializing in printing theater programs. Strauss reimagined the concept of a theater program, making advertisements a standard feature and thus transforming what was then a leaflet into a fully designed magazine. The new format proved popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named after its principal benefactor Augustus D. Juilliard. It is widely considered one of the world's most prestigious conservatories. The school is composed of three primary academic divisions: dance, drama, and music, of which the last is the largest and oldest. Juilliard offers degrees for Undergraduate education, undergraduate and Graduate Studies, graduate students and Liberal arts education, liberal arts courses, non-degree diploma programs for professional studies, professional artists, and musical training for secondary school, pre-college students. Juilliard has a single campus at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, comprising numerous studio rooms, performance halls, a library with special collecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Brown
Anne Brown (August 9, 1912March 13, 2009) was an American lyric soprano for whom George Gershwin rewrote the part of "Bess" into a leading role in the original production of his opera ''Porgy and Bess'' in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer. She settled in Norway in 1948 and later became a Norwegian citizen. Early life and career (1912–1936) A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Annie Wiggins Brown was the daughter of Dr. Harry F. Brown, a physician, and his wife, the former Mary Allen Wiggins. Her father was the grandson of a slave and her mother's parents were of black, Cherokee Indian, and Scottish-Irish origins. She had three sisters, Henrietta, Mamie, and Harriet. As an African-American, she was not allowed to attend a Roman Catholic elementary school in her native Baltimore. She trained at Morgan College and then applied to the Peabody Institute, but was rejected from the school due to her race. Brown then applied to the Juilliard School in New York at the enco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Todd Duncan
Robert Todd Duncan (February 12, 1903 – February 28, 1998) was an American baritone opera singer and actor. One of the first African-Americans to sing with a major opera company, Duncan is also noted for appearing as Porgy in the premier production of ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935). Early life Duncan was born February 12, 1903, in Danville, Kentucky, to John and Lettie (Cooper) Duncan. They were married in Danville 1901, he being born in Danville, and she born in Frankfort. John was a garage owner and Lettie was a music teacher. He obtained his musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in music followed by an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College. Career In 1934, Duncan debuted in Pietro Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana'' at the Mecca Temple in New York with the Aeolian Opera, a black opera company. Duncan was George Gershwin's personal choice as the first performer of the role of Porgy in ''Porgy and Bess'' in 1935 and played the role more th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Smallens
Alexander Smallens (January 1, 1889 – November 24, 1972) was a Russian-born American conductor and music director. Biography Smallens was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and emigrated to the United States as a child, becoming an American citizen in 1919. He studied at the New York Institute of Musical Art until 1909, when he traveled to France to study at the Conservatoire de Paris. Returning to the United States, Smallens was a conductor or music director at several American music organizations including the Boston Opera Company (1911–1914), the Anna Pavlova Ballet Company (1917–1919), the Chicago Opera Company (1919–1923), the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company (1924–1930), the Philadelphia Orchestra (1928–1934) and the Radio City Music Hall (1947–1950). In addition, Smallens worked briefly on Broadway, conducting the premieres of Thomson's ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' in 1934 and Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess'' the next year. (Both works were ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Zachary Mamoulian (October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an Armenian-American film and theater director. Mamoulian's oeuvre includes sixteen films (four of which are Musical film, musicals) and seventeen Broadway theatre, Broadway productions, six of which are Musical theatre, musicals. He was responsible for the acclaimed original stagings of ''Oklahoma!'' (1943) and ''Carousel (musical), Carousel'' (1945), as well as the first production of George Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935). His output in the early film sound era demonstrated his talent for deploying cinematic innovations that were startling in their day. He restored mobility to the camera, and developed his own signature use of Montage (filmmaking), montage, Close-up, close-ups, Split screen (video production), split-screens and Dissolve (filmmaking), dissolves. Mamoulian's films garnered more in the way of critical acclaim than box office receipts: only six of his films earned a profit at their init ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Simon Theatre
The Neil Simon Theatre, originally the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 250 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley. The original name was an amalgamation of Aarons's and Freedley's first names; the theater was renamed for playwright Neil Simon in 1983. The Neil Simon has 1,467 seats across two levels and is operated by the Nederlander Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks. The facade is divided into two sections: the six-story stage house to the west and the five-story auditorium to the east. The ground floor is clad with terracotta blocks and contains an entrance with a marquee. The upper stories of both sections are made of brick and terracotta; the auditorium facade has arched windows, niches, and a central pediment, while the stage house has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eva Jessye
Eva Jessye (January 20, 1895 – February 21, 1992) was an American conductor and composer who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissance. She created her own choral group which featured widely in performance. Her professional influence extended for decades through her teaching as well. Her accomplishments in this field were historic for any woman. She collaborated in productions of groundbreaking works, directing her choir and working with Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein on '' Four Saints in Three Acts'' (1933), and serving as musical director with George Gershwin on his innovative opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935). Early life and education Eva Jessye was born January 20, 1895, in Coffeyville, Kansas. She was educated at Western University, a historically black university in Kansas, and Langston University in Oklahoma. She later studied privately with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by its namesake, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups. Carnegie Hall has 3,671 seats, divided among three auditoriums. The largest one is the Stern Auditorium, a five-story auditorium with 2,804 seats. Also part of the complex are the 599-seat Zankel Hall on Seventh Avenue, as well as the 268-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall on 57th Street. Besides the auditoriums, Carnegie Hall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
