On January 7, 1933, two years before Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, The Emperor Jones, composed by Louis Gruenberg in 1931, had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Although Gruenberg’s opera looks like a mere musical adaptation of O’Neill’s acclaimed play, first performed in 1920,...
Although Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess (1935) is still regarded by most critics as the first African-American opera, Louis Gruenberg’s The Emperor Jones (1933) and Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha (1910) have recently challenged this sacrosanct position. Today, according to some researchers, Frederick Delius’s...
George Gershwin's music is not confined to one universe. Its background hints at European sources, while Gershwin's achievement is clearly rooted in the American aesthetic world. Thus, the 'serious' music of the classical musician naturally enters into a dialogue with various folk cultures (especia...
George Gershwin’s music is not confined to one universe. Its background hints at European sources, while Gershwin’s achievement is clearly rooted in the American aesthetic world. Thus, the “serious” music of the classical musician naturally enters into a dialogue with various folk cultures (especial...