Gershwin georges

06558 — New York: Random House 1935. One of the Great Signed American Musical Landmarks<br /> The Sumptuous Limited Edition of Porgy and Bess<br /> <br /> GERSHWIN George. Porgy and Bess. An Opera in Three Acts by George Gershwin. Libretto by Dubose Heyward. Lyrics by Dubose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Production directed by Rouben Mamoulian. New York: Random House 1935.<br /> <br /> First edition limited to 250 copies of which this is no. 167 signed by George Gershwin Ira Gershwin DuBose Heyward and Rouben Mamoulian.<br /> <br /> Large quarto 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches; 310 x 235 mm. xiv 559 1 blank pp. Including color frontispiece and pictorial color title-page by George Biddle commissioned in connection with the original production. With the signed limitation leaf inserted at rear.<br /> <br /> Publisher's full red morocco front cover decoratively blind stamped and with a gilt-lettered black morocco label spine with two raised bands and two black morocco labels lettered in gilt straw endpapers top edge gilt. Spine with only the faintest touch of darkening. Housed in a later red cloth slipcase. A superb copy and one of the finest examples we have encountered.<br /> <br /> A particularly desirable example of one of the most important American musical publications of the twentieth century: the deluxe signed issue of Porgy and Bess issued in the year of the opera's first performances. The work opened first in Boston on September 30 1935 and reached New York's Alvin Theatre on October 10 1935 under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. From the beginning it was understood as an ambitious and unprecedented undertaking - Gershwin's own attempt to unite operatic form with jazz spiritual folk and theatrical idioms in a distinctly American work.<br /> <br /> The present limitation is especially appealing in that it bears the signatures not merely of the composer but of the principal creative collaborators responsible for bringing the work to the stage: George Gershwin lyricist Ira Gershwin librettist DuBose Heyward and director Rouben Mamoulian. Copies signed by all four figures capture the collaborative nature of the production in a way few American musical books can match. The Library of Congress records the existence of this 1935 limited edition within the Gershwin materials further underscoring its place as the formal book publication of the original production.<br /> <br /> Few works of American musical theater or American opera have had a comparable afterlife. Whatever the critical debates that have accompanied it Porgy and Bess endures as Gershwin's most ambitious stage composition and one of the central monuments of American music. <br /> <br /> In the present handsome morocco binding and in such striking condition this is an unusually choice copy of a book that is increasingly difficult to secure well preserved. New York: Random House, 1935 unknown