Characters
- Roles
- Joe, a gambler, tenor
- Vi, his sweetheart, lyric soprano
- Tom, café entertainer and singer, baritone
- Mike, café proprietor and manager, bass
- Sam, café worker and custodian, baritone
- Sweetpea, café pianist
- Chorus
- Guests
As in Gershwin's later opera Porgy and Bess, all the singing roles are African-American characters. Unlike Porgy and Bess, however, the original production of Blue Monday was performed by white singers in blackface, since, according to conductor Erich Kunzel, "there were no black people on Broadway during that period."
Read more about this topic: Blue Monday (opera)
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.”
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“It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)