Blue Monday

Blue Monday (Opera à la Afro-American) was the original name of a one-act "jazz opera" by George Gershwin, renamed 135th Street during a later production. The English libretto was written by Buddy DeSylva. Though a short piece, with a running time of between twenty and thirty minutes, Blue Monday is often considered the blueprint to many of Gershwin's later works, and is often considered to be the "first piece of symphonic jazz" in that it was the first significant attempt to fuse forms of classical music such as opera with American popular music, with the opera largely influenced by Jazz and the African-American culture of Harlem. 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. Setting: A basement café near the intersection of 135th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City. Time: An evening during the Jazz Age, beginning at around 9:30 P.M.