"Four-Dimensional Construction":Astudy On The Artistic Image Creation Of "Porgy" In The Opera Of Porgy And Bess

Whether we look at history of African-American music culture,the history of American music development,or even the history of global contemporary opera,there is one masterpiece hard to bypass,Porgy and Bess,which is a landmark opera composed by George Gershwin in 1935(The libretto of Porgy produced by Du Bose Heyward).The vivid image of Porgy created by Gershwin has develop into a representative image in African-American opera,as well as a multifaceted paradigm for shaping the underclass characters of African-American to a certain extent.This paper focuses on the artistic image creation of Porgy from four aspects with detailed analysis and research.The part of the “Main Basis of Porgy’s Artistic Portrayal” points out three bases of the artistic portrayal of Porgy: Political and Social Basis,Creative Style,and Cultural Identity.The part of “Libretto Image” presents the emotional development of Porgy and Bess,Crown,and Sporting Life systematically and logically.The part of the“Singing Image” shows the elements of Porgy’s artistic image contained in the three main songs,I Got Plenty O’Nuttin’,Buzzard Song and Lord,I’m on my way.This thesis aims to grasp the singing images of Porgy by understanding the pace rhythm and diversified tone processing with “Porgy-style”.The“Performing Image” indicates the way that various character traits of Porgy are expressed through his unique African-American singing techniques,limp body language,and the creative choreography combined of realism and storytelling.Through the “Four-dimensional Construction”,we are able to have a deeper grasp of how to portray Porgy vividly on stage as a tragic figure among the race of African American.