In the midst of the Great Depression, the hugely successful team of George and Ira Gershwin set out to do something absolutely new:  New both for them AND for music. They contracted with the Theater Guild to create the first, "folk opera"; to be based on the 1925 novel and 1927 stage play, "Porgy", by DuBose Heyward. George Gershwin composed the music. The Libretto was produced by Heyward.  And the Lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin.

It would take 50 years for it to come to be!