Jazz Opera

Jazz opera is opera composed from within the jazz tradition, in which jazz harmony, rhythm, improvisation and instrumentation are structural to the drama rather than decorative colour. Its landmark is *George Gershwin*'s "Porgy and Bess" (1935), the 'folk opera' whose songs became jazz standards, preceded by *Scott Joplin*'s ragtime opera "Treemonisha". The form was renewed by *Carla Bley*'s sprawling "Escalator over the Hill" (1971), and by a line of works from Black American composers — *Anthony Davis*'s "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X" (1985) and *Terence Blanchard*'s "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" (2019), the first opera by a Black composer staged at the Metropolitan Opera.