Spare Air this weekend

Anticipating the Fourth of July, the most American of holidays, the greatest of all American musical-theater works, “Porgy and Bess” by George and Ira Gershwin and Du Bose Heyward, in the historic first recording of the complete opera, made in 1951, starring Lawrence Williams as Porgy and Camilla Williams as Bess – a role the Virginia-born soprano agreed to record but never sang in the theater.

July 2
7-9 p.m. EDT
2300-0100 GMT/UTC
WDCE-FM, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

Gershwin: “Porgy and Bess”
Lawrence Williams (Porgy)
Camilla Williams (Bess)
Inez Matthews (Serena)
Warren Coleman (Crown)
Avon Long (Sportin’ Life)
J. Rosamond Johnson Chorus
orchestra/Lehman Engel
(Sony Masterworks)