Black Orpheus. Terrific movie!

The legend of Orpheus and Eurydice updated and transferred to Rio de Janeiro during Carnivale. The music! Wow! I defy anyone to see that movie and not come out of the theater undulating! And it lasts for days.

Played in the art houses, but they were mobbed. A very popular movie.

Carmen Jones, the plot of Bizet's "Carmen" (although it was a novella by Prosper Mérimée before Bizet got hold of it) updated, starring Harry Belafonte as Joe (José) and Dorothy Dandridge as Carmen Jones. Escamillo, the toreador in Bizet's opera, becomes a prizefighter named "Husky Miller." A lot of Bizet's music, with somewhat modified and updated lyrics (in English). Belafonte does a very nice job on the English version of "The Flower Song," the tenor's big aria in the second act of the opera.

Don Firth

P. S. George Gershwin was taken a lot more seriously as a composer in Europe than he was in the United States, but I think he's gradually being rediscovered (or, perhaps, discovered for the first time) in the U. S.