Ruby Elzy sings Gershwin: My Man's Gone Now (Gershwin memorial concert, 1937)

Ruby Elzy, the soprano hand-picked by Gershwin to sing Serena's part in his opera Porgy and Bess, here sings My Man's Gone Now at a special nationally broadcast Gershwin memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl on 8th September 1937, following the composer's untimely death on 11 July 1937.
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The American soprano Ruby Elzy was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi on February 20 1908. Ruby, whose grandmother was born a slave, grew up in a single parent family, her mother, a school teacher, encouraging the obvious musical talent Ruby displayed from an early age. While at college in Holly Springs, Mississippi she was overheard singing by a visiting college administrator from Ohio State University, who arranged her transfer to Ohio. Following her graduation from Ohio she received a fellowship to the Juiliard School in New York.
Even before graduation from Juilliard, Ruby Elzy had already sung on Broadway and appeared on film with Paul Robeson in 'The Emperor Jones'. The screenwriter for 'The Emperor Jones' was none other than DuBose Heyward, author of the original novel Porgy and soon to be librettist for Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. Dubose Heyward recommended Ruby Elzy to Gershwin when the composer was casting for his still unfinished opera. After just one hearing Gershwin had no hesitation in giving the 27-year-old Ruby Elzy one of the most important roles in Porgy and Bess, as Serena, whose grief after the murder of her husband Robbins is expressed in the extraordinary anguish of 'My Man's Gone Now'.
Following the great success of her performances in Porgy and Bess Ruby’s career blossomed, notwithstanding the difficult times in which she was born. In December 1937 she received the great honour of being invited to perform at the White House by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Having to rush to an evening concert engagement the same day as her White House performance Elzy asked if she could call a taxi but Eleanor Roosevelt wouldn't hear of it, making her own car available instead. As she left the White House in the First Lady's black limousine, driven by a uniformed chauffeur, Ruby Elzy turned to her pianist Arthur Kaplan and said "Oh Arthur, if only my friends back in Mississippi could see this little colored girl now!"
By 1943, though having featured in a number of movies, including a memorable performance singing the St Louis Blues in Bing Crosby’s Birth of the Blues (1941), her career as a singer was still firmly rooted in the classics including German Lieder, and Elzy's sights were set on grand opera, having been engaged to take the lead role in Verdi's Aida in 1944. Alas this dream would never be realised. On 19 June 1943 a long nationwide tour of Porgy and Bess in which she reprised the role of Serena came to its conclusion in Denver, Colorado. Describing what would be Ruby Elzy's final ever performance, the Denver Post wrote, on 20 June 1943:
"There is a wake in Serena's room, with unforgettable color and shadow effects, where Ruby Elzy as Serena lifts her voice in the spiritual ('My Man's Gone Now')... giving a stinging reality to the finality of death".
Ruby Elzy's friends, family and admirers were shocked when, just one week later, on 26 June 1943, she tragically died in Detroit, Michigan, following what should have been a routine operation to remove a benign tumor. She was only 35 years old.
Other members of Ruby's family were long-lived, her mother Emma dying in 1985 at the age of 98, while her younger sister Amanda, who became a distinguished pioneering educator, died in 2004 at the age of 94. In contrast Ruby's flame burned bright and fast.
Pullitzer prize-winning writer Lloyd Schwartz has described Ruby Elzy's voice as having "a unique quality that can only be described as heartbreaking". Sadly there are very few recordings of her singing, but there is a unique rehearsal recording of Porgy and Bess that Gershwin himself set up and conducted, in which the composer can be heard introducing Ruby Elzy, as well as a deeply moving performance Elzy gave at Gershwin's Memorial Concert on 8 September 1937 (following Gershwin's death on 11 July 1937). The Gershwin Memorial Concert included an array of stars from Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, Oscar Levant and José Iturbi, to the original cast of Porgy and Bess, and was broadcast live around the world from the Hollywood Bowl. Ruby Elzy sang ‘My Man’s Gone Now’ with “hair-raising” emotion, in a voice filled with both the collective grief of African American history and personal grief for the loss of Gershwin. She was surely also aware that Gershwin’s death had now cemented in time the extraordinary story of the creation of his great opera, in which she had played such an important part.

[@TheMarapasa]

OMG...thank you for this posting.... ruby elzy, what a voice ... this is so moving for a historian like me and important for the world to view

[@marlenehartley7742]

Thank you so much for posting!!! Great historical photos. Beautiful singer.

[@Kiarinadia]

Thank you for this historical and moving video. What a wonderful voice. So sad this early death of Gershwin.

[@timothydukeman7619]

Hers, as well. She died in Detroit (6/26/43) at age 35... routine operation to remove a benign tumor.

[@alhajasufidecarlosysar-pn7cx]

..A que precio,,?