"When the cannons are silent, the muses are heard." This was a favorite saying of a Soviet minder to visiting Americans who brought a production of Porgy and Bess to Leningrad and Moscow in 1955-6. Truman Capote's account of the trip, through the premiere performance, is rich in detail and characterizations. Mrs. Ira Gershwin hunts for caviar; Capote gets sozzled in a workingman's bar with female bouncers; and the Russian audience, at least at the outset, sits on its hands in confused silence during the opening performance. The book pulses with Capote's sharp eye and sly humor.
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