Rhapsody in Blue, which George Gershwin composed and first performed in 1924, is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated works of our time. But how did it come to be? Between legend and reality, this book imagines following the composer through the colorful metropolitan vitality of New York, a symbol and epitome of America as a whole, in an unwitting search for the inspiration that would lead to the composition of the opera. A story hidden within the music, to which the words and illustrations lend a different and unexpected arrangement. "What the weather is like? Crystal clear day. All of New York at my disposal. All of New York! Unbelievable! And what else was I waiting for? If I were a painter, I would have painted it; a photographer, I would have photographed it; but good heavens, I was a musician and I would have played it!"