I Got Plenty o' Nuttin

"I Got Plenty o' Nuttin " is a bass-baritone aria sung by the character Porgy from George Gershwin's 1935 "folk-opera" Porgy and Bess (1934). The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, and Ira Gershwin. It is one of the most famous arias from the opera (along with "Summertime", "It Ain't Necessarily So", and "Bess, You Is My Woman Now") and it has been recorded by hundreds of singers and music groups. The aria expresses a cheerful acceptance of poverty as freedom from worldly cares. Porgy says he has the most important things in life, " 'Cause de things dat I prize, / Like de stars in de skies / All are free". Most of all, he's "got my gal, got my Lord, got my song". Porgy and Bess Porgy sings the aria in act 2 after he and Bess have been living together, expressing his new happiness. Like several other arias in the opera, it is implied that it is being performed by the singer to the other characters, in this case as a banjo song. As elsewhere in the opera, other characters join in to create communal engagement with song. In the view of Joseph Horowitz, Gershwin made "a banjo song with choral interjections, a community moment". There is a short reprise of the song at the end of the act, as Porgy sings cheerfully to himself after Bess has left on her fateful trip to Kittiwah Island.