Someone in my office was just whistling ‘Summertime.’ Who wrote this song?
That would be the Gershwin boys, George and Ira. It’s from “Porgy and Bess” along with “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” and “Bess, You Is My Woman Now”.
Nope. DuBose Heyward did the lyrics.
Georgie Gershwin did all the music to Porgy & Bess.
Ira (GG’s bro) and DuBose Heyward each did lyrics.
Heyward did the book alone.
Heyward’s songs include:
Summertime, A Woman is a Sometime Thing, My Man’s Gone Now, and I’m on My Way
As best as I can figger, the rest of the songs in the score are all Ira’s or a collaboration.
For the record, is “Porgy and Bess” a true opera? It certainly seems like it to me. However, snobby friends of mine claim it isn’t.
I’m no music expert, but the objections I’ve heard (from people more knowledgeable than me) is that it contains too many songs, and not enough arias (which I take to mean opportunities for expert vocalizing) to qualify as an opera, and that the music is not of operatic calibre.
But most articles or books seem to qualify it as an american opera.
I knew better, too.
I’ve heard “Porgy and Bess” described as an operetta, as well as most Gilbert & Sullivan works. (Now they were a team, right? It wasn’t Gilbert & Heyward or something was it?) Calling something an operetta seems to let us off the hook but there are probably purists who have a whole 'nother definition for operetta and we’re still in trouble. But if “Tommy” is an opera I can’t see why anyone would object to “Porgy and Bess”. (Before the flames begin – note the word “if” in the previous sentence.)
I had always understood that a “musical” contained both (spoken) dialog and sung music, while in an opera, all of the lines were sung. “Operetta” should just mean a short opera. By this definition, for instance, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat would be considered an oper(ett)a, even though the musical style is completely different from, say, Das Rings or Carmen
I think that’s the definition of “grand opera” (where all the dialogue is sung.)
For example, in Mozart’s opera “Die Zauberflöte” (The Magic Flute), many of the lines are recitatives, i.e. “spoken” and sometimes accompanied by faint background music.
The difference between operetta and opera is not, in my understanding, the length of the piece, but rather the fact that an operetta deals with “minor” themes, i.e. is lightly comedic and sentimental, without the seriousness of the subject matter suitable for an opera proper.
Stephen Sondheim was recently (past 2-3 months) interviewed about this topic for the Sunday NY Times. (It may still be online, but probably at a cost.)
His “Sweeney Todd” was then being performed by the NY Philharmonic w/ a mix of opera and Broadway stars. (Saw it… boffo!) Sweeney Todd has often been “accused” of being an opera, and the Times wanted his take on it. IIRC, Sondheim – who is no fan of opera incidentally – draws the line as follows:
Opera is primarily about voices; musical theater is primarily about story.
In his opinion, ST is not an opera.
Hey, Pluto… my apologies to YOU.
Sorry I came slamming in on your post like I did. My exuberance got the best of me… but Heyward is always forgotten, so I felt the need to be his hero! Please forgive.
MINOR HIJACK (but worth the read if you’ve never heard it; and another apology to you musical theater fans who probably have):
The wife of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein was in the habit of correcting people who referred to “Jerome Kern’s ‘Ol’ Man River’” (from “Show Boat”). Kern, of course, had written the music.
She’d say, “Jerome Kern wrote da-da-dada. It was my husband who wrote ‘Ol’ Man River’.”
Huh? Which one? Ah, nothing like a deaf person to answer a music question:
Summertime
Summertime
Sam Cooke
Summertime
Regine Owens
Summertime
D.J. Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince
Summertime
Billy Stewart