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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:13 am
by Cambo
This song has been covered, according to Wikipedia, over 25,000 times! It started life as an opera piece, but was adopted by popular music to become a jazz standard. For simplicities sake, I'll take the first version to become a pop success as the original:
Billie Holiday- Summertime
But I think the definitive, jaw dropping, gut punching version was delivered years later by Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin- Summertime
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 3:04 am
by Menolly
Cambo wrote:It started life as an opera piece, but was adopted by popular music to become a jazz standard.
hmm...
While the production of
Porgy and Bess was written as an opera, the music was never meant to be classical. It was written as folk music, which can easily segue in to jazz.
[i]Porgy and Bess[/i] on Wikipedia wrote:Originally conceived by George Gershwin as an "American folk opera",
Porgy and Bess premiered in New York in the fall of 1935 and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. Gershwin chose the African-American musician Eva Jessye as the choral director for the opera. Gershwin explained why he called
Porgy and Bess a folk opera in a 1935 New York Times article: "
Porgy and Bess is a folk tale. Its people naturally would sing folk music. When I first began work in the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folksongs. But they are still folk music – and therefore, being in operatic form,
Porgy and Bess becomes a folk opera."
For me, that would be the equivalent of saying
JC, Superstar or
I Don't Know How to Love Him are operatic pieces, since they were both written for the rock opera,
JC, Superstar. Or the song
Day by Day from
G-dspell. But I don't think of them that way, not even the original cast recordings of them.
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 3:27 am
by Cambo
Fair enough! I have no knowledge of the actual play, I just saw "opera" on the Wikipedia page and took their word for it
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:50 am
by Ananda
Cambo wrote:This song has been covered, according to Wikipedia, over 25,000 times! It started life as an opera piece, but was adopted by popular music to become a jazz standard. For simplicities sake, I'll take the first version to become a pop success as the original:
Billie Holiday- Summertime
But I think the definitive, jaw dropping, gut punching version was delivered years later by Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin- Summertime
Awww, that is from swedish tv.
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:28 am
by Cambo
You lucky sods.
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:50 am
by Iolanthe
The distinction is easy. Opera has no spoken words. Musicals (modern), operettas (not usually modern) have words and music. Gilbert & Sullivan wrote operettas, as did Sigmund Romberg (Desert Song, Student Prince etc.) et al. Why there is a distinction between musicals and operettas is probably an age thing. Porgy and Bess would be classed as a "Musical", like "Carousel", "Oklahoma" etc.
P & G is a beautiful musical. If you get the chance, Cambo, you should watch it. There are other very good songs "It ain't necessarily so", "I got plenty o' nothing" etc. And the music...........well it is Gershwin
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 5:23 pm
by Menolly
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 7:08 pm
by Cord Hurn
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:33 am
by sgt.null
Cord - a favorite
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 11:29 am
by Damelon
Original:
My Sweet Lord
Cover, at A Concert for George by Billy Preston
My Sweet Lord
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 11:37 am
by Damelon
While I’m thinking about it
Original by Dave Loggins
Please Come To Boston
Cover by David Allen Coe
Please Come To Boston
