Opera remains a European trope. There's been great music - and great classical music - composed on these shores, but not a lot in the way of Opera. "Porgy and Bess" - first performed in 1935 - is sometimes described as opera, but it's really something else*. In Europe it would be described as "Operetta" but here we call it "Musical Theater". It's very popular as the recent reception of "Hamilton" shows.
The lyrics paint a nostalgic picture that resonates down the 85 years since it was written.
Summertime, an' the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high.
Oh, yo' daddy's rich and yo' ma is good-lookin'
So hush, little baby, don' you cry.
One of these mornin's you goin' to rise up singin'
Then you'll spread yo' wings an' you'll take to the sky.
But till that mornin', there's a nothin' can harm you
With Daddy an' Mammy standin' by.
This is the immortal Kathleen Battle, with the almost equally immortal Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
As with Cinema, classical music is alive and well in Musical Theater.
* True opera has no spoken dialog. Rather, the dialog is all sung.
Great lesson today, I especially enjoy the amateur productions of musicals. There are lots around if you look hard enough. A real classic, and a beautiful performance by Kathleen Battle.
ReplyDeleteEven if I understand the language, I can never understand the words in opera. Musicals are fun, opera is not.