The Silver Sage
Are you ready? Come on along and read some homespun poetry as well as a jot and tittle regarding distinguished poets and their works. Gael offers a positive balance of her own nostalgia notes and poetic meanderings with those of others. [Editor's note: Gael no longer contributes to Silver Planet, but we have made her archived blog entries available as a service to our readers.]
Summertime and the Livin’ Is Easy
Remembering an American classic
Ah yes, Porgy and Bess.
I have several songs and poems running through my mind right now. I sing with a popular show choir and was feeling musical as I began to write this post, thus the featured poem is the song “Summertime”—which seems an appropriate tune for July.
Written by DuBose Heyward—who collaborated with his wife, Dorothy, and lyricist Ira Gershwin and his composer brother, George—the song is from the well-known three-act opera Porgy and Bess. My research of the more recognized compositions in the opera indicates that Heyward was the sole author of the lyrics for this particular aria-lullaby.
Porgy and Bess was based on his novel Porgy, written in 1925. Dorothy Heyward, also a talented writer, rewrote it into a play, which opened in 1927. The opera version was produced later and was, as noted, a collaboration among the Heywards and George and Ira Gershwin. Renamed Porgy and Bess to distinguish it from the play, it opened in the Alvin Theatre on Broadway in 1935. “Summertime” is one of many memorable compositions to come out of the production.
Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high
Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry
One of these mornings
You're gonna rise up singing
You're gonna spread your wings
and take to the sky
But till that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With daddy and mamma standing by
Porgy and Bess has been revived many times on stage. How many readers have seen the Broadway version, an amateur production, or perhaps enjoyed the 1959 movie starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge? Did it leave you with “Summertime” running through your head and a subliminal desire to spread your wings and take to the sky?
Make a comment, and let me know!
By Gael Stuart
The Silver Sage Blog
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