Gershwin- Classical or Jazz?

Originally Posted by robinjessome

...because originally, there was no spoken dialogue.

Dern, my lack of a deep knowledge of Porgy and Bess has been revealed. The only version I've ever seen was the film version with Sammy Davis Jr in it. That version has tons of dialogue.

Originally Posted by JoshMc

Dern, my lack of a deep knowledge of Porgy and Bess has been revealed. The only version I've ever seen was the film version with Sammy Davis Jr in it. That version has tons of dialogue.

Don't worry, I was off base a bit too - much discussion ensued.

Originally Posted by Christopher Dunn-Rankin

Nor does the exclusion of spoken dialogue render a piece an opera. Les Miserables is still a musical, though its three spoken lines are written in rhythmic notation in the score.

And not a very good one, at that. But that's generally what happens to musicals that wish they were operas written by pop composers who want to pretend they're better than they are.

I'm sorry, Les Miserables is way overblown for what it actually is... a poorly paced theatre piece attempting to be an opera.

I love Les Miz.

I feel like we are REALLY off topic....

I've seen a handful of musicals on Broadway, but Les Mis is the only one that I didn't enjoy. It's just...crap... I agree that it is poorly paced, overdramatic, self-insistent...and the songs are very overrated. Later that day we saw "The Drowsy Chaperone," which was short and frivolous...but a hundred times better than Les Mis.

Oh but to get back on topic, I'd say Gershwin is Jazz-inspired classical. My non-official criteria is that I imagine far more classical-music-lovers listen to Gershwin that jazz-music-lovers, and I wouldn't generally think, "Parker, Monk, Gershwin..." I'd be more likely to think of "Copland, Joplin, Gershwin."

Funny (well, sad really) story about the composer of Les Miz.

When the touring company was in Montreal, Jean Michel Schonberg decided to give a "pep talk" to the assembled cast, and in that little chat he explained that he was entirely self-taught "...just like Stephen Sondheim..."

Talk about over-blown ego.

Oh, in case you're wondering WHY it's funny: Sondheim studied composition with Oscar Hammerstein, majored in music at Princeton, and studied with Milton Babbit... not my idea of "entirely self taught".

So should we focus on some of the good musicals instead of the bad.