Born Israel Gershovitz in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1896, the lyricist Ira Gershwin generally worked in the shadow of his Odessa-born brother, the composer George Gershwin. But each was a talent in his own right, and their collaboration produced much of what came to be known as the Great American Songbook, defining the genre of the Broadway musical. The two also created the groundbreaking 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, which featured a largely African American cast and portrayed the struggles of blacks in the Jim Crow South. Carl Rollyson reviews Michael Owen’s new biography of Ira:
Michael Owen is a scrupulous biographer—as scrupulous as his subject, who never wanted to take more credit for the Gershwin success than he thought was owed to him. Ira’s working methods with his brother and other composers are detailed in engaging prose that explains, say, Ira’s use of four-syllable rhymes. His effervescent and light-hearted lyrics are, in fact, the result of a painstaking process.
Those not versed in what goes on in Porgy and Bess and other Gershwin productions may feel a little lost. Mr. Owen does not say much about why the opera has been controversial. Today, Porgy and Bess might be accused of being the product of two Jewish New Yorkers appropriating the Black experience—though a white South Carolinian, DuBose Hayward, author of the libretto, would have to be part of the complaint.
Mr. Owen makes clear that the Gershwins were an assimilationist family, hardly acknowledging their Jewish heritage or religion. On the contrary, they wanted to absorb all America had to offer, and it is curious that Mr. Owen does not make more of that point as a way of describing Porgy and Bess, set in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, and featuring a cast of flamboyant African Americans, including Sportin’ Life, a violent drug dealer.
Read more on New York Sun: https://www.nysun.com/article/ira-gershwins-absorbing-american-life