Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Song (Excerpt)

By Dana Gioia

Below is an exclusive excerpt from Dana Gioia’s forthcoming new book, Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry

Gesang ist Dasein.
(Singing is being.)
—Rainer Maria Rilke

It is not coincidental that George Gershwin's Porgy, the most popular American opera, emerged from commercial theater. Broadway has a different way of developing musical theater. It puts greater emphasis on the lyrics than opera companies do. It is worth noting that five of the ten most widely performed American operas, including Leonard Bernstein's Candide and Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul, premiered not in an opera house but in commercial theater or on television. That is an astonishing and significant fact for an art form that exists entirely in the non-profit sector, supported more by private and public donations than box office receipts. 

Commercial theater understands something that opera companies do not—the expressive power of strong and memorable lyrics. The talent needed to compose a song is self-evident, but wr…