Summertime

@frogman:

The tune is clearly Blues-based in tonality, so having an opera singer perform it, thereby draining it of all its bluesiness, is nothing I personally want to hear. No doubt others will disagree. 

Simply offered for comparison's sake, here are three versions by Jazz singers: 


Billie Holiday: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8eLHZXv-60

Ella:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU

Sassy: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmofX0rE6CQ

@frogman:

Sorry for not having doing a very good job of expressing myself. 

In retrospect, I suppose what I was trying to express was my uneasiness about Gerswin's motivation for utilizing the Blues/Jazz as source material for composition and then placing the result within a European Classical frame. Did he do this (consciously or unconsciously) in order to "legitimize" it, on some level? To make it more commercially viable for white audiences? I haven't read his bio, so I don't know. 

To my ears, it's a very jarring transition.

I realize not everyone has the same tastes and that I wouldn't be asking this question if I felt the song was somehow inadequate unless performed operatically. 

The Mahalia Jackson version is lovely, BTW...