They say "two heads are better than one," and through the years we've seen composers and writers put this saying to the test. Many of our beloved songs, musicals and operas are a result of collaborations between composers, poets, playwrights and librettists. These noted works are a testament that, when conditions are right; when personalities and creativity are in harmony, a successful musical collaboration is born.
- In 1935 Benjamin Britten started working for General Post Office. While there he composed music for films they produced and collaborated with poet W.H. Auden. Their creative output includes the operetta Paul Bunyan. Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia was a setting of Auden's poems.
- Jean-Baptiste Lully collaborated with two other notable figures; namely the playwright Moliere (i.e. L'Amour médecin) and the poet/librettist Philippe Quinault (i.e. Armide).
- Kurt Weill was known for his collaborations with writer Bertolt Brecht. The Weill/Brecht collaboration produced a new type of opera using caustic wit to address social follies of their time.
- George Gershwin composed scores for Broadway musicals. Most of the lyrics of Gershwins' songs were written by his older brother Ira Gershwin.
- When George Gershwin died in 1937, Ira Gershwin went on a hiatus. He returned in 1941 with the musical Lady in the Dark, a collaboration with composer Kurt Weill and playwright Moss Hart.
- Vincenzo Bellini collaborated with the librettist Felice Romani on six of his nine operas; these include Il pirata, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues), La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker), Norma and Beatrice de Tendo.
- In 1928, Samuel Barber met and became friends with fellow composer Giancarlo Menotti. Menotti was the librettist for Barber's opera "Vanessa" and "A Hand of Bridge."
- Arthur Sullivan's successful collaborations with librettist William Schwenk Gilbert helped establish the English operetta. Gilbert and Sullivan's famous works are collectively known as the "Savoy Operas."
- Darius Milhaud's "Le Livre de Christophe Colomb" was a collaboration with the playwright and his close friend Paul Claudel.
- Richard Rodgers was known for his musical comedies and his successful collaborations with librettists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His collaborations with Hart produced around 1,000 songs including "With a Song in My Heart," "The Lady Is a Tramp," "Pal Joey," "Blue Moon," "My Funny Valentine" and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered." When Hart died in 1943, Rodgers started to work with Oscar Hammerstein II. The Rodgers and Hammerstein tandem resulted in several successful works including Oklahoma! and South Pacific which both won a Pulitzer Prize.
- Leonard Bernstein's musicals On the Town (1944) and Wonderful Town (1953) were collaborations with lyricists/librettists Betty Comden and Adolph Green. His West Side Story (1957) was a collaboration with librettist Arthur Laurents and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
- Erik Satie's "Parade," which premiered in Paris in 1917, was a collaboration with the painter Pablo Picasso and writer Jean Cocteau.
- La princesse de Navarre is a collaboration between composer Jean-Philippe Rameau and the writer François-Marie Arouet, famously known as Voltaire.
- The Black Crook by playwright Charles M. Barras and composer George Bickwell is a musical comedy that opened on September 12, 1866 at Niblo's Garden in New York City.
- Composer Jerome Kern collaborated with librettist Guy Bolton and playwright Pelham Grenville (P.G.) Wodehouse on several musicals like Oh Boy! and Leave It To Jane.
- Librettist and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner collaborated with American composer Frederick Loewe on such musicals as Brigadoon (1947), Paint Your Wagon (1951), My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960).
- Composer Charles Strouse wrote the score for several Broadway musicals from the 1960s to the 90s. These include Bye Bye Birdie which was a collaboration with lyricist Lee Adams. His other collaborations with Lee Adams include All American (1962), Golden Boy (1964), Applause (1970) and I and Albert (1972). In 1976, he worked alongside lyricist Martin Charnin and librettist Thomas Meehan on the hit Broadway musical Annie.
- In Funny Girl, which opened in 1964, composer/lyricist Bob Merrill collaborated with composer Jule Styne.
- "The Things We Did Last Summer" was a successful song collaboration between lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne. This song was published in 1946 and recorded by The Lettermen, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, to name a few.
- Composer Jerry Bock collaborated with lyricist Sheldon Harnick on several musicals, most notably 1964's Fiddler on the Roof.
- Composer/producer Andrew Lloyd Webber's collaborations with lyricist Tim Rice resulted in several successful musicals. These include Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) and Evita (1978).
- Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim's Follies (1973) was a collaboration with librettist James Goldman. His Pacific Overtures (1976) was a collaboration with librettist John Weidman.
- Composer Marvin Hamlisch won a Tony Award for Best Score and a Pulitzer Price for Drama for his work on the musical A Chorus Line (1975). The said musical was a collaboration with lyricist Ed Kleban.
