I grew up with the original Broadway cast album of this show, without having seen the show in person, so watching the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar I had some different voices in my mind's ear. Only Mary Magdelene (Yvonne Elliman) and Pontius Pilate (Barry Dennen) are holdovers from the stage version that ran from 1971 - 1973.
This was the first Broadway cast album I heard for a show that was entirely music. I naively thought that made it an opera. Well, I've since discovered that is ain't necessarily so. There are many operas that have dialogue, and lots of through-sung musicals don't meet the musicological threshold to be opera. Of course, now opera companies often produce musicals, and contemporary operas often don't meet that same musicological threshold. That's a bad phrase (not to mention, a bad sentence), but I hope it makes my point. Which is really to say, that in a strange way Jesus Christ Superstar led me to explore opera. Go figure.
I remember seeing the film for the first time when I was a senior in high school and realizing how easy it was to side with Judas, which I have to believe is part of the point of the show and the film. Following Christ wasn't easy, and (not to make too strong a point) maybe it still shouldn't be.
This is the first appearance in my Year for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Love him or hate him, he'll be back.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice
1973 film directed by Norman Jewison
Cast: Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen
This was the first Broadway cast album I heard for a show that was entirely music. I naively thought that made it an opera. Well, I've since discovered that is ain't necessarily so. There are many operas that have dialogue, and lots of through-sung musicals don't meet the musicological threshold to be opera. Of course, now opera companies often produce musicals, and contemporary operas often don't meet that same musicological threshold. That's a bad phrase (not to mention, a bad sentence), but I hope it makes my point. Which is really to say, that in a strange way Jesus Christ Superstar led me to explore opera. Go figure.
I remember seeing the film for the first time when I was a senior in high school and realizing how easy it was to side with Judas, which I have to believe is part of the point of the show and the film. Following Christ wasn't easy, and (not to make too strong a point) maybe it still shouldn't be.
This is the first appearance in my Year for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Love him or hate him, he'll be back.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice
1973 film directed by Norman Jewison
Cast: Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen
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