"Jesus Christ is a superstar": content, video, interesting facts, history

"Jesus Christ is a superstar" by E. Lloyd Webber

"Jesus Christ is a superstar" is the legendary work of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Decades later, it does not lose relevance. Until now, the content has caused heated controversial reactions regarding the interpretation of religious scripture. Nevertheless, the work remains a classic and is put on the best world stages. Interesting facts, the history of creation and summary of the rock opera "Jesus Christ - superstar" can be found on the page.

Summary

The plot of the opera is taken from the Gospel narratives. The chronology covers the last Holy Week of Jesus Christ’s life. At the same time, the authors did not observe canonicity in presenting Holy Scripture, from which they were criticized by some of the religious ministers. In their own Aryans, the characters express no dogmatic ideas about religion, because the authors have tried to reveal in them human feelings and experiences.

Events develop as well as in the Gospel, the only difference is that Iscariot did not want to die to Jesus Christ, but he knew that he also had a terrible life purpose, which consisted in treason. Moreover, Judas cannot accept the fact that control over what is happening is completely lost. He believes that Christ and the apostles are close to a terrible incident. In order to save the "religious teacher" from the crowd, Judas decides to denounce. He thinks that the guards only isolate Jesus, but Iscariot is mistaken.

Judas is smart, he believes that Christ is the son of God, and therefore has the power of foresight. So, he knew what would happen and determined him in advance for the role of a traitor.

Jesus Christ is the complete opposite of Judah. The authors gave him emotion and determination. Nevertheless, doubts torment the soul, the hero cannot understand why a sacrifice is needed, what its necessity is. This is most clearly manifested in the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The climax scene is judgment. Jesus is ready to accept all accusations, and accept punishment. He does nothing to escape from fate, and pushes away the help of Pilate. Everything ends with the death of Jesus Christ, who asked the executioners to forgive him. His soul falls into the hands of God.

Webber and Rice have long argued about the completion of the rock opera. According to Webber, the final was to be a scene with the resurrection, but Rice insisted on the tragic concept.

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• In musical culture, the production was the first theatrical rock opera. The genre was popularized quickly enough, and had distribution in many countries, including the USSR.
• Originally, the authors planned to write a work not about Jesus Christ, but about King David. Tim Rice even came up with the first lines for the first issue: "Samuel, Samuel, this is the first book, Samuel!" Subsequently, they were changed to: "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, who are you? Why do you need your sacrifice?"
• In response to the onslaught of many representatives of the church, the authors responded that their hero is a story of a man, not of God. The rock opera is about earthly life, with all its doubts and the cruelty of reality. Divinity is not refuted by the plot of the rock opera, but on the contrary raises this question, leaving it open.
• Singer Yvonne Elliman, who played the role of Mary Magdalena, did not pass any castings to perform the role. Her composer was heard in one of the restaurants where she sang with a guitar. When Andrew Lloyd Webber, unknown at that time, offered to sing Elliman in his rock opera, the girl only laughed and said that Lloyd had apparently drunk alcoholic drinks. The next day, the composer, enthusiastic and determined, took his friend Rice, and together they went to persuade the singer. And Elliman agreed to participate.

• During the writing of the work, many newspapers have already tried to submit candidates for the role of the main performers. One of these figures, according to the yellow press, was a very scandalous John Lennon. Then the celebrity press office announced that he would agree only in one case, if Yoko Ono would play the role of Mary Magdalen. All the rumors were instantly refuted by the authors themselves. When signing a contract to record the album of the rock opera "Jesus Christ - Superstar" Yvonne was offered two payment options, namely a fixed fee or the interest earned on sales. In the end, after consulting with a friend who was clearly confident that no one would buy this album, the singer chose the first option. And I made a fortune, because after the release of the album, he promptly reached the maximum positions in sales. As a result, Yvonne received less decent money. A few years later she filed a lawsuit and sued her own fee.
• In the first productions, the role of Jesus Christ was given to the legendary singer and lead singer of Deep Purple Ian Gillan.

Popular numbers:

Overture - listen

Gethsemane (I just want to say) - listen

King Herod's Song (King Herod's aria) - listen

Superstar - listen

The history of the genre of rock opera

Rock opera is a relatively new musical genre, which appeared only in the 50s of the last century. Currently, he is actively developing, but in the theater the beginning of this genre was laid by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Rock opera, as a new musical genre, has the following features:

• The use of electronic instruments in the orchestra, including bass guitars, electric guitars, drum sets, synthesizers, etc.
• Instead of classic arias, the numbers are rock arias.

It is not strange, but the main difference between rock and jazz music is to use not acoustic, but electronic instruments.

For the first time, rock opera as a genre was presented in the conceptual album of the English rock band The Who. It was the first album to have a plot, so it was written on the cover of the disc that it was a rock opera. In this work, the narration is conducted from different personalities, but tells one life story of the boy Tommy. The premiere shook the whole world, under the influence of this innovation, the young composer Lloyd Webber, who was also a little-popular, was also influenced by the idea of ​​creating a work in this genre.

History of creation

The writing of the rock opera began immediately after the creation of the musical "Joseph and his amazing colorful raincoat". Andrew Lloyd Webber and his friend, writer and playwright Tim Rice decided to create a rock opera based on the biblical storyline. But the topic was not chosen immediately, initially, the authors planned to write a work about King David.

How did it happen that from King David, the production became dedicated to Jesus Christ? Inspiration came to Tim Rice when he listened to Bob Dylan’s song “God is on our side,” and they decided to write a rock opera.

Part of the musical material of the famous rock opera was created even in advance, before starting work on such a large-scale work. So, the future aria of King Herod had a completely different text and was a song presented at Eurovision. The author of the words Tim Rice then laughed for a long time, saying that the composition did not take the first place in such an honorable competition, because it was not primitive.

In the initial version of the rock opera, it was simply called "Jesus Christ", but Rice was constantly looking for something missing in the title. In the end, once reading the press, he saw a very bright headline "Tom Jonas - Superstar". So, after consulting with Webber, they decided to choose this particular name. As the authors say, adding the word superstar allows you to make the hero a real, living person who has the right to express his own feelings.

The work went quickly, after two years the work was completely completed. Due to lack of funds, it was decided to release the album, and the production should be modestly played in one of the Lutheran churches. At the beginning, the hall was only half filled, but by the end of the first act there was not a single empty seat. The performance was a triumph, and the young and gifted composer was seriously talked about.

In the seventies, an album was released, which was sold out almost instantly. Rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" brought popularity to Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and a year later the first production took place in the majestic place of America, the Broadway Theater, where the author also received general public recognition.

Screen versions

At the moment there is only one screen version of the production with the same name. She was shot by Norman Juison in 73 of the last century.

Yvonne Elliman - the only singer of all the participants of the production, who subsequently starred with his own role in the film. Many refused because of the small fee. Thus, the refusal was received by the legendary Ian Gillan. The director still can not forget the dialogue in which he was refused:

- So how much will I pay for participation? - asked the lead singer of a rock band

- Exactly one thousand dollars for each week. - answered the director.

- That is, you offer me ten thousand for participation in the leading role, while people from my group will hang around for almost two months?

- What do you mean by that?

- Understand, director, my group earns about twenty thousand dollars in one night only! Now you must understand my bewilderment.

- And how much do you want to get?

- I will not get out of bed for less than 250 thousand dollars.

There was silence. We both knew what that meant: Ian Gillan would never be a movie star!

As a result, the film began to shoot in hot Israel. Most of the participants of the troupe were from the scandalous rock group "Hair", and did not particularly claim big fees. Moreover, they constantly drank, smoked and rowdy. Once, when the authors came to the shooting, they were real intellectuals, they were completely shocked. Their presence at the site did not reach even two hours, then they stayed in Israel for a few days, visiting sights, and left for their homeland. To this day, they do not like to comment on the resulting film.

The premiere of the film was calm, however, the picture raised almost 24 million US dollars for the entire rental, which was a success. In the USSR, showing films in cinemas was not due to censorship.

The rock opera "Jesus Christ is a superstar" is an amazing piece filled with deep philosophical meaning. The music of each of the rooms is incredibly beautiful and melodious. Everyone decides how to perceive this musical creation from a religious point of view, but we cannot deny that Webber and Rice managed to create a real masterpiece in the world of music.