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Early History What appears to be the first actual experiment in rock opera - officially accepted and so baptized by all major musical press in Italy - is Then an Alley, also known as The Beat Opera, conceived and staged by Tito Schipa, Jr., composer and director, son of the tenor Tito Schipa, at the Piper Club in Rome, in May 1967. Schipa Jr. adapted 18 Bob Dylan songs to fit into a scenic background, and eventually wrote and staged at the Sistina Theater in Rome, the work Orfeo 9. This was the first original Italian rock opera and probably the first in the world to be staged, in January 1970. Orfeo 9 became a double album and a film under the musical direction of Academy Award winner Bill Conti. The earliest example of a theatrical production that encorporated rock and pop music was Hair, a hippie-themed musical subtitled "The American Tribal Love/Rock Musical" that made its debut in late 1967. Much like Jesus Christ Superstar, the first notable rock musical after Hair, it was very controversial in its day. Jesus Christ Superstar, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice was first recorded as a concept album in 1970 and the money made from album sales was used to fund the subsequent stage production in late 1971. The musical Godspell which was written after Jesus Christ Superstar but was actually staged before it, had similar religious themes (albeit much less controversial) and pop/rock influences. Also premiering in 1971 was Mass, a musical play by well-respected composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein which featured a rock band performing rock and blues music and included lyrics written by Godspell composer Stephen Schwartz. The rock musical declined in popularity in the late 1970s and '80s but achieved a renaissance in the '90s, due in no small part to the popularity of Jonathan Larson's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. Rock Opera Pete Townshend, both with and without his band The Who, is arguably the single artist most associated with the term rock opera. The earliest example of the form was seen in the track "A Quick One While He's Away" from The Who's second album, A Quick One (1966), a nine-minute suite of short songs telling the operatic story of the seduction of a young girl guide by an engine driver named Ivor (played by John Entwistle). Townshends Inspiration? Christian Rock pioneer Larry Norman claims that People!'s 1966 fifteen-minute rock opera, The Epic, co-written by Norman and Denny Fridkin, was the first ever rock opera. "According to rock historian Wally Rasmussen, Pete Townshend has acknowledged that ... (The Epic) served as the inspiration for the Who's Tommy, providing him with both the basic idea of "rock opera" and also an essential plot line (involving a misunderstood messianic leader)." 1 In an interview with Angela Yeager of the Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal of 23 June 2005, Larry Norman claims "Pete Townsend got the idea for Tommy by hearing my rock opera ("The Epic")." * Norman's website further claims that "Pete Townshend confirmed that this was the reason he wrote Tommy for The Who after the long tour with People! ended and he went back to England to write music for the band's next album." * Norman's Gospel Music Hall of Fame official biography indicates that "Pete Townshend has credited Larry's own rock-opera, The Epic, for inspiring the rock-opera, Tommy, recorded by The Who." * "One of the songs, "Organ Grinder" is about a child molester in the Panhandle Park of Haight Ashbury.... As you listen to this whole album, watch closely as The Epic charms Pete Townshend and The Who into becoming Epic-cureans. After a city tour with People! Pete says he's inspired to try his own hand at a rock opera and comes back the following year with The Who's own Epoch, "Tommy" . . . with guess what included in the story line: child molestation." * The Epic features as the second side on People!'s January 1968 Capitol records album "I Love You" * with a more comprehensive selection available on "Best Of People! Vol 1 - 40 Year Anniversary" *. S.F. Sorrow In 1968 The Pretty Things released S.F. Sorrow, thought to be the first attempt at a single thematic concept expressed over an album's worth of songs. Less than a year later The Who returned with Tommy, the first album explicitly billed as a rock opera. Tommy remains one of the most famous rock operas, with concert, film and theatrical productions mounted over the course of three decades. The Who would later release another rock opera, Quadrophenia, also made into a film, and a mini rock-opera, Wire & Glass. Townshend may also be the originator of the term itself. In 1966, he played a comedy tape to his friends called Gratis Amatis. One of his friends made the comment that the odd song was "rock opera". Kit Lambert, the Who's producer, is than believed to have said "Now there's an idea!" However, the July 4, 1966 edition of RPM Magazine (published in Toronto) notes that "Bruce Cockburn and Mr William Hawkins are working on a Rock Opera, operating on the premise that to write you need only 'something to say'." Ten years later, Pink Floyd enjoyed similar success with their rock opera The Wall, written primarily by Roger Waters, which became the third best-selling album of all time. As with Tommy, The Wall has been staged both by Pink Floyd (1980-81) and Waters (1990) as an incredibly elaborate concert, with Waters' version taking place at the Berlin Wall. The plot was also used in an eponymous feature film, and Waters is currently adapting the story for a Broadway-style production. More recently a few metal bands released albums inspired by rock operas. These albums followed the stabilished style and form of rock operas often in a progressive metal framework. Labelled Metal opera it is not a subgenre of metal as rock opera isn´t a rock subgenre. It also overlaps considerably with the notion of metal concept albums. Dream Theater, Ayreon and Pain of Salvation are a few examples of metal bands that released metal opera albums that could actually be staged. Notable rock operas For a more extensive list for rock operas see the list of rock operas. Notable rock musicals For a more extensive list for rock musicals see the list of rock musicals. These lists are not complete and do not include song cycles or concept albums that often include some of the characteristics of rock operas and/or rock musicals, or musical revues working new plots around existing songs. See also | ||||||||||
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