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Rock opera
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A rock opera is a musical work that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are unrelated to each other in terms of storyline. More recent developments include metal opera and rap opera (sometimes also called hip-hopera). A rock opera tells a coherent (if sometimes sketchy) story, often with first-person lyrics sung by characters.
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A rock opera is a musical work that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are unrelated to each other in terms of storyline. More recent developments include metal opera and rap opera (sometimes also called hip-hopera). A rock opera tells a coherent (if sometimes sketchy) story, often with first-person lyrics sung by characters. A rock opera is similar to a concept album, though the latter simply sets a mood or maintains a theme.
1960s
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'." The Cockburn / Hawkins rock opera seems not to have been completed, though some songs from the project may be among the Cockburn and Hawkins compositions that appeared on 3's a Crowd's 1968 album, Christopher's Movie Matinee.
Alternatively, the term rock opera may have originated at an informal gathering of Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who, and some friends at some point that same year (i.e., 1966). Townshend is said to have played a comedy tape to his friends called Gratis Amatis, and one of his friends is said to have made the comment that the odd song was a rock opera. (Kit Lambert, the Who's producer, is then said to have exclaimed "Now there's an idea!")
Whatever the origin of the term, the earliest completed and recorded example of a 'rock opera' appeared later in 1966 - Townshend's A Quick One While He's Away on The Who's second album, A Quick One. It was a nine-minute suite of short songs telling the operatic story of the seduction of a young girl guide (Townshend) by an engine driver named Ivor (played by John Entwistle).
Then an Alley, also known as The Beat Opera, was conceived and staged by Tito Schipa, Jr, composer and director, son of the tenor Tito Schipa, at the Piper Club in Rome, Italy, in May 1967. While Then an Alley, an adaptation of 18 Bob Dylan songs made to fit into a scenic background, made a moderate splash in its country of origin, it went completely unnoticed elsewhere in the world. Schipa Jr. later went on to write and stage the work Orfeo 9 at the Sistina Theater in Rome. It became the first ever staged original Italian rock opera when it debuted in January 1970. Orfeo 9 became a double album and a film under the musical direction of future Academy Award winner Bill Conti.
In November 1967 the Montreal group Influence travelled to New York to record a 'mini-opera', "Mad Birds Of Prey", and other songs for their only album. A few months later, in 1968, Britain's The Pretty Things released S.F. Sorrow, the first attempt by a rock band at a single, narrative-based thematic concept expressed over an album's worth of songs. S.F. Sorrow outlined a coming of age story focused on protagonist Sebastian F. Sorrow, although the storyline was not as coherent as those to be found in later rock operas.
In 1969 Pete Townshend and The Who released Tommy, the first of The Who's two full-scale rock operas (the other is Quadrophenia), and the first musical work explicitly billed as a rock opera. [In some older publications it is called Tommy (1914–1984).] The album was largely composed by Townshend, with two tracks contributed by bassist John Entwistle and one attributed to drummer Keith Moon, although actually written by Townshend.
An earlier song by blues artist Sonny Boy Williamson II, "Eyesight to the Blind", was also incorporated. Tommy remains one of the most famous rock operas, with concert, film, ballet, and theatrical productions mounted over the course of four decades. The Who would later release another rock opera, Quadrophenia (1973), also made into a film, and a mini rock-opera, Wire & Glass (2006), from Townshend's larger concept of The Boy Who Heard Music, and included on The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire.
In the late 1960's; October 1969, The Kinks released Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) their own attempt at a rock opera, released just after Tommy, with great commercial and critical success. In the first half of the 1970s the Kinks released a series of rockoperas: Preservation: Act 1 (1973), Preservation: Act 2 (1974), Soap Opera (1975) and Schoolboys in Disgrace (1976).. All these albums were followed by a series of stage productions, in which the band members, and additional personnel, acted as musical and theatre performers.
1970s
Townshend's rock opera influenced many, including composer Andrew Lloyd Webber who, with lyricist Tim Rice, composed Jesus Christ Superstar which was first recorded and released as a concept album in 1970. The money made from album sales was used to fund the subsequent stage production in late 1971, which had been Lloyd Webber and Rice's original vision. Jesus Christ Superstar was explicitly billed as a "rock opera" and though it first appeared in recorded form, it became far more famous as a Broadway musical, leading it to be called a "rock musical", blurring the distinction between the two terms. Webber and Rice's last collaboration was Evita, which is supposedly considered a rock opera, along with Broadway musical styled songs. The show (like Jesus Christ Superstar) is told entirely in song and, at first, producers thought that it would be a flop on the Broadway stage. However, it won seven Tony Awards, including "Best Musical".
In 1972, David Bowie released his rock opera attempt with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the story of an alien being who is hoping to bring hope to the human race on their last five years of existence. Ziggy was the typical rock star whose story was a tragedy with his eventual death.
In 1973, The Who released their second full rock opera Quadrophenia. It is about an early 1960s teen living with a personality disorder.
Also in 1973 Lou Reed released Berlin, a tragic rock opera about a doomed couple, which addresses themes of drug use, depression and suicide.
Genesis wrote the rock opera The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, about a juvenile delinquent called Rael who lives in New York and enters the underground world, searching for a missing part of himself. The story rolls into lust, deep creatures, madness and redemption.
In 1975 Queen released the hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody" a mini rock opera composed of three different sections.
In 1979, Pink Floyd's rock opera The Wall, written primarily by Roger Waters, was released. As with Tommy, The Wall has been staged as an elaborate theatre performance: by Pink Floyd in 1980 and 1981, and by Waters in 1990 (at the Berlin Wall). The plot was also used for the feature film Pink Floyd The Wall, and Waters has been adapting the story for a Broadway-style production.
Post-1970s
Rivers Cuomo had planned to produce an album called Songs From The Black Hole, which was to be a rock opera about a bunch of people going on a space adventure and saving something or someone. The project was then abandoned in 1995, and replaced with their album, Pinkerton. Most of the demo recordings are available, legally or as bootlegs, and 4 remain unreleased.
In 1995 David Bowie made the rock-opera 1. Outside, a groundbreaking album for Bowie's 90's career.
In 1996, John Miner staged the rock opera Heavens Cafe at the Flamingo Theater in Las Vegas, and again in Los Angeles in 2004.
1996 also saw the Broadway premier of Rent, a rock opera written by Jonathan Larson. The Broadway run of Rent ended in 2008.
also in 1996, Marilyn Manson, released Antichrist Superstar (a play on the previously mentioned Jesus Christ Superstar) and subsequently created a reverse triptych with 1998's Mechanical Animals and 2000's Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Some heavy metal bands have released albums inspired by rock operas; often in a progressive metal framework. In some cases they have overlapped considerably with the format of metal concept albums. Queensr˙che's fourth album Operation: Mindcrime expanded the genre from their previous three rock operas by bridging rock opera with real opera and a stage production complete with the story playing on jumbotrons in live versions and DVD releases. Albums by W.A.S.P. (The Crimson Idol, The Neon God: Part 1 - The Rise, The Neon God, Pt. 2: The Demise), Savatage, Dream Theater (Scenes From a Memory), Ayreon, Kamelot, Blind Guardian, Dimmu Borgir, Pain of Salvation, and Epidemia are a few examples of metal opera albums. The Italian power metal band Rhapsody of Fire (formerly "Rhapsody") released several complementary albums that each continued a single mega-"DragonRock" opera. King Diamond has almost exclusively released metal opera albums, with only two albums containg stand alone tracks (though even these albums have several related tracks each). Punk rock opera is a term coined by the pop punk band Green Day to describe their 2004 album, American Idiot. Rock operas have been written in other languages as well, such as Gaia II - La Voz Dormida in 2005 by the spanish rock group Mägo de Oz. On September 22, 2005 rock band Ludo released a rock opera entitled Broken Bride. In 2006, New Jersey rock quintet My Chemical Romance released a rock opera, titled The Black Parade, about a man dying from cancer. Another one is a project by Edguy's singer and main songwriter Tobias Sammet. The opera is called Avantasia and has received critical success and has spawned 3 albums and two EP's. Each features many well known rock musicians. In 2008, Dutch band Xystus, along with an 80 piece orchestra an 4 additional vocalist/actors, released Equilibrio, which involved a stage show in addition to the studio album.
In 2005, The Protomen released an album of the same name that relates the story of the Mega Man video game series as a dystopian rock opera to great critical acclaim.
In 2007 Chris Prince released his two hour CRIME OF THE CENTURY THE ROCK OPERA blending punk, jazz fusion, metal, rap, reggia, techno, trance, world beat, avant garde and classic rock into one cohesive musical work that focuses scathing social commentary on contemporary social issues such as 9-11, the death of Princess Diana, land mines, the war in Iraq and satanism within elite social circles.
In 2008, the internet based ecological musical story – Rockford's Rock Opera by Sweetapple – received wide acclaim bringing the Rock Opera genre into the classroom and, in the same year, Pop/R&B singer, Ciara, released a "crunk opera" single titled "High Price" from her album Fantasy Ride.
In 2008, The Fedoras released their hour-long pirate rock opera, The Tragedy of Admiral King, featuring 25 performers in a blend of Celtic punk, Irish folk music, and hard rock. .
In April 2009, The Decemberists will release a rock opera (originally intended to be a musical) entitled The Hazards of Love .
See also
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