Similarly, the vocal music of Superstar creates the same thrilling sound that we love from our opera singers when they are singing at the extremes of their vocal ranges, performing the most intense emotions and experiences on our behalf.
Opera excels at telling stories of fame, self-sacrifice, corruption, and power, and thematically Superstar finds a place in the opera house next to Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Don Carlo, and the Ring Cycle. By positing Jesus as a “superstar” in pop culture terms, it also envisions how fame leads to infamy, and how fandom leads to mania. The album used the familiar story of the last seven days of Christ to riff on ideas of fame, control, politics, and power in ways that have only become more profound over the years. Rice’s colloquial lyrics made the characters imminently relatable, especially the anguished central character of Judas. Called a “rock opera,” Jesus Christ Superstar featured no additional spoken dialogue and a legitimate rock sound driven by a killer rhythm section. Webber and Rice were only in their 20s when their first hit show began life as a concept album, released in 1970.
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