Queer Intimacy: Vocality in Jesus Christ Superstar

Operatic dramas often set to music the extremes of human bodily experience—disease, death, and violence—all duly tinged with hues of eroticism. Not surprisingly then, the genre includes a number of works that stage scenes of corporal punishment. These moments of physical suffering can focus attention on the body in a way that even Mimi’s consumption or Carmen’s stabbing cannot. This chapter examines three such scenes in operas by Britten (Billy Budd), Adams (Nixon in China), and Lloyd Webber (Jesus Christ Superstar) to see how music, action, and text multimodally represent not only the cruel impact of blows, but also the emotional impact for victim, punisher, onstage onlookers, and audience. Close readings of the three scenes draw on theories of embodied rhythm and mimetic listening to engage the question of how this music “gets into our bodies” and helps us to experience the dramas.

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Jesus Christ: "Superstar"

Novum Testamentum ◽

10.1163/156853682x00097 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 82-91

Author(s):

Michael S. Moore

Keyword(s):

Jesus Christ ◽

Jesus Christ Superstar

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Hudobnopsychologický profil rockovej opery Jesus Christ Superstar

Slovenska hudba ◽

10.4149/sh_2021_3_2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 47 (03) ◽

pp. 225-250

Author(s):

Zuzana Hubinská ◽

Ivana Lacková ◽

Dominika Sondorová

Keyword(s):

Jesus Christ ◽

Jesus Christ Superstar

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The Pop-Music Industry and the British Musical

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199988747.013.13 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Ian Sapiro

Keyword(s):

Jesus Christ ◽

Music Industry ◽

Pop Music ◽

Short Life ◽

Concept Album ◽

Theatrical Practice ◽

Rock Opera ◽

Jesus Christ Superstar

This chapter discusses the intersection of the pop music industry and the British musical through the genre of the rock opera. In the late 1960s British artists started using the LP to create longer songs and projects, and theatrical practice began to move away from a reliance on narrative linearity and towards increased spectacle. The result of this experimentation was the concept album, and where such albums contained narratives they were termed rock operas. This chapter considers Tommy (1969) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)—two works fundamental to the establishment of rock opera—as well as the War of the Worlds (1978) and The Hunting of the Snark (1984), albums from the end of the genre’s short life. Consideration is given to their creation and formulation, and the issues and difficulties of adapting these and other such works for stage and screen are evaluated.

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