Rock opera

A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include metal opera and rap opera (sometimes also called hip-hopera). A rock opera tells a coherent story, and may involve songs performed as if sung by separate characters in a drama, as in classical opera.

A rock opera may or may not be presented in a staged performance. In recorded form it can be similar to a concept album (of which it is a subset), though the latter may simply set a mood or maintain a theme.

1960s

Origin of the term

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 co-manager and producer, is then said to have exclaimed "Now there's an idea!"). Later that year, The Who released their first attempt at an operatic rock song, the track "A Quick One, While He's Away" from their album A Quick One.

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.

Early examples

In October 1967 the British group Nirvana (not to be confused with the later American band of the same name) released The Story of Simon Simopath, what might be the first entire album by a rock band to comprise a single story. In November 1967 the Montreal group Influence traveled to New York to record what they called a 'mini-opera', "Mad Birds Of Prey", and other songs for their only album. In August 1968, The Family Tree released Miss Butters, the birth-to-death story of a schoolteacher. The Pretty Things released S.F. Sorrow, in December 1968, which similarly told the story of protagonist Sebastian F. Sorrow's life from the cradle to the grave and from joy to misery.

In April 1969 Pete Townshend and The Who released Tommy, the first of The Who's two full-scale rock operas 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. 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.

In 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. It deals with a British man, Arthur, who moves to Australia. In the first half of the 1970s the Kinks released a series of rock operas: (1973), (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 Tommy 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. The last collaboration of Rice and Lloyd Webber 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 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the story of a rock star who is told by aliens to write music in the years preceding the end of the world. The next year, The Who released their second full rock opera Quadrophenia. It is about a mid-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. In 1974, Genesis released the rock opera The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a surreal story about a young man searching for his missing brother. In 1977, Meat Loaf released Bat Out Of Hell, a rock opera about coming of age, and teenage romance and angst.

In 1978, composer and record producer Jeff Wayne released a musical version of H. G. Wells's Victorian apocalyptic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which a number of high profile singers and musicians featured such as David Essex, who worked with Wayne as a producer on his solo career, Moody Blues singer Justin Hayward, Thin Lizzy vocalist/bassist Phil Lynott, and Julie Covington who had previously sung in Evita. The plot was narrated throughout by an unnamed journalist protagonist played by Richard Burton.

In 1979, Pink Floyd's rock opera The Wall, written primarily by Roger Waters, was released. The Wall has been staged as an elaborate theatre performance by Pink Floyd in 1980 and 1981, by Waters in 1990 in Berlin, and in 2010 and 2011 by Waters as a worldwide solo tour. The plot was also used for the feature film Pink Floyd The Wall, and Waters is currently adapting the story for a Broadway production.

1979 also saw the release of Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage, a three act rock opera about the life of a young musician named Joe, set in a dystopian future where music was made illegal, inspired in part by the Iranian Revolution, which outlawed public musical expression. The album also takes jabs at Scientology.

Post-1970s

Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo had planned to produce an album called Songs From The Black Hole, which was to be a rock opera about a group of people pursuing an adventure in outer space to rescue an unidentified person or object. After the project was then abandoned in 1995, the band replaced with their album, Pinkerton. Most of the demo recordings are available, legally or as bootlegs, though four remain unreleased. In 1995 David Bowie made the rock opera 1. Outside, a groundbreaking album for Bowie's 1990s 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. That same year, Marilyn Manson, released Antichrist Superstar and subsequently created a reverse trilogy with Mechanical Animals in 1998 and Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) in 2000.

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. Queensrÿche's fourth album 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 Opeth (My Arms, Your Hearse), W.A.S.P. (The Crimson Idol, , ), Savatage (The Wake of Magellan), Dream Theater (Scenes From a Memory), Ayreon (The Final Experiment, Into the Electric Castle, The Human Equation, 01011001), Kamelot (Epica, The Black Halo), Blind Guardian, Dimmu Borgir, Pain of Salvation, Protest the Hero (Kezia) 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 containing stand alone tracks (though even these albums have several related tracks each). Punk rock opera is a term coined by the punk band Green Day to describe their 2004 album, American Idiot, which was written about a teenage boy who runs away from home to find himself and how his life is before and after. Their 2009 follow-up album, 21st Century Breakdown, continues the rock opera style. 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 five albums and two EP's. Each features many well known rock musicians. In 2008, Dutch band Xystus, along with an eighty-piece orchestra and four additional vocalists, released Equilibrio, which involved a stage show in addition to the studio album. The Protomen, an American rock band, released two rock operas, the Protomen, and its prequel, in 2005 and 2009, respectively. Most notably, both albums dealt with the fictional video game character, Mega Man.

2009 saw the release of several different rock operas. In March, folk rock group The Decemberists released a rock opera entitled The Hazards of Love, telling the story of a doomed love affair between an innocent young woman and a cursed man. That same month, Mastodon released its fourth full length album entitled Crack the Skye. Its story tells of a quadriplegic space traveler who can only travel through astral projection. In April, Christian pop punk band FM Static released Dear Diary, which tells a story of a high school boy who goes through typical teenage struggles such as love, death, and self-discovery. In May, Green Day released the aforementioned 21st Century Breakdown; it follows two lovers named Christian and Gloria as they struggle with religious beliefs and rebellion in the 21st century. In 2010, the progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria completed their fifth album, Year of the Black Rainbow which is the prequel album to their storyline called the Amory Wars, which arcs through their previous four albums.

References

See also

List of rock musicals

Concept album

True Symphonic Rockestra

Category:Musical theatre