Rock opera

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 not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include metal opera and rap opera (sometimes also called hip-hopera^[1]). A rock opera tells a coherent story, though details are often vague. A rock opera is similar to a concept album (of which it is a subset), though the latter may simply set a mood or maintain 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). Kit Lambert had the original idea for a 9-minute suite. There was 10 minutes of space left on the LP, so Lambert suggested to Pete Townshend that he write "something linear... perhaps a 10 minute song." Townshend responded by saying that rock songs are "2:50 by tradition!" Lambert then told Townshend that he should write a 10 minute story comprised of 2:50 songs.

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 October 1967 the British group Nirvana (not to be confused with the American band of the 1980s and 90s also called Nirvana) 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 travelled 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.^[2]

In April 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.^[3] 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 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 rockoperas: Preservation: Act 1 (1973), Preservation: Act 2 (1974), Soap Opera (1975) and Schoolboys in Disgrace (1976).^[4] 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^[who?] 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

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, a surreal story about a young man searching for his missing brother.

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 n elaborate stage 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 group of people pursing 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 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 Opeth (My Arms, Your Hearse), 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, 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 containg 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.^[5] Another one is a project by Edguy's singer and main songwriter Tobias Sammet. The opera is called Avantasia and has received critical success^{[citation needed]} and has spawned three 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.

In 1994 The Smashing Pumpkins released Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a pseudo-concept album about a metaphor of the cycle of life and death. The album's concept is vaguely based on Billy Corgan's experiences while growing up.

In 1996 RENT was put on stage as a rock opera, though it was later turned into a musical for the movie made in 2005.

In 2002 Vama Veche released Am sa ma intorc barbat, a concept album largely inspired by The Wall performed by Pink Floyd.

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.

In 2008, the internet based ecological musical story – Rockford's Rock Opera by Sweetapple – brought 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^[6].

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.^[7]

In December 2008, The Baptist: a Rock Opera was released. The double CD is based on the life of St. John the Baptist. [4]

In March 2009, The Decemberists released a rock opera (originally intended to be a musical) entitled The Hazards of Love ^[8].

Also in March 2009, Mastodon released its fourth full length album entitled "Crack the Skye". Its story tells of a quadraplegic space traveler who can only travel through astral projection.

On April 7, 2009, Christian Alternative Rock band FM Static released Dear Diary, a rock opera about a boy who goes through typical teenage struggles but gets through with the help of God.

In April 2009, Paul Ramey released the gothic rock opera Veil & Subdue - The Courtship of The Black Sultan. Inspired by the real physical phenomenon of night terrors, the double CD is a tale of Morpheus (The Black Sultan) and his passionate love and pursuit of a mortal woman with whom he becomes enamoured during one of his nightly journeys through his dream realm. Weaving together textures of gothic, darkwave, exotic, rock and more, the opera focuses on the idealism and disillusionment of love.

In May 2009, Green Day released a rock opera entitled 21st Century Breakdown. It follows two teenage lovers named Christian and Gloria as they make their way through the rapidly changing times of the 21st Century. This is Green Day's second rock opera, the first being the critically acclaimed American Idiot released in 2004, which follows the life of the album's protagonist Jesus of Suburbia.

In June 2009, Shorthand Phonetics released "Errors in Calculating Odds, Errors in Calculating Value," the 4th part of the band's on-going opera series. Currently untitled, the opera series deals with the life and literary attempts of Japanese medical student Hanabishi Hideaki.^[9]

On September 8, 2009, The Protomen released their second album, Act II: The Father Of Death. This album is a prequel to their first self titled rock opera. Within the week of its release, the album became number one on Amazon MP3 under Opera.

Released in November of 2009, Overboard, a Boston-based a cappella group, released their fifth album, Help!. Through original arrangements, Overboard reinterpreted pieces of over forty Beatles songs and sounds in order to provide a soundtrack to the imagined backdrop of a tempestuous love affair between Billy Shears and Eleanor Rigby.

References

http://www.protomen.com/news/

See also

• List of rock musicals
• Concept album
• True Symphonic Rockestra
• Prog-rock opera