The Who's Tommy, the first album explicitly billed as a rock opera

A rock opera is a rock music album or stage production that intends to evoke the sense of music drama commonly associated with opera. In truth, the form of most rock operas is actually much closer to that of song cycles or oratorios, if the lyrical story is told inclusively within the musical dialog. If the performance includes dialog between musical passages, it would in fact be an operetta.

It differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are unrelated to each other in terms of storyline. However, the rock opera style overlaps considerably with concept albums and song cycles. More recent developments include metal opera and rap opera (sometimes also called hip-hopera). The category a particular work falls into is largely defined by the intent and self-definition of the work by its creator. The formal distinction may be that the rock opera tells a coherent (if sometimes sketchy) story, often with first-person lyrics sung by characters; while a concept album or song cycle sets a mood or maintains a theme. Some albums share characteristics of more than one category. Tommy, one of the best known rock operas, also had a rock musical production. On a technical note, the phrase "rock opera" is, in terms of both music and theater, a misnomer. Opera consists of individual singers acting out a specific character within a drama, whereas rock opera is comprised of singers who sing a story, but do not act it out. The singers in rock opera can sing as a specific role, but this relationship is less rigid than traditional opera; singers rarely maintain the role for the entire album, usually assuming a different role for different songs, or simply narrating via third-person. Ironically, the phrase "rock oratorio" would be far more appropriate (despite the fact that oratorios are usually sacred in nature), as most of the conventions within rock operas are shared by oratorios.

1960s

The term rock opera is generally credited as originating from an informal gathering of Pete Townshend and some friends in 1966. Townshend played a comedy tape to his friends called Gratis Amatis. One of his friends made the comment that the odd song was a "rock opera". Kit Lambert, the Who's producer, is than believed to have said "Now there's an idea!" However, 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 earliest example of what would be later known as "rock opera" was written by guitarist for The Who, Pete Townshend, a figure who would go on to be identified with the form more than any other. Townshend wrote the track "A Quick One While He's Away" which appeared on The Who's second album, A Quick One (1966), 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 1968 British rock band, 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.^[1] 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.

1970s and later

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 complete flop on the Broadway stage. However at the Tony Awards it garnered 7 Awards including "Best Musical."

Pink Floyd's rock opera The Wall, written primarily by Roger Waters, sold nineteen million copies. 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. In 1996, John Miner staged the rock opera Heavens Cafe at the Flamingo Theater in Las Vegas, and again in Los Angeles in 2004.

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 album Operation Mindcrime, and albums by Savatage, Dream Theater, Ayreon, Avantasia, Kamelot, Pain of Salvation and King Diamond, are a few examples of metal opera albums. Punk rock opera is a term coined by the punk band Green Day to describe their 2004 album, American Idiot. In 2006, New Jersey rock quintet My Chemical Romance released an alternative rock opera, titled The Black Parade, about a man dying from cancer.

References

1. ^ http://www.thewho.net/discography/songs/TommysHolidayCamp.html

See also

• List of rock operas
• List of rock musicals
• Concept album

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