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Arock opera is a collection ofrock music songs, especially aconcept album, withlyrics that relate to a common story. The use of various character roles within the song lyrics is a common storytelling device. The success of rock opera has inspired similar works in other musical styles, such asrap opera.
Unlike classicalopera, rock operas are typically not scripted for theatrical production, like a classicaloratorio, though some have been adapted asrock musicals.
A number of rock artists became interested in the idea of creating a rock opera in the 1960s. Early use of the terms rock opera and teenage opera date from 1963, whenFrank Zappa used both phrases to describe a work in progress,I Was a Teenage Malt Shop. Zappa can be heard discussing his rock opera in a radio program: a recording of a which is included on the albumJoe's Xmasage, on the trackThe Uncle Frankie Show.Don Van Vliet was to be cast as a character named “Captain Beefheart”. Zappa abandoned the project in 1964 after a demo tape with a few of the songs was rejected by a record company. Several songs that were written for the uncompleted opera appeared on later albums (e.g.I Was a Teen-age Malt Shop on the albumMystery Disc,Status Back Baby on the albumAbsolutely Free). Zappa later wrote and producedJoe’s Garage in 1979.[1][2][3][4]
Another early use of the term, the July 4, 1966, edition ofRPM Magazine (published in Toronto) reported 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'."[5]Mark Wirtz explored the idea in a projectA Teenage Opera, from which an early song "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" recorded byKeith West was released and became a hit song in 1967.[6][7] However, the album for the rock opera was not released until 1996, and it was only fully realised and staged in 2017.[8]
Colin Fleming ofThe Atlantic describedThe Story of Simon Simopath (1967) by British psychedelic bandNirvana as an "early foray into the rock opera sub-genre".[9]Neil Strauss ofThe New York Times wrote thatS.F. Sorrow (1968) by thePretty Things is "generally acknowledged as the first rock opera".[10]
Scott Mervis of thePittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote thatthe Who's 1969 recordTommy was the first album to be billed as a rock opera.[11] The album tells the story of Tommy Walker, a "deaf, dumb and blind kid."Tommy displays the titular character's experiences with life and his relationship with his family. Although the band's guitaristPete Townshend denied taking any influence fromS.F. Sorrow, critics have comparedTommy to it. TheTommy album developed into other media, including aSeattle Opera production in 1971, anorchestral version byLou Reizner in 1972, afilm in 1975, and aBroadwaymusical in 1992. The original album has sold 20 million copies and has been inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.Tommy would also go on to influenceOn and On, arap opera bythe Fat Boys[12] andAmerican Idiot, a punk rock opera byGreen Day, the latter of whom having made21st Century Breakdown, another rock opera.[13] The Who had previously toyed with the concepts which would lead to the full-blown rock opera with their six-movement 1966 track "A Quick One, While He's Away".[14]
A rock opera that experienced commercial recording and Broadway success isJesus Christ Superstar (1970), written byAndrew Lloyd Webber andTim Rice, and in respect of which Lloyd Webber said "the piece was written as a rock album from the outset and set out from the start to tell the story through the music itself."[15] In 1972,David Bowie released the rock operaThe Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.[16]
Bat Out of Hell is a rock album byMeat Loaf that remains one of thebest-selling albums of all time, having sold over 50 million copies worldwide.[17] It is certified14× Platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[18] As of June 2019, it has spent 522 weeks in theUK Albums Chart, the second longest chart run by a studio album.[19]Rolling Stone ranked it at number 343 on its list of the500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[20][21]A musical based onBat Out of Hell, staged byJay Scheib, opened at theManchester Opera House in 2017. The album's producer,Jim Steinman, coined the termWagnerian rock after composerRichard Wagner to describe the genre of the record.
Perhaps the archetypal and most famous rock opera isThe Wall, a double album released byPink Floyd in 1979.The Wall chronicles the story of Pink, a character who ultimately constructs an emotional wall to protect himself after being driven into insanity as a result of traumatic life experiences. The album was included inRolling Stone's lists of thegreatest albums of all time in 2003, 2012, and 2020.[22] James Guthrie, the album's engineer, won the 1980Grammy award for Best Engineered Recording (non-classical), and the album was nominated for theGrammy Award for Album of the Year.[23] The album was subsequently made into a 1982 film entitledPink Floyd – The Wall. An elaborate1980–1981 concert tour was conducted by the band after the album's release and bassistRoger Waters reincarnated the tour twice; once inBerlin in 1990 to commemorate the fall of theBerlin Wall and again around the world from2010–2013, a series of shows that became the highest-grossing tour by a solo musician.
In 1999,progressive metal bandDream Theater released their albumMetropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, which has been regarded as Rock Opera.[24] The album tells the story of Nicholas, a man getting flashbacks from a previous life, as he undergoes hypnosis sessions to recall the memories of Victoria, a young girl who he discovers was murdered as a violent result of a love affair.
In 2005The Protomen debuted, by bandThe Protomen, who toured in-character performing the dystopian rock opera.[25][26] Because of thescience fiction elements of the plot, their music has been called "sci-fi rock".[27][28] A prequel rock operaAct II: The Father of Death was released 2009 and a sequelAct III: This City Made Us in 2025.[25][29]
In an effort to appeal to more modern audiences, opera companies have welcomed more pop and rock influences. The resulting rock operas have met varying degrees of success as the worlds ofhigh art andlow art mix.[30] In Russian music, the termzong-opera (Зонг-опера) is sometimes used, since the first Soviet-Russian rock-operaOrpheus and Eurydice was described with this term, though the term "rock-opera" was already known in the Soviet rock music circles.
According to Fleming, rock operas are more akin to acantata orsuite, because they are not usually acted out.[9] Similarly, Andrew Clements ofThe Guardian calledTommy a subversively labeledmusical. Clements states that lyrics drive rock operas, which makes them not a true form of opera.[31] Responding to accusations that rock operas are pretentious and overblown, Pete Townshend wrote that pop music by its very nature rejects such characteristics and is an inherently simple form. Townshend said that the only goal of pop music is to reach audiences, and rock operas are merely one more way to do so.[32]Peter Kiesewalter, on the other hand, said that rock music and opera are "both overblown, massive spectacles" that cover the same themes. Kiesewalter, who was originally not a fan of opera, did not think the two styles would mix well together, but his modernized operas with rock music surprised him with their popularity at theEast Village Opera Company.[33]
The performance of these works on Broadway has also courted controversy;Anne Midgette ofThe New York Times called them musicals with "no more than the addition of a keyboard and a drum set".[34]
En el estado de Tennessee se formaron The Protomen, grupo que se levantó sobre una idea conceptual basada en Mega Man. En su discografía hay buenas muestras de rock ópera sobre videojuegos entreThe Protomen (2005) yAct II: The Father of Death (2009).
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