Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / The Creative Adaptation of 19th Century Biblical Musical Drama in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Rock Opera «Jesus Christ Superstar»

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2023 16 (8)
Authors
Mikhaylova, Olesya S.; Nekhvyadovich, Larisa I.
Contact information
Mikhaylova, Olesya S.: Altai State University Barnaul, Russian Federation; argentum-ol@mail.ru; Nekhvyadovich, Larisa I.: Altai State University Barnaul, Russian Federation
Keywords
creative adaptation; creative industries; Biblical musical drama; opera; rock opera; Jesus Christ Superstar; E. L. Webber; 19th century operas; biblical historicism
Abstract

In the current situation of the development of creative industries, which are represented by a wide and diverse range of issues, the question of the transformation of classical works into modern art is of particular importance. The subject of research in this article is the phenomenon of creative reception of a romantic musical drama on the subjects of the Holy Scriptures in the rock opera by E. L. Webber, “Jesus Christ Superstar”. This work of art is being explored from a new perspective for the first time. It is established that the creative interpretation of the story of Jesus Christ is based on key principles of biblical musical drama from the 19th century. Fundamental among these is the religious and philosophical concept, in which events are interpreted in line with biblical historicism. This concept not only conveys the core message of the Bible, but also shapes the complex drama of the work. Similarly to 19th century operas on the subjects of the Holy Scriptures, two main dramatic lines are developed in “Superstar”: the first is connected with the development of an external conflict reflecting the concept of God’s interaction with the earthly world; the second is connected with the development of an internal, psychological conflict revealing the dynamics of contradictory states of the heroes of the musical drama. The receptive dialogue between romantic opera and rock opera can also be traced at the intonation-thematic level

Pages
1355–1364
EDN
ZXDOUD
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/150853

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

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