From the Cathedral to the Opera Stage

Marina G. Ritzarev

doi:10.21638/11701/spbu15.2017.201

Authors

Marina G. Ritzarev Bar-Ilan University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu15.2017.201

Abstract

The article focuses on the historical coincidence: two operas based on the Gospel plot had their premieres under two different cultural milieu but very close in time: the rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (1971, Broadway, New York) and the Russian avant-garde chamber opera Master i Margarita by Sergei Slonimsky (1972, Leningrad, concert performance), after M. Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita. The article examines the cultural and historical conditions that preceded these operas so different in their styles, audiences, and fates.

Keywords:

Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Master and Margarita, Sergei Slonimsky, Mikhail Bulgakov, Gospel, passion play, opera, rock-opera, passion-opera, Christology, myth, Pathos, Ethos

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Author Biography

Marina G. Ritzarev, Bar-Ilan University

professor of the Department of Music

References

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