BBC article on Tommy/rock operas

[rickmoraz]

An interesting article featuring some prog refernces

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201...the-rock-opera

[robh]

Bah!! It's not accessible from the UK. I pay for this and I can't read it.

[Paulrus]

Bah!! It's not accessible from the UK. I pay for this and I can't read it.

The BBC reprinted an article by a Chicago Tribune writer. Maybe you find it on their web site.

It's not that great a piece. It basically says that even in this age of singles and short attention span consumers there are still folks making concept albums. The headline is a bit misleading since the story isn't just about rock operas.

[bob_32_116]

The headline is a bit misleading since the story isn't just about rock operas.

That's exactly what I was about to say. the writer seems to be confusing "rock opera" with concept albums in general.

Rock operas, for one thing, are intended to be performed, before an audience, just like classical opera. That excludes most "concept albums" from the category. It probably even excludes things like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and The Wall, which were created as studio concept albums and only afterwards were adapted for the stage. There haven't really been all that many true rock operas, which is probably a good thing because i don't like to see a good idea ruined by overkill. There is Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Chess... maybe a couple of others I can't think of at the moment. By the time you get to Andrew Lloyd Webber's later works they hardly qualify as rock; "pop opera" or "soft-rock opera" would be more appropriate for works like Cats and Phantom of the Opera.

[yeselpkrimson]

Bah!! It's not accessible from the UK. I pay for this and I can't read it.

It's reprinted here on a Facebook page, if you want to give it a try:

Tommy-at-45