Word: crucifixion
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...occupation. The point of all this is to make it clear by analogy that Jesus was a man, a man who had worries and faults, who had to deal with the same problems all men have to deal with, and who offered his flesh-and-blood body up to crucifixion in the face of very human doubts; the Superstar analogy is just a more or less appropriate metaphor for Messiah. In one of Superstar's climactic songs, "Gethsemane," Jesus sings a doubting, defiant prayer to God (who has an offstage role...
...Superstar has a fundamental aura of reverence; Christ's last words are verbatim from the Bible, and the last song in Superstar, an instrumental piece that follows "The Crucifixion," is titled "John Nineteen Forty-One." a reference to the point in John's Gospel where the narrative describing the discovery of Christ's resurrection begins. But it has a few half-concealed implications that are wide-eyed blasphemy for those who see the Last Supper, for instance, as a sacred event. Webber and Rice, with a neat bit of circular logic and some imaginative rewriting, transform the Last Supper into...
...atrocities at Auschwitz" is absurd. Both the death of Malcolm X and the atrocities at Auschwitz were tragic events, and to lampoon them would be to make a cruel joke out of human suffering. But the New Testament, at least for believing Christians, is not a "tragedy." Behind the crucifixion stands the resurrection. It is instead the revelation of the God of all creation, and I suspect that He is secure enough in His position to tolerate-even o enjoy-a good laugh...
...Rice. According to the Judas of Superstar, his friend Jesus is a charismatic mortal-much like an adored rock singer or the leader of a radical movement -who has begun to believe in his own press clippings. "You really do believe∕ This talk of God is true." The Crucifixion is seen as the result of bungling self-indulgence, and Jesus' faith in his divinity, and hope of Resurrection, as delusions...
...Webber and Rice, both of whom were brought up in the Anglican Church but eventually rejected it, have not worked too hard in Superstar to get the Christianity out of Christ. Despite Judas, both libretto and music are provocatively ambiguous about Christ's divinity. At The Crucifixion, the slow, chromatic climb of the orchestra is a compelling suggestion that Christ's spirit is ascending. The opera's last line is "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit...