To Love Another Person Is To See the Face Of God

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the emergence of the through-song British musical, also known as “pop opera.” This can be dated from the afternoon of March 1, 1968, when parents (mainly mothers) of students at Colet Court School watched an end-of-term performance of a twenty-minute version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. By 1991, Lloyd Webber and Rice had officially created the first performance in the history of pop opera which was Jesus Christ Superstar (1971). Lloyd Webber's ability to compose consistently in a single voice, or to eclecticize, in other words, to teach the audience to navigate the action through musical signifiers is not appreciated enough. Tim Rice's ease in “conversationalizing” the bigger-than-life figures that pop opera delights in is similarly underrated, because he makes it look easy. The biggest hit in this period of musical history is Les Misérables (1985). This show's saga started when Alain Boublil sees Superstar and decides to write something comparable. It was written with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg.