~ Jesus Christ Superstar Original Cast ~
Trial Before Pilate (Including The 39 Lashes)
~ The Movie Soundtrack ~
This is a tour de force for baritone. It’s the music of the overture, now with lyrics, revised in the Nineties. Note that the chorus is the Mainstream Media. The purpose of Pilate’s screaming rant is that it’s the recitative that changes the key for the next number.
Aria, Chorus
Ghosts play a role in Shakespeare, and Rodgers and Hammerstein used their hero’s ghost in “Carousel”. Here the ghost of Judas, now in the present, evaluates the whole enterprise and finds much of it wanting, taunting Jesus on the way to Golgotha. This is the part of the 2000 production that raised people’s hackles. The passage at 1:47 is pure Gershwin. Judas almost gets the last word, but Andy slams it shut, a revision from the original production.
Spoken Word, Chorus
Everything comes to a screeching halt for the Crucifixion. Andy completely rewrote this scene from the original production. The Seven Last Words of Christ are not accompanied by anything like Haydn, but rather like Georgy Ligeti. Passion music always ends with Jesus’ body being entombed, as does this work. The final sequence is an orchestral setting of the Gethsemane aria in a manner reminiscent of Tchaikovsky. The passage for winds that ends the opera sounds a bit like Richard Strauss. The credits follow.