This is a mixture of hard rock, Orff, Ravel and Prokofiev, an attempt to portray evil. Judas spends his aria explaining why he is going to betray his leader, hoping to find some justification for it, and trying to convince himself that hes doing the right thing. This is some of Rices best work in the opera. Annas and Caiaphas cut through all the excuses and put it in simple commercial terms: thirty pieces of silver. The musical material is from This Jesus Must Die. After a recitative from Judas, a crowd of shrouded figures sings quietly like a Greek chorus.
I haven’t heard this music since the seventies. Thank you for bringing it back.