From the Cathedral to the Opera Stage

Abstract

The article focuses on the historical coincidence: two operas based on the Gospel plot had their premieres under two different cultural milieu but very close in time: the rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (1971, Broadway, New York) and the Russian avant-garde chamber opera Master i Margarita by Sergei Slonimsky (1972, Leningrad, concert performance), after M. Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita. The article examines the cultural and historical conditions that preceded these operas so different in their styles, audiences, and fates.