~ Jesus Christ Superstar Original Cast ~
Damned For All Time/Blood Money
~ The Movie Soundtrack ~
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 he’s doing the right thing. This is some of Rice’s 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.