This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary . It should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context.(September 2017) |
!HERO | |
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The Rock Opera | |
Music | Eddie DeGarmo Bob Farrell |
Basis | The Gospel Story |
!HERO is a 2003 Christian rock opera about Jesus. It is based on the question, "What if Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?". After the original tour in 2003 ended, it was released on DVD, CD, and was written into a trilogy of novels and series of comic books.
!HERO is a rock opera modernizing Jesus's last two years of life, as narrated in the Bible. The story takes place in New York City, in Brooklyn. The world government in this near-future dystopic Earth is centered under the International Confederation of Nations (I.C.O.N.). Under the iron fist of I.C.O.N., nearly all religion in the world has been wiped out, except for small occult and mystic sects. Only one synagogue in Brooklyn exists. Currently, New York City is a police-occupied warzone between ethnic gangs and small, isolated revolutionary groups fighting I.C.O.N. Of all the ancient world religions, only Judaism survives and flourishes, at least, as much as it can.
In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a child named Jesus, but referred to as Hero, is born and forced to flee with his family to the small Jewish section of Brooklyn. Jesus grows up and begins to preach and teach the principles of Christianity to the people of New York City, teaching people to love their enemies and care for each other. I.C.O.N. realizes Hero is a threat, and the chief of police Devlin (a derivative of the Devil or Satan), with the help of chief Rabbi Kai (Caiaphas), conspire to end Hero's revolutionary teachings. [1]
The Opera is narrated by "Agent Hunter", a former I.C.O.N. agent who met Hero and was soon thrown into prison for joining him against I.C.O.N. The opera also features Petrov (Peter), Maggie (Mary Magdalene), and Jude (Judas Iscariot) the latter who conspires with Kai and Devlin to betray Hero. The storyline progresses through several stories about Jesus' miracles and sermons, using references from the Bible's four gospels, continues through Jesus' execution, at the hands of I.C.O.N's angry mob, and eventually ending with his resurrection. [2] [3]
Jesus Christ Superstar is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with much of the plot centred on Judas, who is dissatisfied with the direction in which Jesus is steering his disciples. Contemporary attitudes, sensibilities and slang pervade the rock opera's lyrics, and ironic allusions to modern life are scattered throughout the depiction of political events. Stage and film productions accordingly contain many intentional anachronisms.
Lamb of God is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It appears again in John 1:36.
The empty tomb is the Christian tradition which tells that the women coming to the tomb of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion found it empty. The story is found in all four canonical gospels, but beyond this basic outline they agree on little. However, the whole death, burial, and resurrection narrative predates the gospels and Paul's letters via oral traditions. The gospel authors' usage of standard literary, historical, and biographical compositional practices of their day along with their use of multiple sources account for much of the differences, which were usually over peripheral details.
Jesus of Nazareth is a 1977 British-Italian epic film and television drama serial directed by Franco Zeffirelli and co-written by Zeffirelli, Anthony Burgess, and Suso Cecchi d'Amico which dramatizes the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It stars Robert Powell as Jesus, and features an all-star cast of actors, including eight who had won or would go on to win Academy Awards: Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quinn, Rod Steiger, James Earl Jones, and Peter Ustinov.
Project 86 is an American rock band from Orange County, California, formed in 1996. The band has released ten albums, which have collectively sold nearly 500,000 units worldwide, two EPs, two DVDs, and one live album. Their music is considered by most to be a rock/post-hardcore/alternative style. Frontman Andrew Schwab's poetic and introspective lyrics have addressed a wide variety of topics such as conformity and emptiness.
The miracles of Jesus are proposed miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature.
Audio Adrenaline is an American Christian rock band that formed in 1986 at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky. The band gained recognition during the 1990s and received two Grammy Awards and multiple Dove Awards. Audio Adrenaline were regular performers at the annual Creation Festival, Spirit West Coast festival, Agape Music Festival, and Alive Festival. In 2007, the group disbanded due to lead singer Mark Stuart's spasmodic dysphonia. During this time, they released eight studio albums.
Michael DeWayne Tait is an American contemporary Christian music artist. Michael Tait met Toby McKeehan in 1984 when he was in high school. Both Toby and Michael met Kevin Max while attending Liberty University in the late 1980s, and together they formed four-time Grammy winning band DC Talk, with whom Michael Tait has released five acclaimed studio albums. Tait is the current lead singer of Newsboys, and one third of Christian rock group DC Talk. Tait also has had success in his solo career, founding a band called Tait in 1997. He toured as a solo act until 2007. He became lead singer of the Christian pop rock band Newsboys in 2009. Aside from singing, Tait is also a self-taught guitar player. Tait also has a sister Lynda Randle, who is a Southern Gospel singer.
Tait was an American Christian rock band formed by Michael Tait, one of the members of dc Talk and the lead singer of Newsboys since 2009.
Lazarus of Bethany, also venerated as Righteous Lazarus, the Four-Days Dead in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the subject of a prominent sign of Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death. The Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions offer varying accounts of the later events of his life.
London School of Musical Theatre (LSMT) is an academy of performing arts that was founded by Glenn Lee in 1995. The school is located on Borough Road, near Elephant and Castle.
Mark Alan Stuart is an American missionary and former Christian rock musician, singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist for the Christian rock band Audio Adrenaline during their original run from 1986 to 2007.
Afa Anoa'i Jr. is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the professional wrestling promotion WWE in the late 2000s under the ring name Manu.
Paul Wright is an American musician originally from Eugene, Oregon. His debut album, Fly Away, was recorded in Oregon with Christopher Stevens and released in 2003. He graduated from Northwest Christian University with a degree in Communications after spending a semester studying at the Contemporary Music Center in Martha's Vineyard.
Grits is a Christian hip hop group from Nashville, Tennessee. Their name is an acronym, which stands for "Grammatical Revolution In the Spirit". GRITS is made up of Stacey "Coffee" Jones and Teron "Bonafide" Carter, both of whom were DC Talk dancers.
!Hero is an album featuring the songs from the rock opera, !Hero. It is based on the question, "What if Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?" The rock opera modernizes Jesus' last two years on earth and features a cast of many well-known Christian rock artists with Michael Tait, Rebecca St. James, and Mark Stuart as the three main characters: Hero (Jesus), Maggie, and Petrov (Peter).
John Landrum Cooper is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He has been the lead vocalist, bassist and co-founder of Christian rock band Skillet since 1996 and the only constant member, and his side project Fight the Fury since 2018.
Rene Francisco Sotomayor, better known by the stage name T-Bone, is a Christian rapper. His father is Nicaraguan and his mother is Salvadoran. His name came from being called 'Bones' as a youngster because he was very skinny. The 'T' was "added to give the name a little slang edge."
Jaroslav Vajda was an American hymnist.
The date of birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or in any historical reference, but most biblical scholars assume a year of birth between 6 and 4 BC. The historical evidence is too incomplete to allow a definitive dating, but the year is estimated through three different approaches: (A) by analyzing references to known historical events mentioned in the nativity accounts in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, (B) by working backward from the estimation of the start of the ministry of Jesus, and (C) astrological or astronomical alignments. The common Christian traditional dating of the birthdate of Jesus was 25 December, a date first asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 A.D., although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded. The day or season has been estimated by various methods, including the description of shepherds watching over their sheep.
Combining rap, rock, pop, dance and Broadway-styled tunes, "!Hero" featured a slew of street-smart biblical characters interacting with tastefulness, tactfulness and seeker-friendly sensitivity in modern-day New York City."..."Even more gripping than Tait's representation of the crucifixion on a corner street sign was the resurrection scene, where he greeted the disciples (or hip, street friends in this context) with victorious, sin-conquering glory. It was an epic climax capable of inducing chills within believers and a moment that could possibly even soften the hardest of hearts.