Music of the Night: Religious Influences and Spiritual Resonances in Operetta and Musical Theatre

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Ian Bradley (Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, University of St Andrews)

Music of the Night

Religious Influences and Spiritual Resonances in Operetta and Musical Theatre

Ian Bradley (Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, University of St Andrews)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
03 July 2025

Opera; Musicals

This book offers readers a fascinating new look into the spiritual side of operetta and musical theatre, two closely related genres often dismissed as trivial, shallow, and essentially secular.

Bradley challenges these judgements and seeks to show that there have been clear religious influences and spiritual resonances in some of the best known and most popular works in both genres. He points to the darker and more serious side of operetta and musical theatre to analyse the work of Offenbach, Lehár, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Schwartz, Lloyd Webber, and Boublil and Schoenberg. Readers will never listen to The Mikado, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeney Todd, Wicked, Les Miserables and The Lion King in the same way again. Using hitherto largely neglected sources, Music of the Night explores the Jewish and Catholic roots of French operetta composers, the impact of Franz Lehár's Catholic faith, the effect of Oscar Hammerstein's early exposure to Universalism, and the High Church aesthetic of Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Further chapters discuss Arthur Sullivan's softening and spiritualising effect on W. S. Gilbert's lyrics in the Savoy operas, Stephen Sondheim's secularism, and Stephen Schwartz as the 'reluctant pilgrim'. There is specific analysis of the religious influences and spiritual resonances in six key musicals: The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Misérables and The Lion King. A concluding chapter briefly surveys the musicals of the twenty-first century.

By: Ian Bradley (Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History University of St Andrews)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 226mm, Width: 150mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 318g
ISBN: 9780197699744
ISBN 10: 019769974X
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 03 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ian Bradley holds three degrees from the University of Oxford and has had a varied career in journalism at the London Times and BBC, church ministry as an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland, and academia. He worked as a lecturer and reader in church history and practical theology at the University of Aberdeen from 1992 to 1998, and reader in church history at the University of St Andrews from 1999 to 2017 when he was appointed Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History. From 2013 to 2017 he was Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews.