(note: this article mainly talks about the original concept album, rather than the subsequent musical and film.)
The rock opera Evita, originally released as a concept album in 1976, equates freedom with consumer capitalism with the message that aslong as the free market is allowed to reign, people can make and sell their goods. The title line of this blog, used in the disc one closer "A New Argentina" and sung by the chorus character Che, represents the feelings of lyricist Tim Rice. It's not hard to see why Che's insecticide subplot was dropped when the album was transferred into the stage musical that it's best known for, as Che was turned into by director Harold Prince into literally Che Guevara despite the fact Che was nowhere near Argentina at the time the musical is set (1934-1952). No matter. This is the Che that the musical is best known for, for what I feel is a detriment. The Alan Parker film wisely reverts Che back to the everyman commentator, but still ignores the insecticide subplot.
While the musical derides the right wing dictatorship of Peron, the musical can't help but feel slightly conservative in tone, which is not surprising as it's written by the conservative Tim Rice. The album feels slightly anti-union, which was a general mood of the UK at the time with the three day week. The albums worst line is "screw the middle classes", sung is a high shrill like manner by Julie Covington that makes it seems the message this is unreasonable. Rice's approach to the material is that Person and Eva were wrong to target these institutions, and he was a demagogue. That he was, but not for targeting middle classes.
It also feels slightly misogynistic. Yes lyrics such as "her only good parts are between her thighs" are sung by army officers, they seem unnecessarily harsh and detract from a good attempt at dissecting Person's brutal dictatorship. Eva barely has any good points during the album, and always seems to be on the lookout for any opportunity to further her career which are mocked by Che.
Despite these misgivings, the music and the album as a whole for me are terrific, and very memorable. Composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber uses a variety of musical styles to convey Rice's lyrics, and on the whole they work very well. He uses the right musical styles at the right moment, while also using the right instrumentation. For example, during the musical break for "Buenos Aires" he utilises a distinctive guitar solo by Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin that works very well. The playing hints at Eva's ambition, frantically matching the pulsating beat. Credit also must go to the singer who plays Eva, Julie Covington. She sings most of the songs in the same cold, calculating manner which matches Rice's portrayal of Eva as the ultimate personification of her as Machiavellian ingenuity. Whilst she does pronounce some words horribly wrong (most notably descamisados), I feel she has been the only Eva who has matched Rice's ambition.
Credit also must go to Colm Wilkinson for his portrayal of everyman Che. He sings with a certain cynicism at the proceedings, while also hoping that Person's worker lead dictatorship can result in the capitalism that Rice believes in ("To see an underdog succeed/Is the encouragement I need").
Best song: "High Flying Adored", perhaps Che's first seeing as Eva as only driven by ambition, not love for the people
Best lyric: "High flying, adored, so young, the instant queen, a
Rich beautiful thing of all the talents, a cross between a
Fantasy of the bedroom and a saint" which best explains why people are still fascination by Eva today, and not Margaret Thatcher.
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