Luke's Opera

I'm reading a little of the book of Luke and I notice the songs.  I need to clarify from the Greek which passages are songs and which are plays - lists of dialogue.  Let text be the guide and only use songs to make an opera with no recitative or use dialogue for recitative and songs for songs.  Don't decide which scenes to use except from their genre.  Either make a play with songs (musical) or a show with just songs  (rock opera?)  If parable dialogue is used to make spoken or sung scenes, make the point that they are about real people- maybe crowds acting it out but not speaking?  Miming normal unnamed people?  Named characters sing? 


Mary sings in chapter 1 a song of praise and fulfillment, revolution and happiness.  Zechariah, John's father, sings next.  The angels sing in chapter 2. 

I'm using sing, rather than say: if it's going to be an opera they'll all be singing.

All three songs praise God at the start- as in the Lord's prayer.  They each can sing separately and then as a duet with a huge chorus of angels.

Simeon sings next at the temple.  Anna joins in there also, but I don't see any dialogue for her.

Then there could be a nice recap of everyone, but in separate sets- Zechariah with Elizabeth at home, the angel chorus up in the heavens and the temple crowd.

Isaiah sings in chapter 3 of Luke; a voice from the past fulfilled in the present.  Should he be offstage?  Alone on an empty stage with just one spotlight? 

The devil sings in Jerusalem at Jesus in Luke chapter 4.  Jesus sings in Nazareth, quoting Isaiah.  Should they sing together?  Isaiah start and Jesus come in louder and a key higher?  He doesn't praise God and neither did the devil who asked for proof.  Instead, Jesus declares his own worth.  His response should answer the devil's question musically.  Call and response.

Luke chapter 6 has Jesus singing the Beatitudes, which is a word I don't like because it only has one context so means nothing to people who don't already know the word.  It doesn't teach you what it is, or relate it to anything else, which is what words do, so to me it's not even a word but a separating label. 

The woes, which follow the blessings, should be with sad or martial music contrasting with the bright happiness music of the preceding blessings.  Music should be slower and more memorable.  Everybody forgets them. 

Luke chapter 7 has two refrains.  I think one is Isaiah, and if it is, he can sing from offstage with Jesus who is onstage and the melody can be a development one Isaiah previously sang.  The next one about music not working could be a great song whose melodies parody what a dirge and a dance sound like. 

Luke chapter 8 - song about truly seeing and hearing.

Luke 11- The Lord's prayer with hints or quotes of The Lord's Prayer by Albert Hay Malotte with violin solo played by me. 

Luke 13 - Sturm und drang- big surprise at the end of time for people who say they knew Jesus but didn't.

We knew you.

You did not.

We ate and drank with you, who taught us.  You were our teacher.  Our godly teacher. 

Luke 16 - Shrewd manager song praising negotiation and business and ending in who are you following, who's your real manager?  Do you want to do what's right for you or Him?

Luke 19 - short Jesus refrain, maybe same tune as when he said he was the One earlier - Blessed is the king (himself speaking about himself) who comes in the name of the Lord.  Possible quote of Sandi Patti's song "In the Name of the Lord." 

There is power in the name of the Lord.  There is hope in the name of the Lord.  Blessed is He who comes... in the name of the Lord.  His name will be worshiped forever (sung by angel choir again, up above the stage where they have been waiting patiently since Bethlehem?  There's gotta be other things for them to sing in between - but don't make them up!)

Luke 20 - The stone that the builders rejected song (use musical themes from whatever book it's from- Psalm theme here, Isaiah theme previously, maybe have a prophets theme.)

David's song - if Isaiah was offstage, then David is too.  Maybe David and Isaiah sing separate duets with Jesus when their song comes up or Jesus takes over the songs after they start them, respectively.  David's theme developed from Psalms theme.

Luke 23 - Hosea's theme sung from the cross????  I think the opera should end already.

Luke 24 - Road to Emmaus - doesn't seem like a verse or a scene of a play but how powerful that Jesus preaches against the gnostic belief that he is just a prophet.  He's mad.  We need a Jesus is mad musical theme.

Prophet theme, teacher theme, praise theme, Psalm them, heavenly choir theme combine to make Jesus' theme?

How to make an opera that includes one tiny verse from the cross or even includes the cross or ascension.  If limited to songs from the text, what is the end of the story?