Rock Opera

Last year, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle reunited in London to perform Quadrophenia - Townshend's worthy-of-revival 1973 rock opera of male teenage angst - and, soon after, brought it on the road, stopping in Philadelphia in October. It was a surprise, then, to see that the band, which tends to stage a last hurrah every seven years or so, was coming back so soon. The difference was that, at Wednesday's show at the Waterfront Entertainment Centre, the band was going to explore its full catalog of explosively intelligent rockers.

To put this report in perspective, I hadn't heard a note of The Who's seminal rock opera, Tommy, until earlier this week. The 1969 album, the 1975 movie and the piece's various concert versions all passed me by, and I'd never felt diminished by their absence from my life. But I'm here to tell you that the supercharged Tommy that opened Thursday at the St. James Theatre is a stunner, an explosion of kinetic energy and high-tech stagecraft that grabs you by the throat and never lets go. Adapted by The Who's Pete Townshend in collaboration with director Des McAnuff, this first-ever stage version premiered last summer at McAnuff's La Jolla Playhouse in California.

While it is usually referred to simply as Tommy, the official name of the show at the Media Theatre is The Who's Tommy. The full title says much about the piece. This is a musical-theater work with music and lyrics written mainly by Pete Townshend to be performed by his immensely popular, seminal rock band, The Who, on a concept album released in 1969. It was turned into a musical in 1993, and though it won five Tony Awards in that form, Tommy still comes across very much as a rock concert.

Can't-stay-broken-up rockers the Who will reunite in London June 29 to perform their 1973 opera, "Quadrophenia. " It'll be the first time they've ever performed the piece live. Perhaps reacting to the recent successful - and moneymaking - treatment of their 1969 rock opera "Tommy" on stage, the Who want to play "Quadrophenia" for a new generation . . . themselves. "No one plays our music better than us," said singer Rogert Daltrey, who joined surviving bandmates John Entwistle and Pete Townshend at a press conference yesterday.

Ever since he was a young boy Pete Townshend , who penned two of the best rock operas in that sub-genre's long history, has done it again. Townshend, 62, who explored teen angst and alienation in 1969's rock tragedy Tommy and went on to dissect teen alienation and angst in 1973's Quadrophenia , is scheduled to give his latest piece, The Boy Who Heard Music , a trial run with three performances this weekend at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Townshend, who says he began writing the piece as an Internet novella, says The Boy is "a hallucinatory tale about the rise and fall of a band made up of three teenagers from different ethnic backgrounds as seen through the eyes of an aging rock star.

What American Idiot first suggested, 21st Century Breakdown confirms: Billie Joe Armstrong is the Pete Townshend of the first decade of the new millennium. Does that mean that the Green Day leader will soon be quoted as saying, "I know what it feels like to be a woman, because I am a woman," and selling his songs for car commercials and CSI spin-offs? Let's hope not. But it does mean that Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown (Reprise . ?) is to 2004's American Idiot as 1969's Tommy, The Who's first full-length rock opera, is to the band's nine-minute suite, "A Quick One, While He's Away.

The Bacchae launches this summer's Lincoln Center Festival spectacularly. Staged as a rock opera but faithful to Euripides' ancient text, the National Theatre of Scotland's production is both a wildly entertaining tragedy and a shockingly grim comedy of sex, violence and rock-and-roll. As Dionysus, Alan Cumming enters the blazingly white stage shackled, upside-down and bare-bottomed. With a snap of his fingers (and there is much finger-snapping, signifying both magic and street-smart approval)

From those first thunderous chords, the Who's Tommy has an exhilarating familiarity. Guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, signature French horn: "You know you're in Tommy-land," says Joseph Church, music director of the rock opera that opens on Broadway tonight. "The music is extremely carefully structured to be a really amazing journey, to take the listener on a trip," Church explains. Tommy's amazing journey to Broadway began in 1969 when British rocker Pete Townshend's band, the Who, released his tour de force, a double album about a boy struck deaf, dumb and blind, who becomes a pinball wizard ("sure plays a mean pinball")

Roger Daltry of The Who belts out a tune during a performance of the rock opera "Quadrophenia" at the CoreStates Center. A review of last night's concert will appear in tomorrow's editions.

The mysteries of the creative process don't necessarily become clearer with age. In fact, the more composer Margaret Garwood talks about her multi-decade road to this week's premiere of her latest opera, The Scarlet Letter , the more she seems like a somewhat hesitant servant of an impractically grand stage work that chose her. "I assure you, this is my last one. You'd be crazy to start a new opera at 83, don't you think?" the compact, stylish Garwood said before a rehearsal at the Academy of Vocal Arts - itself not a typical place for new operas to be born.

The mysteries of the creative process don't necessarily become clearer with age. In fact, the more composer Margaret Garwood talks about her multi-decade road to this week's premiere of her latest opera, The Scarlet Letter , the more she seems like a somewhat hesitant servant of an impractically grand stage work that chose her. "I assure you, this is my last one. You'd be crazy to start a new opera at 83, don't you think?" the compact, stylish Garwood said before a rehearsal at the Academy of Vocal Arts - itself not a typical place for new operas to be born.

THESE DAYS, it's hard to swing a Fender Stratocaster guitar without hitting a classic-rock "cover" band. But it's safe to assume you've never seen an act like Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra , which could be considered the mother of all classic-rock tribute units. "That would certainly be an apt description," said Sal Clemente , musical director, vocalist and co-founder of the group that tonight kicks out the jams at the Atlantic City Hilton. Apt, because the Boston-based URO uses the talents of 13 - count 'em, 13 - singers, backed by five musicians, as it offers faithful renditions of rock anthems by such titans as the Beatles, David Bowie, the Who and Queen.

What American Idiot first suggested, 21st Century Breakdown confirms: Billie Joe Armstrong is the Pete Townshend of the first decade of the new millennium. Does that mean that the Green Day leader will soon be quoted as saying, "I know what it feels like to be a woman, because I am a woman," and selling his songs for car commercials and CSI spin-offs? Let's hope not. But it does mean that Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown (Reprise . ?) is to 2004's American Idiot as 1969's Tommy, The Who's first full-length rock opera, is to the band's nine-minute suite, "A Quick One, While He's Away.

The Bacchae launches this summer's Lincoln Center Festival spectacularly. Staged as a rock opera but faithful to Euripides' ancient text, the National Theatre of Scotland's production is both a wildly entertaining tragedy and a shockingly grim comedy of sex, violence and rock-and-roll. As Dionysus, Alan Cumming enters the blazingly white stage shackled, upside-down and bare-bottomed. With a snap of his fingers (and there is much finger-snapping, signifying both magic and street-smart approval)

No matter what you thought of James Sugg's rock opera The Sea at its engaging but misbegotten premiere at the 2006 Live Arts Festival, there are two reasons to have faith in its current revival. Because theater production is too complicated for masochists, the author (known for fine work at Pig Iron Theatre) must have something up his sleeve that wasn't there before. Also, one should never pass up a nighttime visit to the atmospheric Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church, with its gothic graveyard and choir-loft organ.

Ever since he was a young boy Pete Townshend , who penned two of the best rock operas in that sub-genre's long history, has done it again. Townshend, 62, who explored teen angst and alienation in 1969's rock tragedy Tommy and went on to dissect teen alienation and angst in 1973's Quadrophenia , is scheduled to give his latest piece, The Boy Who Heard Music , a trial run with three performances this weekend at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Townshend, who says he began writing the piece as an Internet novella, says The Boy is "a hallucinatory tale about the rise and fall of a band made up of three teenagers from different ethnic backgrounds as seen through the eyes of an aging rock star.

Vietnam. Jonestown. Watergate. Three Mile Island. The Munich Olympics. Hey, who wouldn't miss the '70s? Right on. History Rocks: The '70s, a two-part special on the History Channel hosted by the soon-to-be-sexagenarian singer Meat Loaf, will be telecast at 10 p.m. tomorrow and Thursday. "Research has shown that TV audiences have an endless fascination with the '70s," says Bruce Klein, 43, the show's executive producer and creator. "It's far enough back that it's historical, and near enough that many viewers lived through it or remember it. It works on a nostalgia level and a curiosity level.

While it is usually referred to simply as Tommy, the official name of the show at the Media Theatre is The Who's Tommy. The full title says much about the piece. This is a musical-theater work with music and lyrics written mainly by Pete Townshend to be performed by his immensely popular, seminal rock band, The Who, on a concept album released in 1969. It was turned into a musical in 1993, and though it won five Tony Awards in that form, Tommy still comes across very much as a rock concert.

If you're suffering entertainment deprivation, aggravated by wallet depletion, there is a place - practically in your backyard - that promises an effective remedy. Would a free concert by the classic rock group Cheap Trick do the trick? Performing under the stars at the Cooper River Park in Pennsauken on Friday, the band is scheduled to appear with rock singer Dave Mason and a fireworks spectacular. Not your brand of music? Then how about virtuoso performances by jazz great Stanley Clarke, a multiple Grammy winner, or the jazz group Cubanismo against a shimmering Delaware River and a dazzling Philadelphia skyline as the sun sets?

I wish he had not done it. I believe his motives were good, but I never thought I would see the day when Pete Townshend would have to say: "I am not a pedophile. " I am not a person who admits easily to having heroes, but if I were, Pete Townshend would be one of them. Certainly my only musician hero, and not just because The Who were the best rock band in history: the first who played it loud enough to make your ears bleed, the first who broke out of the simple guitars-and-love-song pattern of early rock and roll, first synthesizers, first intelligent lyrics, first (and still best)