B&T: What would you tell a customer in a music store or library that would encourage them to pick up Pete Townshend’s Classic Quadrophenia?
Pete: This is a modern opera, or cantata – the story is one that we have all lived through. It will connect because the story is so simple. It’s about a few very difficult days in the life of a young person. We’ve all been there. What is unusual in this case perhaps is that the hero’s difficulty becomes a conduit for an explosion of passion, sexual frustration, anger and awkward love. My music seems to be especially good at expressing all this, and The Who band members were great at performing it. Audiences respond according to their ability (or need) to reconnect with this part of their growing up. Or, they might simply look back sadly or fondly to the way they got through it all. In literature there are many examples of this kind of inconclusive story. Catcher in the Rye is maybe the most well-known. This orchestral version unlocks an entire range of new shades in this tale of teenage struggle.
