How Pete Townshend’s Failure to Write a “Real” Opera Led to Some of His Greatest Works

For their third album, released in 1967, The Who had turned to more story and character-driven songs. The Who Sell Out was full of strange character studies by Pete Townshend, and intricate narratives that paved the way for some of his more ambitious rock operas.

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It was the failure of one project in particular that had Townshend so determined to continue creating elaborate stories. In 2021, Townshend spoke with Rock Cellar Magazine, and was asked about this project and its influence.

Things began with the track “A Quick One (While He’s Away).” Pete Townshend called it a “mini-opera,” and its success on The Who’s second album led the lyricist to attempt more of these compositions.

“It was quite clear that we’d hit on something really quite important and precious, the ability to tell stories and to go quite deep,” he said. Townshend described “A Quick One” as being about child abuse, sexual assault, and women’s rights. However, at the time he was writing it, those subjects weren’t clear. What was obvious to Townshend was that the song was “about somebody being deserted.”

“I think the characters in the mini opera were very real to me. I could see them and I could feel them,” he continued. “So when I started to go back to the idea, ‘Well, I can’t you know, I’m not going to be able to write a proper opera.’”

Pete Townshend On “Rael” and How Failing to Write a Real Opera Kept Him Creatively Engaged

Pete Townshend then spoke about “Rael,” which appeared on The Who Sell Out. This was another attempt to write a “mini-opera,” but he went a step farther with this composition.

“With the song ‘Rael’ I was on a mission to try to write a real opera and I suppose I meant a rock opera. I meant an opera that might have orchestration in it,” said Townshend. “I was certainly studying orchestra and studying orchestration, I just didn’t have the time.”

He continued, “So I think with ‘Rael,’ for example, which was my mini opera, which should have been an ‘opera opera,’ I was aware that I wasn’t going to be able to do this in the time that I had available. I couldn’t learn the art quick enough. I couldn’t do it fast enough.”

Even though Pete Townshend didn’t manage to write an “opera opera,” the creative hunger only increased. Townshend would go on to write some of his best work in Tommy, Who’s Next, and Quadrophenia. The early experimentation with characters, narratives, and mini-operas provided the groundwork for more ambitious projects.

“I think I was just having these ideas,” said Townshend, “that I want to write a song about such and such a thing, such and such an idea, such and such a concept, such and such a feeling and I want to attach a figure to it.”

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