The Who’s Pete Townshend announces plans for new rock opera
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has confirmed plans to adapt his 2019 novel The Age of Anxiety into a rock opera.
Townshend helped pioneer the rock opera as a genre, having helmed Tommy and Quadrophenia with The Who. Now he’s set to return to the art form with the forthcoming adaptation of The Age of Anxiety, which centres around a reclusive rock star named Walter and his mentor, who is later accused of a historic sex attack against one of Water’s close friends.
Previously speaking to Rolling Stone in 2019, Townshend said of the plot: “This isn’t about celebrities or powerful men having sex with younger women. It’s about rape, at least that’s one of the strands, and the insinuation of rape.”
He added: “It’s about the possibility of it when people are at a wedding, they take drugs, they get smashed and they have sex. Who is responsible if both people are smashed?”
Speaking with The Sun, Townshend revealed he’s now revisited The Age of Anxiety for two upcoming projects and provided a timeline of a possible release date. “I am still developing the score and recording the music. I am also working on a documentary about the project, from its inception in 2007 until today,” he noted.
Townshend added: “I’m probably two years off completing it, at which time I hope to perform it with a full opera and a cast of guest singers.”
Meanwhile, earlier this year, The Who singer Roger Daltrey provided an update on the long-awaited Keith Moon biopic. He explained: “I’m at a draft that’s ready to go to directors. I’m waiting on a reply from a director that I was talking to prior to starting writing the script. I’m very pleased with the script, it will be made.”
Daltrey continued: “As soon as soon as he’s finished the film that he’s on, he will read it and I’ll get a reply from him. Hopefully we’ll get it made ASAP.”
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