David Lang

Let's step back for a minute.

How did this piece come to be commissioned?

This piece actually started with another piece.

I did a project called Prisoner of the State for the New York Philharmonic, where I rewrote Beethoven's opera Fidelio.

I took out the love story and all the comic elements, and I just left the prison story.

It was really fun, and it was a really successful project, which they really liked.

So, of course, I went in and I said...

I really am happy that you like this project.

And you know, I have another project to make a piece out of The Wealth of Nations.

Had you already read the book?

I wasn't going to read the book unless I had a gig to read the book.

It's a long book.

It's a long book.

And it's, you know, 18th century language.

The language is very hard.

And there's a lot of stuff that I

wouldn't have read if I wasn't reading it for purpose.

So what was the experience reading it for you then, once you had a purpose?

Then it was really exciting because I started trying to figure out what the themes were that resonated with me.

One of the original ideas was that I would compare this to Handel's Messiah because mine is an oratorio about a serious book as a popular entertainment for a general audience, which the Messiah is as well.