Aethelred the Unready

Richard Wilson is the composer of some eighty works in many genres. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard, he holds the Mary Conover Mellon Chair in Music at Vassar; he is also Composer-in-Residence with the American Symphony Orchestra. Richard Wilson writes: "It was during a prolonged losing streak of the New York Yankees (we New Yorkers love our Yankees) that, musing on the subject of failure, I decided to write an opera about _thelred the Unready. The libretto I wrote is mainly whimsical. But, it does draw on history, presenting three characters who actually existed. Work on the libretto and then the music of the opera began in the summer of 1992. Excerpts were performed in concert by The American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1993 and 1994. The first complete performance is the one captured here." So here we have the first opera ever, inspired by a losing streak of the New York Yankees, or any baseball team as a matter of fact.