673. What Is Money?
5/1/202654 min
That’s what the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang wanted to learn. So he turned Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations into an oratorio. We tag along as Lang’s piece heads toward its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic. (Part one of a two-part series.)
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SOURCES:
- Fleur Barron, opera singer and mezzo-soprano.
- David Lang, composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.
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RESOURCES:
- "Finally, an Opera About Economics," by Stacey Vanek Smith (Bloomberg, 2026).
- "The Little Match Girl Passion," by David Lang (2023).
- The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (1776).
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EXTRAS:
- "In Search of the Real Adam Smith," series by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsStephen Dubner· Host0:00
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Stephen Dubner· Host0:59
[dramatic music] Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner. We recently made a three-part series about an almost 300-year-old oratorio that still has a grip on a lot of people today, Handel's Messiah. During our reporting, we spent some time with the New York Philharmonic as they rehearsed and performed Messiah. One day, our producer, Zach Lipinski, heard about a future Philharmonic oratorio called The Wealth of Nations. You may recognize that title. It is