POP MUSIC REVIEW

‘Quadrophenia’ as it was meant to be

The Who performs its emotionally rich work in order and pulls it off, at times thrillingly.

Randall Roberts Pop Music Critic

Few songwriters in British rock have had loftier goals and more success than Pete Townshend of the Who, and few works from the classic rock era are as accomplished and emotionally rich as “Quadrophenia,” the Who’s 1973 rock opera focused on rebel youth in working class England.

Townshend and longtime bandmate Roger Daltrey celebrated the four decades since its release at Staples Center on Wednesday night, presenting to a capacity crowd the melodically and thematically linked 80-minute work as it was originally sequenced — as one big story to be appreciated as a whole. Despite one’s skepticism, they pulled it off — at times thrillingly.

The early 1970s were fertile days for lofty ambition in rock, the age when the LP flourished as a medium for

[See The Who, D15]