The Who rock opera

British rock veterans the Who are eyeing a June release for a mini-opera, "The Glass Household," which is based on Pete Townshend's online novella "The Boy Who Heard Music."

According to Townshend's Web site www.petetownshend.co.uk, the 11-minute Polydor release will precede a "conventional CD" in September and fulfills the singer/songwriter/guitarist promise not to tour with the Who this summer unless new music was in the pipeline. The Who have not released an album of new material since 1982.

Since the new year, Townshend has "completed 10 songs, two of which were full-length and quite complex, the rest shorter, punchier or simple and ballad-like. I played all the parts myself, as is my habit while I'm composing. I moved into Oceanic, my large studio, and began work with other musicians on February 28, three days after the last posting of the novella on the internet."

Backing Townshend and vocalist Roger Daltrey are bassist Pino Palladino, long-time keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick ("playing some old-school Hammond," according to Townshend) and drummer Peter Huntington. Longtime Who engineer Bob Pridden has been behind the boards for the sessions.

As previously reported, the Who will hit the road in Europe this summer beginning June 18 in Brighton, England. Further dates are in the works for later in the year.document.write(unescape("