Dudamel & David Lang’s the wealth of nations

Gustavo Dudamel — the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Music & Artistic Director Designate — conducts the World Premiere of David Lang’s the wealth of nations. Lang, acclaimed for his ingenious text-setting in his Pulitzer Prize–⁠winning Little Match Girl Passion, turns to Adam Smith’s 1776 magnum opus.

Drawing on texts from Smith, and also Franklin Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edith Wharton, Eugene Debs, and Maria W. Stewart, the work explores the roles and relationships of commerce and free markets. Inspired by Handel’s treatment of texts in Messiah, Lang has created an enjoyable and thought-provoking 21st-century oratorio that he hopes “encourages audiences to consider what we truly value.”