Atlas Shrugged/Phaethon

An opera composed by Richard Halley when he was a young man. It is based on the Greek myth in which Phaethon steals his father's chariot, and dies in an audacious attempt to drive the sun across the sky. Richard Halley changed the story, though, into one of triumph, in which Phaethon suceeds.

When this opera was first performed, it was booed and ridiculed. Nineteen years later, after years of struggle and hardship, it was performed again to a wildly entusiastic audience. The day after this performance, Richard Halley disappeared.