IU's Phan looks at Vietnamese life in 1945 in 'What the Horse Eats' Connie Shakalis Special to the H-T Making something appalling into something ravishing requires skill. Audiences will learn a bit of Asian history next month during a new one-hour chamber opera. There's a relationship between composer and audience; those who see "What the Horse Eats" will learn something about its composer, director and co-librettist. P.Q. Phan, professor of music composition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, has come up with a chamber (short with only a few musical instruments, in this case eight) opera about Vietnam in 1945. World War II is moments from ending.