Waters: Ca Ira [SACD]

Disc 1
1	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
2	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
3	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
4	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
5	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
6	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
7	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
8	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
9	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
10	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
11	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
12	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
13	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
14	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
15	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
16	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
17	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
18	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
19	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
20	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
21	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
22	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
23	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
24	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
25	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
Disc 2
1	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
2	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
3	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
4	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
5	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
6	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
7	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
8	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
9	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
10	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
11	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
12	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
13	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), o
Waters: Ca Ira [SACD]
1.	Ça Ira (There Is Hope), opera 1:51:08
	Composed by Roger Waters
	Performed by Terry Edwards, Paul Groves, Ying Huang, London Voices, London Voices, Michael McCarthy, Bryn Terfel, Bryn Terfel, Jamie Bower, Roy Gregory, Italia Conti Childrens Choir, Ismaël Lô, Helen Russill, London Oratory Choir, The Orchestra, Paul Groves, Jamie Bower, Italia Conti Children's Choir, London Oratory Choir and Helen Russill
	Conducted by Rick Wentworth, Rick Wentworth and Richard Wentworth

Barnes & Noble

If you had to vote for the aging rock star most likely to compose an opera, Roger Waters would probably place near the top of the poll. After all, his work with Pink Floyd -- especially but not exclusively The Wall -- had the combined musical and dramatic power that defined a sort of "rock opera" in the 1970s. Ça ira, however, is a three-act opera without the rock, a pageant of Revolutionary France (including a detour to the Caribbean colonies) that impresses equally for its gripping storytelling and its absorbing music. Truth be told, there's as much a debt here to epic megamusicals like Les Misérables as there is to opera, though the voices and the rich orchestration do constantly allude to the more venerable genre. And Waters has recruited some great operatic voices for this recording: baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Ying Huang, and tenor Paul Groves, each of whom takes on multiple roles, from revolutionary agitators to the king and queen. Terfel also portrays the Ringmaster, a narrator who comments on the action throughout, and his wonderfully characterized singing does much to propel the drama. Unabashedly melodic and emotional, Ça ira -- which takes its name from a song of the era, translated here as "There Is Hope" -- focuses on the early years of the Revolution, before the Terror, and thus remains optimistic about the possibilities of "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality." That's something that sets Ça ira apart from most operas: The soprano (Marie Antoinette) may be dead by the end of the evening, but the final bars are inspirational rather than tragic. Testifying to Waters's continued musical vitality and relevance, three decades after he explored the dark side of the moon, the new ambitions realized in Ça ira allow him to lead us toward the light of hope. Scott Paulin

All Music Guide

Roger Waters, the man who equated "education" with "thought control" in his pseudo-opera The Wall, is now back and appealing to higher culture in his new opera Ça Ira. Moreover, this is a real opera, with singers, a chorus, and an orchestra with not a single dreamy, overlong electric guitar solo in sight. Fans of Pink Floyd will find little in "Ça Ira" to satisfy their jones for "the Floyd," although there are many standard musical features associated with the classic rock staple group that have been carried over into this work -- crushingly slow tempi, somber and monotonous singing, and a mania for pristine recordings of sound effects. At one point, a volley of musket fire makes you jump out of your seat.

"Ça Ira" was undertaken with librettists Etienne and Nadine Roda-Gil not long after The Wall, but it took Waters so long to put the finishing touches on it that his collaborators have since died. Waters made a smart decision in using librettists for this project, as his own corroded worldview would certainly have undone the basic idea, the message of which is "there is hope." That said, the Roda-Gils took on too large of a swath of the French Revolution to cram into three acts, and the listener gets no more than a picture postcard sense of its flavor. All of the principal singers in this recording are required to take on multiple roles in "Ça Ira," and this results in a twofold effect. The first is that it brings "Ça Ira" into the realm of opera-oratorio, and even to some degree Brechtian "Lehrstück," and secondly, it's hard to tell what character a singer is supposed to be portraying if one is not following the libretto. Expect the motion picture version soon!

Naturally, Bryn Terfel and Ying Huang are top-drawer opera singers, and Terfel relishes the opportunity, chewing on as much scenery as he can get his hands on. Huang, for her part, hangs in there, but she does not sing as though she loves this material. "Ça Ira" would be a hard opera for a singer to love, as there is no characterization through the singing whatsoever, and characters themselves are not given enough of the floor to engage us. The orchestration is handled with taste and some sophistication, but in terms of melody, "Ça Ira" is the sing-songiest opera since the pre-revolutionary days of "Thomas and Sally." Wherever the fundamental of the harmonic movement is, the melody line follows, and vice-versa. In spots where there is no harmonic foundation, Waters resorts to scalar or bugle-call like figures that, while effectively passing as notes to hang the words onto, do not constitute melody in and of themselves. This kind of texture overall would be tremendously monochromatic and dull for the average opera listener.

However, if the name above the title were Andrew Lloyd Webber, then "Ça Ira" would be considered better than average. Moreover, there is potential good to be reaped if "Ça Ira" gains some popularity. If it proves to your standard-issue stoner that you don't have to be a dork to enjoy an opera, that's terrific. If it helps raise the public profile of the fine singers involved here, that is great, too. Nevertheless, as an opera of which the notion "there is hope" is the main theme, at least musically "Ça Ira" isn't very hopeful. Uncle Dave Lewis