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Roger Waters: Ça Ira

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Sony Classical
Released: 2005.09.26
Time:
 69:02 / 39:33
Category: Opera
Producer(s): Roger Waters, Rick Wentworth
Rating:
Media type: 2xCD
Web address: www.roger-waters.com
Appears with: Pink Floyd
Purchase date: 2018
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


Disc one

Act 1
[1] The Gathering Storm - 1:38
[2] Overture - 4:06
[3] Scene 1: A Garden in Vienna 1765 - 0:53
[4] Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine - 2:53
[5] Scene 2: Kings Sticks and Birds – 2:41
[6] Honest Bird, Simple Bird - 2:10
[7] I Want to Be King - 2:37
[8] Let Us Break All the Shields - 1:45
[9] Scene 3: The Grievances of the People – 4:40
[10] Scene 4: France in Disarray – 2:34
[11] To Laugh is to Know How to Live - 1:44
[12] Slavers, Landlords, Bigots at Your Door - 3:36
[13] Scene 5: The Fall of the Bastille – 1:34
[14] To Freeze in the Dead of Night - 2:19
[15] So to the Streets in the Pouring Rain - 4:17

Act 2
[16] Scene 1: Dances and Marches – 2:11
[17] Now Hear Ye! - 2:18
[18] Flushed With Wine - 4:31
[19] Scene 2: The Letter – 1:39
[20] My Dear Cousin Bourbon of Spain - 2:48
[21] The Ship of State is All at Sea - 1:46
[22] Scene 3: Silver Sugar and Indigo – 0:55
[23] To The Windward Isles - 4:50
[24] Scene 4: The Papal Edict – 1:17
[25] In Paris There's a Rumble Under the Ground - 6:19


Disc two

Act 3
[1] Scene 1: The Fugitive King – 2:21
[2] But the Marquis of Boulli Has a Trump Card Up His Sleeve - 4:27
[3] To Take Your Hat Off - 2:40
[4] The Echoes Never Fade from That Fusillade - 3:15
[5] Scene 2: The Commune de Paris – 2:43
[6] Vive la Commune de Paris - 3:16
[7] The National Assembly is Confused - 2:41
[8] Scene 3: The Execution of Louis Capet – 1:39
[9] Adieu Louis for You It's Over - 3:45
[10] Scene 4: Marie Antoinette – The Last Night on Earth – 1:39
[11] Adieu My Good and Tender Sister - 5:09
[12] Scene 5: Liberty – 2:51
[13] And in the Bushes Where They Survive - 6:52

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Roger Waters - Choir Arrangement, Producer
Etienne Roda-Gil - Librettist
Nadine Roda-Gil - Illustrations, Librettist

Bryn Terfel - Bass Baritone, Vocals
Paul Groves - Tenor Vocal
Ying Huang - Soprano Vocal, Vocals
Jamie Bower - Vocals
Ismaël Lô - Vocals
Helen Russill - Vocals
Gavyn Wright - Orchestra Leader
London Oratory Choir - Choir/Chorus
London Voices - Choir/Chorus
Italia Conti Childrens Choir - Children's Chorus
Rick Wentworth - Choir Arrangement, Conductor, Producer
Terry Edwards - Choir Master
Roy Gregory - Children's Choirmaster
Isobel Griffiths - Orchestra Contractor
Michael McCarthy - Choir Master
Mike McCarthy - Choir Master

Peter Gelb - Executive Producer
Mark Fenwick - Executive Producer
Simon Rhodes - Engineer, Mixing
Stéphane Briand - Engineer
Nick Griffiths - Engineer
Nick Wollage - Engineer
David Nowack - Sound Effects
David Patterson - Sound Effects
Jimmy Ienner, Jr. - Photography
Adrian Maben - Photography
Di James - Production Coordination
Dick James - Production Coordination
Doug Logan - Music Preparation
Sonia Nerdrum - Language Coach
Michel Vallat - Language Coach
Muriel Corradini - Language Coach
Carey Sedgwick - Biographical Notes
Nick Sedgwick - Liner Notes, Synopsis
Roxanne Slimak - Artwork

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


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 - All Music Guide



Ça Ira (French for "It'll be fine", subtitled "There is Hope") is the fourth studio album by Roger Waters. It is an opera in three acts and a concept album. The album is based on the French libretto co-written by Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gil on the historical subject of the early French Revolution. Ça Ira was released 26 September 2005, as a double CD album featuring baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Ying Huang, and tenor Paul Groves. The album received mixed reviews, with critics praising the composition but criticising its plot and simplicity.

Waters, known for his work in the English rock band Pink Floyd, was approached by friends Étienne Roda-Gil and his wife Nadine Delahaye in 1987, and asked to set their libretto to music. The initial version was completed and recorded by the end of 1988. After hearing it, François Mitterrand was suitably impressed and urged the Paris Opera to stage it for the bicentennial of the revolution the following July. The opera directors, however, were resistant, according to Waters, because "I was English, and I had been in a rock group." Starting in 1989, Waters rewrote the libretto in English.

Ça Ira has received mixed reviews. The biggest criticisms were that the opera is too narrative, which makes staging very difficult – and, as a result, disrupts the flow of the piece. Others have complained that the score is too conventional and that Waters should have taken more risks with it.

The first time any part of Ça Ira was heard in public was on 16 October 2002 when the Overture was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall in London by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, during a benefit gala for the Countryside Alliance.

The next public airing (not a live performance, but a recording played through a sound system) took place in Malta on 1 May 2004, the night that Malta entered the European Union. An approximately 15-minute-long excerpt was heard by 80,000 people present at the waterfront of the Grand Harbour. The music was accompanied by a light show by Gert Hoff.

The official premiere took place in Rome on 17 November 2005, in front of a sold-out crowd, and was followed the next evening by another performance. Both shows were praised for the high quality of music, vocal performances, and sound. The choir, orchestra, and soloists were complemented by a projection screen backdrop which displayed images (some photographed by Mark Holthusen) helping to tell the story.

A full operatic performance took place on 25 August 2006 in Poznań, Poland, and was televised live on Poland's TVP. The project involved the same number of musicians from the concert performances in addition to more than 200 dancers from the Great Theatre in Poznań. There were also period elements of stage design (such as horses, carriages and war scenes with soldiers and stunt performers) and full costumes. Over 500 artists were involved, and the production reportedly cost in excess of €2 million. Performances were held in Kiev on 16 December, and at the Poznań Opera House on 30 and 31 December 2006.

In April 2008, the opera was performed, with the libretto in English, as part of the Festival Amazonas de Ópera in Manaus, Brazil by the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra and choir.

The 2005 release was available in three formats:
A three-disc set with regular CD and Super Audio (SACD) stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound versions. Disc 3 was a DVD with a 55-minute documentary by Adrian Maben, showing Waters at work on the opera. This also included a 60-page book with libretto and credits, and illustrations by Nadine Roda-Gil.
A two-disc set with regular audio CDs, including libretto and illustrations in CD-ROM format.
A two-disc set in the original French.

The album spent 14 weeks on Billboard's Classical Chart in the United States and peaked at number 5.

Wikipedia.org
 

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