Revolution with a taste of Pink Floyd

In terms of financing and, above all, time, this show turned out to be one of the biggest productions every staged by Roger Waters, a founder of Pink Floyd. The show was choreographed and directed by Janusz Josefowicz of Metro fame, and the music was composed and conducted by Rick Wentworth, the producer of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Pirates of the Caribbean. This time the ex-leader and bass guitarist of the legendary British rock band tried his hand as the composer, producer, musician, and author of the English text — and succeeded. His name on the billboards alone guaranteed full houses, and it did.

The author translates Ca Ira as “There is hope.” The title of the opera was chosen from the libretto: it is a line from a patriotic song of the French Revolution. The history of this opera dates to the Paris celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, where Waters met the songwriter Etienne Roda-Gil, who soon supplied him with a libretto written with his wife Nadine. The plot reveals the French Revolution through the eyes of its participants. Roger says he fell in love with the libretto at first sight and put together a two-hour rock opera preview in a month’s time by recording his own vocal parts.

Waters believes that the difference between France in that period and current realities is not very significant.

Ca Ira was a premiere in Kyiv in the sense that it was staged indoors, where stunts were performed by acrobats and fire-breathers, and fireworks were set off. There was even a real horse walking on stage like a member of the cast. The opera’s producer, Marek Szpendowski, says that the horse was of Ukrainian parentage. The choir and the musicians were also Ukrainian: the Academy Choir, the Choir of the Lysenko Music School, and the State Variety and Symphony Orchestra.

The press has already tagged the style of the opera style as “Rogerian,” owing to some purely Pink-Floyd-like elements: the sound of a match being lit, a falling guillotine, barking dogs, and the rustle of pigeons’ wings as they take off. Roger is instantly recognizable in the revolutionary theme. He is known for his principles, like world peace and as a champion and singer of justice and freedom.

Here too Roger remains true to his stand. “We don’t need no thought control” is a line from his album The Wall, which he wrote on a wall in the West Bank, built by the Israelis. In the opera this phrase sounds especially expressive in the scene in which Louis XVI is executed; it is a metaphorical execution of control over human actions and thoughts.

Roger points out that the French Revolution is the core of the opera but not its main theme, which is revolution in general, a phenomenon and a way to change the world. The stage director agrees with him and stresses that the opera’s key idea is revolution as a way of making a better world.

In addition to concrete historical personalities, like Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and others, the libretto about the French Revolution features generalized characters, universal revolutionary types like sailors (one is reminded of the Potemkin mutiny), starving children, and desperate women. A soloist sings “The famine smells of revolution.” No explanation is required.

There are many aspects to the opera’s concept and technical execution. But the organizers should have selected a better site than the Exhibition Center, which overpowered the required opera-house atmosphere with its stucco decorations and velvet curtains. It was apparent that some people in the audience were watching the opera expecting Waters to appear on stage, holding Pink Floyd albums and fliers with his smiling face.

Their anticipation was understandable. The opera was a success and received a standing ovation. Waters appeared after the curtain was finally brought down. Contrary to expectations, he did not sing but simply shook hands with the soloists and greeted the audience. It was a natural and unobtrusive finale to “Roger’s opera.”

BLITZ INTERVIEW

“I am my own toughest critic”

In his interview with The Day, Roger Waters talked about his opera, American politics, and his passions.

Mr. Waters, how long did you work on Ca Ira?

Waters: I started working on it in 1989 and finished two years ago. The opera premiered in Rome in November 2005, and a more complete version was staged in Poznan one year later.

Seventeen years — that’s a big chunk of time and a lot of political, economic, and cultural events have taken place during this period. Did they have an impact on the end result of your opera?

Waters: Yes. At a certain point while I was working on the opera, I realized that it has to be more on the narrative side. I also realized what I wanted to have as the end result; a more dynamic plot and a broader political background. Janusz also added a number of political aspects to the opera, shedding light on certain modern political problems, and a number of visual images from the past century’s history that are closely connected with 18th-century events in France and 20 th -century events in Eastern Europe.

The title of the opera translates as “There is hope.” Hope for what? What kind of meaning did you place in it?

Waters: It means more than just a title. It’s a phrase from an 18th-century French revolutionary song that best reveals the content of changes that took place some 300 years ago. That was when people first started talking about equal rights and understood that, by joining efforts, they would be able to change the world, make it more humane. I fully agree with this concept, and I believe that what good every human being has will certainly get the better of evil.

There is a line in your opera about everyone living under the sun and having enough strength to change the world order. How do you personally visualize an ideal world order?

Waters: I think that the better we understand our mentality, the better the chance of avoiding mistakes. I am interested in the connection between religion and ordinary neurology. I am interested in preserving empathy the world over. You have to turn to that part of your mentality that can make you understand how a fellow human being feels in a certain situation, and share his feelings like your own. We are all the same, and we should have joint objectives, from which we are now being led astray by our greed, weakness, and commerce, as well as a global point of view that can no longer serve our needs as well as it used to. I really believe that the free market as a means of regulation is not the only way to make people happy.

Today American ideology is rooted in trade and commerce aimed at amassing more capital. Perhaps a few of us have a certain potential and realize that we are simply being manipulated by the rich of this world and that this is why for many of us life is becoming increasingly difficult. It would be far better if we could get organized so as to be able to generate situations in which these people could exert a lesser degree of influence on us, so we could feel less of their power directed at us. This is perhaps what my opera Ca Ira is actually all about. Compare France of that period and our world today: the US government is abiding by the same principle as Louis XVI: all power is granted by God. George Bush is behaving as though God gave him the power and the right to do what he is doing.

Are there events today that are worthy of being turned into an opera?

Waters: Of course there are. I could write an opera about the Champions League. I think an opera can be composed on any subject. There is no difference between writing an opera and writing a pop song or novel. Desire is the main thing, as well as an understanding of what your message is all about. By the way, there is an excellent novel entitled The Crossing, written by the gifted American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a story about a man and his seven- or eight-year-old son. They are in a post-apocalyptic North America, following a road leading to the coast. The story unfolds over 400 pages, nothing else. But in terms of context both characters are excellently rendered. We now have a great amount of written material that teaches us how to treat one another.

How do you feel about critics?

Waters: Critics have to be reckoned with, that’s all. All my work has been subjected to criticism from one side or the other. Personally, I think that criticism is what you have to get as a creative individual; at the same time you must do your work as best you can without thinking about who will like or dislike it. Some may think you are doing really important things, others will say that they don’t make any sense. You can’t please everyone. I consider myself the toughest critic of my work.