Pitchfork

Sit down; brace yourselves. Roger Waters wrote an opera. This is the type of thing that encites spontaneous combustion. Or revolution, in this case. Waters has channeled the epic, opera-esque tendencies of his Pink Floyd days of yore into an actual, balls out, full-scale opera. The opera, Ca Ira, which will debut as a 2xCD from Sony with a DVD documentary on the making of the project, is a history of the French Revolution set up three-act style for full orchestra, soloists, and choir.

The makings of the opera started in 1989, the bicentennial of the revolution, when songwriter Etienne Roda-gil asked Waters if he could use some of his songs for an opera based on a libretto he had written with his wife, Nadine. The project came to a halt after the death of Nadine, who died of leukemia. Work resumed in 1997 when Waters began to translate the libretto in English and finished the full orchestral score.

Seeing as this is Roger Waters, no one can doubt that this will be a monstrous and "unabashedly emotional", as Waters puts it, venture. But judging by Waters' statements to the Associated Press on the opera, it will probably be more than anything we could imagine. "It's not just a piece about the French Revolution, it's about revolution in a much broader sense, and it's about the capacity that human beings have for personal change. The piece is an exultation and an encouragement to those of us who believe the human race can discover its humanity and its capacity for empathy to the point where it may be possible for us at some point to guarantee the basic human rights of the individual (around the world)."

Breathe and digest that first. If that's not inspiring enough to go out and save the world via my guitar, I don't know what is. Take that, Bono.

While the piece will be performed in concert in Rome in November, goals have been expressed of it being performed by an opera company. The CD release of Ca Ira, scheduled for Septeber 27, will include a 60-page booklet that features Waters' lyrics based on Roda-Gil's original French libretto as well as the original illustrations by Nadine Roda-Gil that chronicle and portray the "spirit" of the French Revolution.

* Ca Ira: