Roger Waters - ?a Ira
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Free Music Notes for ?a Ira
Free Music Review: Very good !
Hit: 5 Stars
Ok, i've never listened to Opera before buying this album, but I must say that i've never heard something that powerfull and musically perfect. Everything fit so well, the voice are butifull and the sound is fantastic. Listen to it several time before judging it, and please stop saying this album is crap just because you can't understand it. If you are not sure if you'll like this album simply go to the Roger Waters website, there is a link to listen to it entirely and for free.
Anyway this is a very good album and you should listen to it with headphones to catch every little sound and the magical environement where you will get for 2 hours.
Free Music Review: Listening out of the box
Hit: 4 Stars
Though this work went straight to No. 1 on the classical music charts, listeners should remember that Roger Waters' work, both solo and with Pink Floyd, takes time and repeated listens to understand and enjoy. Waters writes in his own idiom and his work does not fit neatly into boxes. Yes, that's real creativity, but it does throw some people. But those who can embrace Waters' unique insights and quirky but humane passion, will find increasing rewards in every re-listen of his albums.
With Ca Ira Waters-the-rock-star explores a totally new musical domain. Yet the feel, the intellectual approach, the musical sensibility and treatment, are the same those that infuse his other works. It's just that the instrumentation is different.
Of course, that's not entirely a good thing. Sometimes the music on Ca Ira seems to want to leap out and grab and shake you as the best rock music, particularly the fiery guitar sections Waters always gets his guitarists to perform, can.
The relatively tame and well-worn musical ideas Waters and fellow arranger Rick Wentworth try on Ca Ira reduces those moments to some rather pointless clashing and banging and false bravado. I hope someday Waters or someone else makes a rock interpretation of this album. Somehow I think it will be quite interesting in that form.
Disappointingly, while Waters' rock music has always been innovative, Ca Ira surprises with its predictability. I can't say I'm a fan of avant garde composers like Philip Glass. But a little experimentation would have been nice on Ca Ira. Was Waters afraid to try and risk incurring the ridicule of opera's notoriously unforgiving critics? Maybe. Or maybe after being called on the lack of melody in his previous albums, Waters just wanted to prove he could pen lyrical notes.
Overall though, the album, once you allow to get under your skin, is full of interesting, if derivative, musical ideas. To tell the entire story of the French Revolution is not easy and Ca Ira does not have the greatest libretto in the world (Written by Etienne and Nadine Roda-Gil, friends of Roger's). But there's no denying the work has a powerful current of political thought, adorned with subtle satire, humor and romance.
Interestingly, for Floyd fans, I think this album also has the deeper sense of lonliness that many Floyd records have. That might be because like Waters' childhood friend Syd Barret, who was lost to the band as a young man when he went mad and who inspired so much of the themes of emptiness in Waters' music, Waters' three main collaborators on Ca Ira - Philippe Constantin and Etienne and Nadine Roda-Gil - all died before their work was finished. Perhaps it is my imagination, but I think their absense haunts the final recording, which has been superbly put together by Simon Rhodes.
Unlike Waters' other albums, it's easy to want to compare Ca Ira, and those who listen superficially will be wont to compare it to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. It's actually more complex and 'real' than that saccarine-laden pretend-opera.
Waters is not Puccini. But he's not a fake, a charlatan. For one, Ca Ira has real opera singers - Bryn Terfel, Ying Huang and Paul Groves, who all perform exquisitely. That doesn't quite succeed in making this an opera. For one there isn't even one real aria, and I'd say Ca Ira is more like an oratorio (an operatic song cycle that needs no staging).
But beyond the technicalities, Ca Ira is work of integrity, where its obvious the creators wanted to say something, not just fill the seats on Broadway and fool simple folk into thinking there're developing a taste for opera. The libretto has a intellectual lyricism and the music a romantic passion that one would not have necessarily associated with Waters. Ca Ira is more like something Steven Sondhiem would have done when he was listening to a lot of Berlioz or Brahms.
The one great flaw in this album is that Waters does not make full use of his musical palate. The orchestration uses mainly the key instruments - violin's and cello's - and there is no real use of the 'lesser' instruments. If done, that would have brought a much needed layer of complexity and differentiation to the music and sound of the album. It's also sad that Waters used just three singers to sing all seven major parts in the album. Here too, more voiceswould have brought more color and tonal variety to the work. (Not to mention making it easier to follow the story). Why Waters did not do this is mystifying. Perhaps there were budget issues.
The other genuine criticisms one can make of Ca Ira are the same that one can make of his previous work - that it is pretentious, lacking in spontanity and hummable melodies.
But no piece of music can be everything and the genuine artist chooses his place, his style, his message, and embraces them unapologetically. For example, an exquisite padded leather chair cannot be rustic at the same time.
That's exactly what Waters does. One cannot question his integrity, and he is one of the only 'star' musicans around, other than say Leonard Cohen or Peter Gabriel, who has remained true to his vision.
Ca Ira sees Waters doing what he does best: exploring the inner workings of humans to try and understand how and why we face up to our innate contradictions every single day.
If Ca Ira could said to be pretentious because it is ultimately an intellectual work, about large but human ideas - like the place of individuals in the world, our natural affinity for justice, and the contradictory pulls of selfishness and selflessness that torment every one of us.
If Ca Ira lacks spontanity it is because it is exquisitely crafted. The arias are structured to perfection, the arrangements are rich in detail and the performers are in perfect harmony. (Perfection, particularly the use of musical detail, has always been one of the hallmarks of Waters' work. Which is why even though Waters is only 1/4 of Pink Floyd, when he and his band perform Pink Floyd songs they sound far better than all the remaining members of the Pink Floyd put together. This despite the fact that David Gilmour sang most of the Floyd's songs and his guitar work defined much of the Floyd sound. The reason is that Waters arranges the music so it remains true to its original meaning and holds his band to a higher standard.)
Lastly, if Ca Ira lacks hummable melodies it is for two reasons. To be honest, I'm not sure Waters can write hummable melodies. Instead, he uses music as a vehicle, a framework, through which to lure listeners into engaging with his subject - the lyrics, the ideas, and concepts that really drive his work.
In Ca Ira's case the subject is the French Revolution, but as the sub-title suggests it is really about hope. True, this album might not be accessible enough to reach millions and start revolutions. But it is moving enough to inspire those who dream of them.
NOTE: There is a French language version of Ca Ira, which can be ordered from most stores. Since the libretto of Ca Ira was originally written in French, the music and words seem to jive much more nicely in this version. Because French is so much more lyrical than English, the whole album has a warmer feel. The arrangements are also gentler, and the French conductor seems to have a much more poignant approach to Waters' vision that the conductor of the English version. Part of why the French version seems warmer is also because the singers are different, and, for example, the bass who sings Bryn Terfel's parts has a less weighty but equally likable voice. But part of it is also that with the lyrics being in French they became un-understandable, at least to me. This actually allowed me to access the music more, and hear the voices as just musical instruments rather than narrators of a story told in what are sometimes very pretentious words.
One problem with the French version is that it is missing some of the sections Waters wrote himself (without Etienne and Nadine Roda-Gil), in English, and added into the English version. They are, as one would expect, very powerful sections and I do miss them in the French version. Alas! One cannot have everything!
Still, I think having two versions is a terrific treat. After all, what would I give for two versions of all Waters' other work, like say, a gentle version of Animals or a bluesy version of the Wall. As a real fan I would buy both versions, and have the great luxury of deciding which one to listen to depending on my mood!!
Free Music Review: Music is Music .
Hit: 5 Stars
To read Grant Gershon's review is to reminded that the world is inundated with fools who insist that other people should stay in what they perceive as their respective boxes,and who deeply resent anyone whose actions and enterprise suggest that these boxes are only arbitarary limits,and there to break out of. Actually ,it isn't so much a review as the mean-spirited expressionof an entirely predictable & boring prejudice.The implication is that there is always something presumptuous & bogus in an artist's attempts to apply his/her talents to a medium or genre other than the one in which he has already achieved success & renown , & that the results of such attempts are always doomed to failure. This is especially the case , so Gershon thinks,when an established rock musician "goes"classical.Just as the prejudice is predictable & boring , so too are the adjectives generally associated with it , & which Gershon duly, and lazily trots out to condemn Ca Ira. He asks - rhetorically , I assume , why someone like Roger Waters should want to make what he , Gershon, calls such a "cross-over" , as though such a thing is beyond comprehension.The simple answer would be" Why the hell not ? ".There is, after all ,absolutely no reason on this earth why Waters shouldn't though there are a good many sound ones that might have encouraged him to do so.These , I suspect , have had to do with challenge, & oppertunity, as well as the restlessness, the range, & the demands of genuine creative talent.The history of art is replete with examples of artists who have "crossed over": playwrights who have written prose & poetry;painters who have turned their hands to sculpture and pottery, & coposers whose muse has directed them to opera,symphonies, as well as requiems. For an artist some sort of "crossing over - developing,experimenting, extending - goes with the turf.Besides, music is music, ect. I should like to think that singers with the reputations & renown of Bryn Terfel & Paul Groves only associate themselves with works they respect & see merit in......it can hardly be a matter of dosh at this level. One wonders about the nature of the axe Gershon appears to be grimding.That he doesn't like Ca Ira is his prerogative, but to dismiss it out of hand on the basis of an old & increasingly redundent canard is at best churlish, at worst bigoted.Personally , I find the work grand & moving. It has some great tunes. It's a departure for Roger, and it certainly is for me a member of his audience, but it's one I'm presently relishing. Free Music Review: Good Job Mr. Waters!
Hit: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this modern operatic production. For people who aren't fans of opera, I have to admit I'm one (I love classical music, but not so fond of opera), this is real easy to swallow. The story of striving for real "Freedom" is forever poignant, especially in today's world. Great job Roger Waters, and the whole cast. Fantastic!!! Here comes the revolution ;-)Free Music Review: Serious Roger Waters Fan for 20 years.
Hit: 1 Stars
Listen people, the clue is in the title. This thing is an OPERA, yes, a real waily, screechy plodding dirgy unintelligible pretentious opera in all its traditional painful glory. Now if you like opera, then great, its quite possibly excellent as I have no idea what the difference between a good and bad opera is. Now if on the other hand you are buying it because its Rogers work - please dont. Save the money. There are none of Rogers vocals on it, none of the snarly articulate angry socialogical lyrics, nothing. I subjected myself to audio torture for two hours, and then gave it to my mum. All Floyd/Waters fans out there PLEASE listen to part of it (any part as its all the same) before parting with any cash. Its not Le Mis, or Oliver, or JC Superstar, its just, well, painful. Really painful. Sorry Roger.