Roger Waters Wraps Opera

Former Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters has completed Ca Ira, his long-awaited opera. After a decade of work on the project, Waters reports that "it's done and delivered" and should be available as a double-CD through Sony Classical this fall.

Ca Ira -- loosely translated as "So It Will Be" -- was inspired by the French Revolution and is the latest conceptual work from the mastermind of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and The Wall (1979).

Waters is considering staging Ca Ira as a concert performance in Rome this November with a full symphony, as well as adult and children's choruses. "I might conduct it," he says. "Wouldn't that be a buzz? Of course, I might need a few beta blockers before going on."

Waters has also long been at work on a rock album to follow 1992's Amused to Death, his examination of capitalism and mindless entertainment. Although he's recorded enough songs to "cobble something together and put it out tomorrow," Waters is aiming for a more coherent collection of songs. "I just keep smashing paint up against the canvas and waiting for it to make sense," he says.

While initially a meditation on love, the album has evolved to incorporate current world events. "Living in America now, I'm struggling with all those questions -- about the law, the Constitution, what's next for mankind and whether there's any moral high-ground to be had," Waters says. "Actually, it's all the same stuff I've been obsessed with since I was a teenager [laughs], so nothing new, really."

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Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

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