Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ Opera Sets U.S. Premiere Date
Following the premiere of Another Brick in the Wall: L’Opera Saturday in Montreal, the production based on Pink Floyd‘s classic 1979 double LP The Wall revealed that it will debut stateside in July 2018 at the Cincinnati Music Hall.
Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera, as it will be titled for U.S. productions, will highlight the Cincinnati Music Hall’s 98th season and first since a $135 million restoration. The 70-piece Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, eight soloists and 48 chorus members will perform the opera alongside baritone Etienne Dupuis, who will reprise as rock star Pink after establishing the role in the massive Montreal production.
“There is no question about the melodies,” Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas told the New York Times of The Wall’s conversion from arena rocker to opera house fare. “The discovery is how those melodies have been transformed into genuine ‘opera speak.'”
Roger Waters attended the Opéra de Montréal Saturday for the production’s world premiere. “It had been my experience that experiments in collaboration between the worlds of rock and roll and the worlds of symphonic music were generally disastrous and should be embarked upon with extreme trepidation,” Waters said in March 2016, adding that hearing music from the production warmed him to the idea of turning the Pink Floyd album into an opera. “I sat there not expecting to be moved, and I was moved.”