Roger Waters (if you don’t know) was bass player, chief lyricist and co-composer in Pink Floyd during the period when the group produced its most celebrated albums, including Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Those albums have stood the test of time pretty well but, unless someone stumps up the cash needed for a staged production, I don’t forsee a similar artistic shelf-life for Ça ira (‘There is hope’). Nothing here promises the durability of ‘Money’ or ‘Shine on, you crazy diamond’.

Continuing Waters’s preoccupation with individual freedom (The Wall a prime comparison), Ça ira addresses the early days of the French Revolution, set in a circus with Terfel as a commanding ringmaster. Waters admits he took ‘liberties with history’ when translating Etienne and Nadine Roda-Gil’s libretto: ‘Reality was mildly inadequate,’ he says. ‘It’s more than a history of the Revolution, it’s about the human potential for change.’

His use of his orchestral forces is competent but hardly original. He avers a Puccini influence, evident in the best passages, but I was reminded more of Lloyd Webber or Schönberg (Claude-Michel). There are some stirring tunes and effective sonic coups de théâtre but I doubt if this album will besiege my CD player again, despite the spirited performances. The treatment of incidents such as the King’s execution (‘Louis, it’s over for you’) don’t really help.

The SACD sound is bright and immediate. The press-pack copy included only a short interview with Waters, although the bonus DVD will include a ‘making of’ documentary.