Skip to main content
review
Open this photo in gallery:

Yves Renaud/Handout

Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine?

Is this not what you expected to see?

A solemn operatic adaptation of Pink Floyd’s classic-rock opus The Wall made its Toronto premiere at Meridian Hall on Wednesday. The lyrics, song titles and story about an alienated rock star from 1979 were familiar, although many of the melodies were altered or dispensed with outright. Comfortably Numb is a guitar-soloing showstopper in its original album form. On stage at Meridian Hall, it was an effective aria by Canadian baritone Nathan Keoughan. Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera is not your parents’ Wall, but it may be your grandparents'.

Which is not to say the operatic version (conceived and directed by Dominic Champagne, scored by Julien Bilodeau, with the original words of Pink Floyd conceptualist Roger Waters) is meant for any particular generation. Rather, it is aimed at people who like opera, woodwinds and Waters, with appreciators of arena rock and jukebox musicals not considered at all.

The story’s protagonist, Pink, is based on the British musician himself, whose album with Pink Floyd has previously spawned a feature film and a bombastic touring rock show. Is this opera an instant classic? Well, Wagner wants it louder and Puccini never cried once. But it is potent enough, and even if Waters’s involvement is limited to providing the source material alone, Another Brick in the Wall at least represents another notch in his belt.

The opera, produced by Montreal’s Production Opéra Concept MP, involves more than 100 Canadian artists, including a 51-piece orchestra. It debuted at Opéra de Montréal in 2017 before making its U.S. premiere in Cincinnati in 2018. After its Toronto run, the two-hour production arrives at Vancouver Opera in April.

Another Brick in the Wall opens as a concert scene, with fans writhing in slow motion as Keoughan’s rock star Pink taunts the audience’s “space cadet’s glow.” Based on an actual incident involving Waters at a Pink Floyd concert at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in 1977, Pink spits in a spectator’s face. Here, things turn surreal: Pink collapses and is taken to a hospital, where his story is revealed through a series of drug-induced hallucinations and flashback scenes.

Pink is emotionally traumatized as a youth. A war takes the boy’s father, a menacingly bald school teacher is tyrannical, and a single-parent mother (the soprano France Bellemare) is smothering and ill-prepared. The blitz is recalled: “Did you see the frightened ones? Did you hear the falling bombs? The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on.”

Despite a marriage to a fiery redhead (soprano Caroline Bleau), Pink becomes increasingly alienated. A groupie scene, set to Young Lust, is graphically presented. The first act ends with Goodbye Cruel World.

The story is devoutly anti-war; Act Two begins with Pink as boy building a battlefield graveyard in the dirt. Later, a full stage of singers blare Bring the Boys Back Home, as Dwight Eisenhower’s words on guns and warships being a theft against hungry and cold citizens are flashed on-screen.

The opera’s wildest scene is the one most faithful to Waters’s album music. To the circus-like score of The Trial, Pink is judged in a courtroom where lawyers and the judge are giant vultures. After he is absolved, a softly crooning cast closes out the opera with Outside The Wall.

Pink Floyd enthusiasts will want to see Another Brick in the Wall, which, if nothing else, is a validation of the original album’s grand ambition. It’s hard to say what kind of an audience the opera will attract over all.

Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera continues to Nov. 23.

Live your best. We have a daily Life & Arts newsletter, providing you with our latest stories on health, travel, food and culture. Sign up today.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe