All in all it's more than another brick in The Wall
19 Oct 2019.

As a kid growing up in the '70s, I loved rock operas. Jesus Christ Superstar was the best, but I was also fond of Tommy, Godspell, Quadrophenia and The Wall. But the rock opera brought a sense of spectacle to rock’n’roll, taking the focus off lead singers and putting it on characters instead. The best rock operas had lots of hits, like Superstar, Day By Day, and Pinball Wizard. There was a reason to love these shows.

The Wall was written almost entirely by Pink Floyd bass player Roger Waters. It was their eleventh album and a huge success. (Pink Floyd was always an anomaly in rock music. Slow and artsy, they were the opposite of most successful rock bands. Their earlier album, The Dark Side of the Moon, was on the Billboard album charts for over 900 weeks, a world record.) The big hits on The Wall include Another Brick in the Wall and Comfortably Numb. It was one of the biggest selling albums of all time and was turned into a trippy movie in 1982. A few years ago, Scott Thompson and I were invited by Roger Waters’ son to attend a full presentation of The Wall at SkyDome. We sat in the fifth row centre, and our minds were blown. It’s powerful stuff.

Now, Montreal’s Productions Opera Concept MP is about to present the Toronto premiere of Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera. The trailblazing production sets the poetic lyrics to a bold new lyrical score by award-winning Montreal-based composer Julien Bilodeau. An opera hybrid, it reflects on the nature of dreams and the price of fame — artfully amplified by eye-popping video projections and powerful vocal performances — and performed by more than 100 Canadian artists, including a 51-piece orchestra. Expect to be saying “Wow!” a lot while watching it.