Mark Fenwick, Roger Waters' manager, has been in contact with Brain Damage, kindly taking some time out of his busy schedule to update us on a number of aspects of Roger's forthcoming opera, "Ca Ira".

First, we asked him about the persistent rumours about live performances of the piece. The main rumour has been that the opera will be performed (indeed, premiered in full!) at the Place de la Concorde in Paris - Mark told us that "[a show there] looks like a non starter, and I am working on alternatives". The interview from this weekend's Independent On Sunday, noted below, backs this up, noting that talks are under way to perform the opera around Europe.

The recording itself, Mark said, "is 120 minutes long, but [talks are yet to take place] as to whether it will be two single CDs or a double". Apart from the use of the bass-baritone soloist Bryn Terfel, we were interested to hear which orchestra was selected for the recordings. Rather than one company, "the orchestra that has recorded the work are hand-picked musicians from the major London orchestras".

Finally, Mark confirmed some more detail on something relating to Roger's opera that we have already sworn to silence over; once the official announcements about the project have been made, we can reveal all! Our thanks to Mark for sparing the time for us...