The world premiere performances of Roger Waters newly-released opera "Ca Ira", at the Auditorium, in the Parco della Musica in Rome, Italy, were received with much acclaim.

Tickets for the shows, held on Thursday and Friday evenings, went incredibly quickly, and those of us lucky enough to be there witnessed a fine live debut of Roger's work. In all, some 236 people took the stage during each evening - ranging from the main vocal performers, through to 100 members of the Rome Symphony Orchestra, and an 80-strong choir, some of which were children.

Billed as a gala performance, Roger's family and friends were in attendance. At the front of the stage sat the likes of Harry and India Waters, Marianne Faithful, and PP Arnold. The audience, certainly towards the front, were obvious opera fans (and not Waters devotees) and it must have hugely relieved Roger when he was met with a standing ovation.

We're currently in the midst of sorting out our full report of the show, along with some great pictures of proceedings, but in the meantime, there are a couple of TV news reports that you can view, giving a flavour of the event. Firstly, there is a report on Ansa, that lasts around a minute. It shows part of Roger's introduction on Thursday night, along with preparations for the show.

You can also view a two minute segment on the 14:20hrs news report on TV channel Rai Tre, found through this link. The segment covering Roger's show appears at 21 minutes, 47 seconds, and last for a couple of minutes. Again it shows the start of the show, but it also has a couple of clips from the show itself, and shows Roger in the audience watching nervously.

Finally, Italian newspaper La Repubblica has posted a gallery of shots relating to the shows, which can be accessed through this link. It shows eight different shots from the performance, all thumbnails with larger versions a click away...

Our thanks to Eugene for the news of the streaming news broadcasts.