Next year's Dutch Liberation Day (May 5th, 2008) will see a very special, full-scale staging of Roger Waters' opera Ça Ira being performed in the largest concert hall in Holland, with all proceeds from the event going to the War Child charity. Tickets for the event go on sale on November 7th.

The idea came from the 10-year-old daughter of the organiser, Joke Tuinema, who made the suggestion of staging the opera to one of the most famous Dutch TV presenters.

The idea received the whole-hearted support and encouragement of a delighted Roger Waters, who declared "Ça Ira in Holland? I couldn't be happier!"

On September 17th, 2006, Joke's daughter Veerle started the ball rolling by sending Paul de Leeuw (the presenter) an email with the plan to stage the opera. Three days later, a call came back with the answer: "Great plan. We are going to work with it!"

During Paul's TV program Mooi! Weer de Leeuw, on May 12th 2007, the 900-page score for Ça Ira was handed over by Roger Waters himself, who was in Holland for his Arnhem Dark Side of the Moon concert. Joke, (shown right) who was granted the one time right to perform Ça Ira in Holland, will be responsible for the artistic guidance.

After Roger Waters asked the presenters to tell him about the meaning of 'ça ira', they told him: "It will go". Well, he wasn't satisfied with this answer at all. "There must be 'more' to it than that! Fifteen years have passed and the work is done. Lessons are unlearned. The innocent are still slaughtered in the name of God and Freedom. My friends Etienne and Nadine Roda-Gil and Phillipe Constantin made their mark upon the sand. The 'more' there is to 'Ça Ira' is this. There is hope".

Roger dedicated his opera to those who are fighting for human rights. The connection with War Child therefore is obvious, and was one of the deciding factors in the granting of this event.

After many months of hard work, preparations are now almost complete. The performance will take place at The World Forum Theater (with some 2160 seats, the largest concert hall in Holland), which is in The World Forum Convention Center in The Hague.

Check out www.ca-iraforwarchild.nl for details of ticketing and other aspects of the event.

UPDATE, November 6th: Tickets go on sale from Wednesday, November 7th, from TopTicketLine.nl online or from their telephone number of 0031 (0) 900 300 5000, and from the event website as above.

The performers will include, amongst others:
·    Rob Vermeulen (conductor)
·    Karin ten Cate (soprano)
·    André Post (tenor)
·    Ernst Daniël Smid (baritone)
·    The Dutch Concert choir
·    The Tilburgs Begeleidingsorkest
·    Children’s choir
·    Melisse Venema (trumpet)
·    Will-Jan Pielage (sound technician)