Albarn confirmed the news of his opera project on the Broken Record Podcast, sharing his plans to put Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1807 “The Magic Flute Part II” to music for the first time. He said, “I’m doing an opera at the moment, using Goethe’s fragment he wrote about The Magic Flute Part II, which is fascinating. You’ve heard of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’? Well, Goethe, who is a contemporary of Mozart, wrote ‘Part II’ of that — the sequel — but it never got put to music. It’s this legendary lost thing.”

Albarn admitted to feeling less confident when delving into the world of opera, saying, “I don’t really know what I’m doing. I never know what I’m doing in that world, I’m a complete idiot. I don’t know if it’s any good. With songs, I’m more confident about that.”

On the podcast, Albarn also confirmed that he is working more within his comfort zone by creating a new Gorillaz album.

Bon voyage, Stuart, Matlock, Rusty, and Nödel.
सुरक्षित प्रवास ✈️ pic.twitter.com/n5j6D2V160

— gorillaz (@gorillaz) June 21, 2023

Speaking on the direction that the new Gorillaz album will take, Albarn said, “It’s not going to be as dramatic as a quantum shift, it will be a paradigm shift, it will be very different. It will be an entirely different approach to everything — to the band, to everything.”

He continued, “We’re at a point where we’re going to change. Why? Because it was always just Jamie and I. Although it is a very big thing now, it is still, in essence, just two people. If we decided between us that we want to do something unrecognisable then we will. You need that for it to stay alive, really.”

Albarn has not yet confirmed release dates for either his opera or his new Gorillaz project, but has confirmed plans for Blur. Blur recently announced a special gig in which they will play their newest album, The Ballad of Darren, in full.

The show will take place at London’s Eventim Apollo on 25th July 2023 and will see the band perform the album in full for the first and only time. Physical tickets are only available to those who pre-ordered The Ballad of Darren, and are on sale from 18th July 2023. Fans can order tickets to watch a livestream of the show however, with these available to purchase here.

Listen to Albarn’s Broken Record Podcast episode here.

The LP was produced by Costello and Sebastian Krys and will feature six songs lifted from the old band’s set lists. With covers of “I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind” by Jim Ford and reimagining of Nick Lowe’s “Surrender to the Rhythm” and “Don’t Lose Your Grip On Love”. There will also be an arrangement which will incorporate the Neil Young Songs “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “Dance, Dance, Dance” (the latter seeing Costello debut his skills on electric violin). Along with two original Rusty tracks “Warm House” and “Maureen and Sam”

In a statement, Elvis Costello reminisced on the memories of Rusty’s origins;

“In 2021, my pal and singing partner in the Liverpool clubs, Allan Mayes wrote to me from his home in Austin, Texas.  He wanted to remind me that it would soon be fifty years since I joined his band, ‘Rusty’, just after our first meeting at a party on New Year’s Eve, 1971.  The group was then a quartet, with Allan’s school friend, Alan Brown ‐ who would play bass until he left for university later that year ‐ and there was also another vocalist called ‘Dave’, whose main credentials as a singer were the ownership of a microphone and tambourine.  A month later, after a couple of pretty ragged gigs, Allan and I became the only vocalists and there was not a tambourine in sight.  Show business is a cruel game.”

He later added; “Allan Mayes has been a hard working musician for more than the fifty years since we met.  So, when he asked me if I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by getting together to play a few songs that we used to know.  I said, ‘Absolutely not!’- ‘Let’s make the record we would have cut when we were 18, if anyone had let us”.

The LP is set to drop on the 10^th of June 2022 via Capitol initially in CD format with a vinyl release later this summer. However, copies can be bought in person at any of Costello’s current tour dates.  To pre order your copy, follow the link here.