We Come to the River – Wir erreichen den Fluss is an opera by Hans Werner Henze to an English-language libretto by Edward Bond.

It was subsequently staged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and received its first American performance at Santa Fe Opera in 1984, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.

The scholar Robert Hatten has noted the mix of musical styles that Henze has employed, ranging from 'atonal to neoclassically tonal'.

[4] Although the subject matter of war would usually indicate a realistic treatment, Henze calls for three separate stages, and urges producers to avoid realism in the costuming.

Despite the vast forces required to perform the work, Henze asks for the utmost simplicity in production values.

Finally repulsed by images of the battlefield wounded, the general leaves the army, but this does not obliterate his past actions.