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Rufus Wainwright: Bio

Affectionately referred to by Elton John as "the greatest songwriter on the planet" and praised by the New York Times for his "genuine originality," Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists and songwriters of his generation.  The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer songwriter has released seven studio albums, three DVDs, and three live albums, including the fantastic Grammy nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, which captured his celebrated Judy Garland tribute performance at the London Palladium in 2007, and the album Release The Starswhich went Gold in Canada and the U.K. Rufus has received Juno Awards for Best Alternative Album in 1999 and 2002 for Rufus Wainwright and Poses, respectively, and nominations for his albumsWant Two (2005) and Release the Stars (2008). He was nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2008 for his Release the Stars album. He also composed the original music for choreographer Stephen Petronio's work BLOOM which has toured across the country. Musically Rufus has collaborated with artists including Elton John, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys and producer Mark Ronson among others. His most recent collaboration is on the title track of Robbie Williams' latest album, Swings Both Ways, which was co-written with renowned musician and producer Guy Chambers and sung as a duet between Rufus and Robbie. In addition to being a celebrated contemporary pop singer, Rufus has made a name for himself in the classical world. His much acclaimed first opera, titled Prima Donna, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009. The opera was subsequently performed in London at Sadler's Wells in April 2010, in Toronto at the Luminato Festival in June 2010 and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House in February 2012. Now fully established as a composer of operas, Rufus has been commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company to write his second opera based on the story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and Antinous. The new opera will premiere in Toronto in October 2018. Rufus has also distinguished himself by playing original orchestrated pop songs and pieces from an extensive classical repertoire with well-respected opera singers and orchestras around the world. Wainwright was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony to compose "Five Shakespeare Sonnets," a five-movement suite that sets the texts from selected Shakespearian "Sonnets" to orchestra and voice. "Five Shakespeare Sonnets" premiered in the US in 2010 and debuted in the UK in 2012 with the sixty-piece BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rory MacDonald. Rufus worked on a theatrical adaption of "Five Shakespeare Sonnets" with the famed director Robert Wilson at the Berliner Ensemble in 2009. Other recent achievements include the 2012 world premiere of Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You: A Concert for Kate McGarrigle, the feature length music documentary starring Rufus, Martha Wainwright and their family and directed by Lian Lunson. The film captures the May 2011 tribute concert honoring Rufus' late mother, the great singer songwriter Kate McGarrigle. Nonesuch Records released a record, Sing Me The Songs That Say I Love You: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle  which included  songs from the movie as well as selections from the three tribute concerts  for Kate given in London, New York and Toronto and featuring performances by Rufus, Martha, Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Richard and Linda Thompson and many others. The movie and the record are both available on iTunes and Amazon. In 2014, Universal Records releasedVibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright, a new career-spanning collection that features eighteen standout songs defining one of music's most innovative talents. Included in the collection are three brand new recordings, "Me and Liza", "Chic and Pointless" and "WWIII." Also released on CD and Blu-ray is Rufus Wainwright: Live from the Artists Denwhich captures Rufus' inspired performance at New York City's Church of the Ascension in 2012. Rufus recently completed his PledgeMusic campaign to record Prima Donna: The Album, a studio recording of his first opera with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He describes, "It is vitally important to me that Prima Donna be properly recorded and released so that I can tour a concert version of it in the coming year, and I have decided to do this with the help of both PledgeMusic and the incredible BBC Symphony Orchestra which in turn requires your generous support." Rufus chose the PledgeMusic direct-to-fan platform so his supporters can partake in the album-making process through behind the scenes updates and exclusive views into the creative journey, which will see Prima Donna released on CD and vinyl.

1 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Overture  
2 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 1  
3 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 2  
4 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 3  
5 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 4  
6 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 5  
7 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 6  
8 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 7  
9 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 8  
10 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 9  
11 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 10  
12 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 11  
13 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 12  
14 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 13  
15 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 14  
16 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 15  
17 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 16  
18 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 17  
19 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 18  
20 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 19  
21 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 20  
22 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 21  
23 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 22  
24 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 1, Scene 23  
25 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Overture  
26 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 1  
27 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 2  
28 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 3  
29 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 4  
30 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Aria  
31 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 5  
32 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 6  
33 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 7  
34 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 8  
35 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 9  
36 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 10  
37 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 11  
38 Wainwright: Prima Donna - Act 2, Scene 12  

Press Release
Rufus Wainwright - Prima Donna (Making of Part1)
Rufus Wainwright - Prima Donna (Making of Part2)
Rufus Wainwright - Prima Donna (Making of Part3)

Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright releases his debut opera, Prima Donna, for the first time on audio since its 2009 premiere at the Manchester International Festival.  The recording, just released on October 2 on Deutsche Grammophon/UMC follows the live event, Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert held at the Athens Festival in Greece in September. Prima Donna's central character, a retired Diva struggling to make her return to the stage and regain her former years of greatness, was inspired by the BBC Lord Harewood interviews with Maria Callas in her later years. 

Stories

  • Rufus Wainwright is masterful at the Melbourne zoo / brisbane times
    Posted At : February 24, 2019 12:00 AM

    It's hard to imagine a better setting to listen to music than inside Melbourne Zoo at dusk on an idyllic late-summer Saturday evening. Families of all shapes and sizes spread out picnic rugs and tucked in to wedges of cheese and containers of dips while enjoying a thoroughly civilised night of chilled contemporary pop. The Zoo Twilights series - which has so far featured mostly Aussie acts such as The Cat Empire and Client Liaison - is a fundraiser to help Zoos Victoria save the Eastern Barred Bandicoot from extinction. Proceedings opened with the soothing synth sounds of Rachel Eckroth and moved swiftly into a energised set from Mojo Juju, who gave the night a political edge with songs about offshore detention, her indigenous heritage, and Peter Dutton. Yet the stage was very much set for NYC-born Canadian pop folk star Rufus Wainwright, who commanded the audience for well over two hours. It's been 20 years since Wainwright, 45, released his self-titled debut, followed by mainstream breakthrough Poses in 2001. Clad in a magician's top-hat and a series of glittering outfits, Wainwright had a masterful control of his voice. READ THE FULL brisbane times REVIEW
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  • Rufus Wainwright makes; Paste - 30 Best Albums of 1998
    Posted At : April 17, 2018 12:00 AM

    If you tuned into almost any rock or pop radio station in 1998, you might have lost hope in music. Maybe you'd be lucky enough to catch the tail end of the ‘90s Britpop invasion, Elliott Smith's out-of-nowhere hit "Miss Misery" or something off the ubiquitous Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. You were much more likely to find Celine Dion, 98 Degrees, Matchbox Twenty, Will Smith, Limp Bizkit, way-past-their-prime Aerosmith, or some other flaccid replica of better music that had been made a few years earlier. But there was so much great music bubbling beneath the behemoth Titanic soundtrack (which was the top selling album of the year). The end of the 20th century saw the debut albums by Bright Eyes, Jurassic 5, Rufus Wainwright, Death Cab for Cutie, Air, Gomez and Dropkick Murphys, and solo debuts from RZA and Lauryn Hill. Techno was invading the pop sphere overseas and indie labels were blooming at home. That's a big reason we launched Paste in December of that year-as a curated music store, writing about and selling albums by our favorite bands. There were new worlds of music just waiting to be discovered, including some of the albums we're celebrating here. Elvis Costello collaborated with Burt Bacharach on the album Painted from Memory in 1998, but the year's best example of the sort of extravagantly ornate pop music that Bacharach and Hal David used to write for Dionne Warwick was Rufus Wainwright's debut album, which boasted the kind of expertly crafted, deceptively conversational, vividly dramatic and understated lyrics that David used to write for Bacharach's melodies. Wainwright may have grown up in Montreal with his mom and aunt, Kate & Anna McGarrigle; he may be the son of folk satirist Loudon Wainwright, but here he sounds more like an eccentric piano man in the Southern California tradition of Brian Wilson, Jimmy Webb, Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks. Parks arranged three of the songs, fleshing out Wainwright's melodic hooks and unpredictable chord changes. The listener is kept off-balance by the unexpected harmonic detours but is rewarded with choruses of strange beauty and heartfelt conviction. -Geoffrey Himes SEE THE FULL LIST
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  • Rufus Wainwright and SLSO. 'Let's make some art together' / St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Posted At : February 18, 2018 12:00 AM

    "Let's make some art together," Rufus Wainwright said near the top of his concert with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Friday night at Powell Hall. The American-Canadian singer-songwriter and the orchestra did just that, and before the show was over the audience would join in, too. But it was Wainwright who did most of the heavy lifting. Coming off a string of solo dates, he admitted to the audience that he was "quite nervous." "To come to this beautiful hall and work with this wonderful orchestra and this fantastic conductor (Lee Mills) was a bit shocking," he said. READ THE FULL St. Louis Post-Dispatch REVIEW p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}
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  • Nevada Union High School will share the power of song at Miners Foundry Cultural Center / The Union of Grass Valley
    Posted At : January 11, 2018 12:00 AM

    The rafters of the 158 year-old Stone Hall will ring from 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, at the Miners Foundry Cultural Center, when Rod Baggett, choral conductor at Nevada Union High School and Seven Hills Middle School, along with multi-instrumentalist and singer Jonathan Meredith, will lead dozens of singers unified in song. This unique countywide experience called "The Foundry Sings" aims to gather people of all ages and singing levels (think professional opera singers to karaoke lovers and amateur show singers), under one roof to share in the power of song. The Foundry Sings is inspired by the popular Choir! Choir! Choir!, a weekly drop-in singing event based in Toronto, Canada, which has attracted professional musicians such as Rufus Wainwright to sing with the group. READ THE FULL Union of Grass Valley ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright will workshop - Hadrian at 'Opera Fusion' collaboration / Cincinnati CityBeat
    Posted At : August 17, 2017 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright, the Pop singer/songwriter who has been expanding his interests into Classical music, is set to be workshopping his new opera here in late fall. It is called Hadrian and, besides Wainwright's music, has a libretto by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor. Commissioned by Toronto's Canadian Opera Company, it is scheduled to have its premiere there in 2018 with MacIvor as its director. Wainwright and MacIvor have been selected to be here in 2017 as part of the Opera Fusion: New Works program, a collaboration between the Cincinnati Opera and University of Cincinnati - College Conservatory of Music's Opera Department. Dates have not yet been set and could change, but an Opera spokesperson said it is looking at December. Both Cincinnati Opera's Marcus Küchle and CCM's Robin Guarino confirmed the general details. Since 2011, Opera Fusion has racked up an impressive record for workshopping operas that go on to fully staged performances, including Cincinnati Opera's Fellow Travelers and Morning Star and Opera Theatre of St. Louis' Champion. Last year, Opera Fusion brought Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and composer Ricky Ian Gordon here to workshop an operatic adaptation of her play Intimate Apparel that had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} READ THE FULL Cincinnati CityBeat ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright to perform at Dubai Opera / The National
    Posted At : July 20, 2017 12:00 AM

    Singer Rufus Wainwright will bring his mix of contemporary and classical sound to the Dubai Opera on December 6. Wainwright's first opera Prima Donna also enjoyed a solid international run during 2009. The songs from the production was released in a double album (also called Prima Donna) that same year. Wainwright is currently working on a new opera to be released in October next year. Wainwright comes to Dubai on the back of his latest album, the theatrically themed Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, which features adaptations of the great bard's works with guest appearances by an eclectic array of actors including the late Carrie Fisher Helena Bonham Carter and William Shatner. The album was released in tribute to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. READ THE FULL National ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
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  • Rufus Wainwright set for City Winery Chicago, speaks with WGN
    Posted At : April 6, 2017 12:00 AM

    Musician Rufus Wainwright joins Justin to talk about his diverse career, his fondness for playing in Chicago, coming from a great family of musicians and performers, the wide arsenal of material he draws from, the importance of taking on political and social issues in his music, how a lot of songs he wrote years ago have stood the test of time, being drawn to taking risks, the elation he feels after writing a song and his three shows this weekend at City Winery. p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} Follow Justin on Twitter and give him a like on Facebook. The Download with Justin Kaufmann airs Monday through Friday from 7 pm. to 11 pm on @WGNRadio - Chicago. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT.
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  • Rufus Wainwright brings Prima Donna to Adelaide / The Australian, The Advertiser
    Posted At : March 15, 2017 12:00 AM

    The voice that comes down the line is that unmistakeable purr, perhaps betraying traces of cigarettes and chocolate milk. They were the twin vices Rufus Wainwright so memorably described in his breakthrough album Poses in 2001. The singer-songwriter outgrew the extended adolescence described on that CD, has written an opera and is working on a second, fulfilling the ambition of a lifelong love affair with the art form. This week he returns to Australia for a one-night-only appearance in Adelaide at the Adelaide Festival. In a concert of two halves, Wainwright will present scenes from his opera Prima Donna. Prima Donna is about a soprano, the improbably named Regine Saint Laurent, who is long past her glory years but who asks for one last chance to sing again. The setting is her Paris apartment, on Bastille Day in 1970. The scenario in broad outline sounds suspiciously like the final years of Maria Callas, when the soprano, having sung her last after a disastrous comeback tour, retired in seclusion to her apartment on Avenue Georges-Mandel in Paris. Prima Donna and Rufus Does Judy is at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide, on Saturday at 7.30pm. READ The Advertiser p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
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  • Rufus Wainwright on Shakespeare, Leonard Cohen, and protest songs / Charleston City Paper
    Posted At : February 15, 2017 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright is one of those artists who seemingly emerged with a fully formed, idiosyncratic sensibility that is uniquely his - a deep sense of song tied as much to cabaret, baroque pop, and glam rock as to the folk leanings of his parents, Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. Wainwright's is an opera-tinged delivery with a rich, eclectic arrangement style that led the singer to critical acclaim by the late 1990s/early 2000s. But unsurprisingly, for someone whose formula is also so varied, Wainwright has shown a penchant for artistic roving. Whether that means reprising a Judy Garland live album in its entirety (2007's Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall), composing and recording honest-to-goodness operas (Prima Donna in 2015), or adapting Shakespeare sonnets in a dramatic and varied fashion (last year's Take All My Loves – 9 Shakespeare Sonnets), he clearly follows his own muse down whatever side alley appears in front of him. "I always have five or six ideas I might follow," he admits of his left-field projects and digressions. "It's not really following down a rabbit hole - I'm more a monkey climbing up the jungle tree, leaping from branch to branch." READ THE FULL Charleston City Paper ARTICLE
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  • This summer's Pink Martini - Colorado Symphony show at Red Rocks features Rufus Wainwright / KUVO Radio
    Posted At : February 2, 2017 12:00 AM

    "Pink Martini is like a romantic Hollywood musical of the 1940s or 50s, but with a global perspective which is modern," says founder and artistic director Thomas M. Lauderdale. "We bring melodies and rhythms from different parts of the world together to create something which is new and beautiful." The Portland, Oregon-based 'little orchestra' was founded in 1994 by Lauderdale, a Harvard graduate and classically trained pianist, to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, the environment, affordable housing and public broadcasting. In the years following, Pink Martini grew from four musicians to its current twelve, and has gone on to perform its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Canada and the United States. This summer's Pink Martini - Colorado Symphony show features Rufus Wainwright. Presented by AEG Live presents Thursday, July 6 - 7:30pm at Red Rocks Amphitheatre SEE KUVO Jazz Radio 89.3 PAGE
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  • Rufus Wainwright featured in Shakespeare comparison / stereophile
    Posted At : December 25, 2016 12:00 AM

    With 2016 almost behind us, there's just enough time to speak of two of the many recordings issued this year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Equally commendable, albeit radically different in the way they honor the Bard, are Shakespeare Songs (Warner Classics) from tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Anthony Pappano (available in 24/96 from HDTracks), and Take All my Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets (Deutsche Grammophon) from Rufus Wainwright and friends (available in 24/44.1 from HDTracks). As well you might expect, Bostridge and Pappano's is the more traditional effort. Rufus Wainwright is, of course, a very different animal. As nice as his voice may be, there's no question that its range and emotional compass are far more limited. But it's also clear that, in his own way, he ranges much farther afield than Bostridge and Pappano. Take All my Loves is no flash-in-the-pan effort. Encouraged by his mother, Kate McGarrigle, to read Shakespeare's astoundingly subtle, sometimes confounding sonnets during his adolescence, he deepened his appreciation for Shakespeare's accomplishment when Robert Wilson and the Berliner Ensemble commissioned him to write music for an evening of the sonnets. At the same time as he was studying him, his mother was dying of cancer, he was falling in love with his partner, Jörn, and they were planning the conception of their daughter, Viva. What a rich time to immerse oneself in sonnets that, in their own way, are as rich in meaning as Beethoven's piano sonatas. READ THE FULL stereophile ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
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  • Rufus Wainwright will bring Prima Donna to 2017 Auckland Festival / New Zealand Herald
    Posted At : October 27, 2016 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright will bring his opera Prima Donna to Auckland as part of the Auckland Festival in 2017. After a cheery greeting, Rufus Wainwright says, "I'm looking forward to coming back down under. Waaaay down under." In March he'll be back again, this time to headline the Auckland Arts Festival for what promises to be a spectacular night of music. He's joining forces with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and the show is split into two halves. The first is an abridged version of his opera - yes, opera - Prima Donna, while the second is a selection of songs from his popular Judy Garland tribute, Rufus Does Judy, a recreation of Garland's triumphant 1961 Carnegie Hall show. HERE'S THE New Zealand Herald Q&A
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  • Life, death and opera with Rufus Wainwright / New Zealand Herald
    Posted At : October 26, 2016 12:00 AM

    After a cheery greeting, Rufus Wainwright says, "I'm looking forward to coming back down under. Waaaay down under." Wainwright is in good spirits. He's friendly and funny and very familiar with the long haul trip required to get here. He's been visiting on the regular for yonks. In recent years alone he's lit up the Civic, shared the stage with Paul Simon and headlined the Womad festival. In March he'll be back again, this time to headline the Auckland Arts Festival for what promises to be a spectacular night of music. He's joining forces with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and the show is split into two halves. The first is an abridged version of his opera - yes, opera - Prima Donna, while the second is a selection of songs from his popular Judy Garland tribute, Rufus Does Judy, a recreation of Garland's triumphant 1961 Carnegie Hall show. READ THE FULL New Zealand Herald ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
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  • Rufus Wainright collaborates with L.A. Dance Project / Time Out Los Angeles
    Posted At : October 20, 2016 12:00 AM

    The news we've been waiting for! The lauded L.A. Dance Project, helmed by founding artistic director Benjamin Millepied, will return to the Theatre at Ace Hotel in DTLA on December 9 and 10 to perform four unique pieces, all collaborative efforts across artistic disciplines (see the complete details for each of the four below). The performances will be accompanied by visual concepts by mixed-media artist Mark Bradford and a special performance by composer and singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (swoon!). Tickets are $30, $60 and $80 and are on sale now for both December 9 and December 10. (Hot tip: The theater offers in-person ticket sales under the marquee Thursday through Saturday from 10am-5pm, for lower fees than online!) READ THE FULL Time Out Los Angeles PIECE
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  • Choir! Choir Choir! set to take over Charlottetown's Memorial Hall / CBC
    Posted At : August 26, 2016 12:00 AM

    A Toronto choir that invites audience members to join in a mass of voices - and has had viral hits with a David Bowie tribute and Rufus Wainwright leading Hallelujah - is coming to Charlottetown. Choir! Choir Choir! will take over Memorial Hall next week with a special one-off fundraiser performance for Charlottetown's outdoor visual arts festival, Art in the Open. On August 26 at 8 p.m., the Toronto-based choral group will teach and guide the assembled crowd in singing ‘Ahead By A Century' by the Tragically Hip in the natural echo chamber that is Memorial Hall at Confederation Centre of the Arts. Choir! Choir! Choir! has been performing for six years, holding twice-weekly events in Toronto where they teach anyone who shows up how to sing a song, ending the evening by performing it all together. The group typically attracts 150 to Clinton's Tavern for its twice-weekly shows, but they've also had some much bigger events. Six days after David Bowie died, 550 singers turned out at the Art Gallery of Ontario to sing Space Oddity. The video has had more than 800,000 views. And then, in June, an even bigger event: Rufus Wainwright led more than 1,500 singers at the Luminato Festival in Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Including views on Wainwright's website and Facebook, the video has been watched more than 20 million times. READ THE FULL CBC ARTICLE READ THE Journal - Pioneer ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah makes Yahoo Sports '5 new songs you need to stream'
    Posted At : August 21, 2016 12:00 AM

    Every week, there are hundreds of thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves. It's too much for just your two ears to handle: With all those options, you can't be wasting your time on tracks worthy of a thumbs-down click. But don't worry, we're going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week, and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time. One of our top 5 songs to stream this week is Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah (Feat. 1,500 vocalists). There are thousands of versions of Hallelujah bouncing around on the internet, but only this one features thousands of voices. A collaborative effort between famed singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright and Choir! Choir! Choir!, this version of Leonard Cohen's iconic song features a 1,500-strong chorus of backgrounds and counterpoint, creating an almost spiritual atmosphere. SEE 4 MORE ON Yahoo Sports PAGE & WATCH VIDEOS
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  • William Shakespeare - Songwriter / Paste
    Posted At : August 3, 2016 12:00 AM

    William Shakespeare is best known, of course, as a playwright and a sonneteer. Less appreciated, however, is his other career as a pop songwriter. This year, on the 400th anniversary of his death, Rufus Wainwright and Paul Kelly have released new albums, Take All My Loves and Seven Sonnets & a Song respectively, that make it clear just how talented the Bard was in this sideline. Both Wainwright and Kelly try to avoid such stumbles on their own adaptations. The former warmed up for this year's exercise by adapting three Shakespeare sonnets for his 2010 album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu. Those unaccompanied vocal/piano performances ranged from the somewhat strained art song of "Sonnet 43" to the beguiling balladry of the homoerotic "Sonnet 20." On the latter, Wainwright's languid tenor seemed to moon despairingly and timelessly over an unattainable love. Encouraged by these first attempts, the songwriter devotes this year's Take All My Loves to nine Shakespearean sonnets in full-fledged arrangements that combine a pop band with either a symphony orchestra or a string quartet. The three earlier sonnets are included, but this time Wainwright turns them over to Austria's classical soprano Anna Prohaska. She lends sumptuous tone and precision pitch to the songs, but she sounds emotionally distant in a way that Wainwright wasn't on the originals. This trade-off echoes a similar debate in theatrical circles: Is it more important that an actor articulate the dialogue with bell-like clarity and mathematical meter or that one capture the psychology and emotion of the character? Everyone will answer that you need both, but in the real world you have to make choices, and Wainwright often errs by deferring to classical reputations rather than trusting his own pop instincts. He has recruited such actors as William Shatner, Carrie Fisher and Helena Bonham Carter to recite the sonnets before or after they are sung by Prohaska, sister Martha Wainwright, Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine and others. But the album's most persuasive moments come when Wainwright himself takes the foreground and sings the sonnets as if there were no difference between a wounded lover in Queen Elizabeth's London and one in Bill De Blasio's New York. On both "Unperfect Actor (Sonnet 23)" and "Take All My Loves (Sonnet 40)," Wainwright kindles a rock ‘n' roll groove under the string quartet to lend a surging momentum to his appeals to an oblivious lover in the former and a fickle one in the latter. When he belts out, "Mine own love's strength seem to decay/O'ercharg'd with burden of mine own love's might," as if he were Peter Gabriel locking into a synth loop, the words fit the music so naturally that it almost seems that the music came first and the words later. READ THE FULL Paste ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets / Arizona Daily Sun review
    Posted At : July 22, 2016 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright's ninth studio album, Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, may be evidence that Wainwright is moving from the corporeal to the ethereal, becoming more of a timeless musical entity than just a singer. (Even the album's cover, a painting mash-up of Wainwright and Shakespeare, suggests Wainwright's persistent reveling in anachronism.) On Take All My Loves, his signature slackened vocals are nearly absent, replaced by recitations of the Bard's sonnets from actors like Helena Bonham Carter, William Shatner and Carrie Fisher. If that doesn't sound fancy-schmancy enough, the work was first staged at the German theater, the Berliner Ensemble, and partly commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony. And it was released by Deutsche Grammophon (note the little gold label on the album cover), the standard label of classical music. Despite the gravitas surrounding it, the album feels like an adult bedtime story: beautiful and playful. Wainwright teamed up again with BAFTA-winning composer Marius DeVries, who produced Wainwright's landmark albums Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004). The title track begins with a phone ringing, then pizzicato strings, then African percussion until layered tracks of Wainwright join in. It cuts out midway to just a recorded recitation of the sonnet and a piano riff. It's dramatic, it's haunting, and, like any of the other songs, it doesn't matter at all if you understand what's being said. Wainwright still manages to communicate something timeless to us. "Sonnet 129" is nothing but William Shatner a cappella. "Unperfect Actor," with Helena Bonham Carter, Wainwright, and his sister Martha, is almost reminiscent of Sisters of Mercy. The album could easily be a soundtrack, given how well it sets a mood. But better than that, it's a perfectly executed reminder that Shakespeare continues to inspire 400 years after his death. SEE ALL REVIEWS FROM THE Arizona Daily Sun
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  • Rufus Wainwright's 'Take All My Loves' gets 3 stars from - The National
    Posted At : July 12, 2016 12:00 AM

    Of all the superfluous creative fanfare cooked up to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, Rufus Wainwright takes the Bard's biscuit with this beguiling musical tribute. A master of lushly confessional, orchestral pop, Wainwright – the precocious offspring of folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, and big brother to fellow songsmith Martha – has also found time to dabble in opera (2009's Prima Donna), ballet and a double LP of Judy Garland covers (Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall). Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets ON Deutsche Grammophon) - Three stars SEE THE FULL National PAGE
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  • Rufus Wainwright presents Montreal premiere of Prima Donna at the 2016 Jazz Festival / ETCanada
    Posted At : July 7, 2016 12:00 AM

    We have good news and we have bad news. The bad news is that we are halfway through the 2016 edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival (yes, we're "glass half-empty" people). The good news is that the festival's first week welcomed home Rufus Wainwright in what can only be described as an audio-visual tour de force. In amongst the Montreal-raised troubadour's Judy Garland paean, his musical contribution to Shakespeare's sonnets, and his numerous pop albums is yet another eclectic project: his own opera, Prima Donna. Wainwright told the Montreal Gazette, "I'm really excited that (festival cofounder) André Ménard and the jazz fest have come to bat for me. … André Ménard has always championed both me and my family over the years. He's not afraid to take risks and force his audiences to go on new adventures. I think we're kindred spirits in that way. He's a wonderful man and this is a great festival. They've been very good to me." READ THE FULL ETCanada ARTICLE & WATCH VIDEO
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  • Choir! Choir! Choir! - Rufus Wainwright leads 1,500-voice choir in Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah / Toronto Life
    Posted At : July 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    You might remember Choir! Choir! Choir! as the gang of singers that invaded Massey Hall for a tribute to Prince. Or the chorus that took over the AGO to cover "Space Oddity" after David Bowie's death. They're at it again-and, thankfully, no legendary musician had to die this time. During the Luminato Festival, leaders Nobu Adilman and Daveed Goldman invited cabaret crooner Rufus Wainwright to lead their rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in the cavernous Hearn Generating Station, featuring a 1,500-person choir (that just so happens to include former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson). Watch the video  SEE blogTO PAGE SEE Indi88 PAGE SEE Open Culture PAGE SEE THE Star 106 PAGE UPROXX PAGE SEE NME PAGE SEE National Post PAGE SEE PAGE AM-WSB RADIO SEE WomansDay.com PAGE SEE ClassicalMPR PAGE
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  • Rufus Wainwright set to open - Rumors Fest in Verona / ANSA
    Posted At : June 2, 2016 12:00 AM

    Canadian singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who has just released "Take All My Loves - Shakespeare sonnets", is inaugurating the fourth edition of the Rumors Festival in Verona on Thursday June 9.  Rumors Festival is an event dedicated to the voice and vocal style that back, for the fourth year, the Roman Theatre in Verona under the artistic direction of Elisabetta Fadini and within the Summer Theatre of Verona Wainwright said his only European concert will include a "mixture" of his most recent and earlier work. Wainwright will be performing Shakespeare for the first time in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, and he is a little anxious: "I am curious to see how it will go and whether I will feel a special emotion", he said. (by Claudia Fascia) (ANSA) - Rome, June 1    READ THE FULL ANSA.it ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves / Las Vegas Weekly review
    Posted At : May 26, 2016 12:00 AM

    Two new albums-Anohni's Hopelessness and Rufus Wainwright's have have rattled my brain open. Wainwright' s Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets-have slapped me from my comfort zone, like the aural equivalent of the red pill. When I first saw the cover of Wainwright's Take All My Loves-featuring its maker in full Elizabethan drag-I figured he'd finally lost it. As a longtime Wainwright devotee, I'd grown frustrated with the increasingly operatic flourish of his work, often wishing he'd kept his epic ambition in check. Who could've predicted that the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death would inspire his leanest-sounding album in years? Well, as lean as an album incorporating classical arias, German folksong and a sonnet-delivering William Shatner can be. Like Hopelessness, Take All My Loves is a slithering creature I haven't fully grasped yet, but any album that tempts you to read more poetry must be remarkable. SEE BOTH REVIEWS ON THE  Las Vegas Weekly PAGE
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves / PopMatters review
    Posted At : May 23, 2016 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright's latest recording is a smart and engaging encapsulation of his 2009 collaboration with Robert Wilson, Shakespeare's Sonnets. The original production premiered on Easter Sunday, 2009, at the Berliner Ensemble, the theatre established by Bertold Brecht. It ran nearly 3 hours long, included 24 of Shakespeare's sonnets, and featured its many actors in cross-dress, men portraying women and vice-versa. The production was brought to New York in 2014, where New York Times critic Charles Isherwood noted Wainwright's "eclectic array of styles" and called its sparse, twisted visuals a "bizarre, dreamlike pageant" before dismissively concluding, "Looks cool. Sounds cool. Means absolutely nothing." Taking such a spectacle from the stage to the ear-buds can be disappointing, but Wainwright makes excellent editorial choices for this soundtrack in miniature. On Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, he pares the proceedings down to a single disc of less than 60 minutes running time, with each of the nine sonnets receiving both recitation and musical interpretation.  READ THE FULL PopMatters REVIEW
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  • Rufus Wainwright sets Shakespeare to music / InsideToronto Q&A
    Posted At : May 21, 2016 12:00 AM

    Spring has been the season of Shakespeare for Rufus Wainwright. The Canadian singer-songwriter has found himself immersed in the works of the Bard as part of commemorations of the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. Wainwright recently released the album "Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets." The recordings feature guest vocalists including Florence Welch and Wainwright's sister, Martha, as well as spoken word performances from the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner. Wainwright was also part of a star-studded BBC special arriving in Canadian theatres this week. "The Shakespeare Show: Recorded Live from the Royal Shakespeare Company" will be screened in select Cineplex cinemas on May 26 and June 5. The special features a cross-section of musical, dance and dramatic performances, as well as a window into Shakespeare's own life. Award-winning stage and screen stars Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen join Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch among a host of talents honouring the dramatist. Wainwright sings "When, In Disgrace With Fortune And Men's Eyes" (Sonnet 29), which he first performed for 2002's "When Love Speaks," a recorded collection of sonnets. READ THE FULL InsideToronto Q&A
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Enjoying The Fruits Of Shakespeare / TidalHiFi Q&A
    Posted At : May 19, 2016 12:00 AM

    On his latest album, Take All My Loves - 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, Rufus Wainwright sets music to nine of Shakespeare's sonnets, inventively incorporating genres such as opera, pop, rock, spoken word and classical into the mix. "It totally transformed my existence," says the American-Canadian songsmith of the first time he encountered the works of William Shakespeare. The result is epic, flamboyant, intense, theatrical and – above all – very, very Rufus. The now 42-year-old singer-songwriter and composer released his eponymous and critically-acclaimed debut in 1998, but it was the extravagant and hauntingly beautiful qualities of Poses (2001), and especially Want One (2003) and Two (2004), that established him as one of his generations most skilled and highly idiosyncratic songwriters. Tidal talked to Rufus Wainwright about his new album and why he thinks the words of the English poet and playwright still resonates to this day. READ THE FULL Q&A
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  • Rufus Wainwright's Shakespeare Sonnets / Uinterview
    Posted At : May 8, 2016 12:00 AM

    A great deal of singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright‘s recent work has been related to the Bard's legacy. From composing for playwright and director Robert Wilson‘s Shakespeare's Sonnets to performance arts to scoring the poet's sonnets for a symphonic orchestra, Wainwright's most recent album Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, whose release comes exactly 400 years after Shakespeare's death, pays homage to the timeless lyrical works of Shakespeare and makes them ring true to a modern audience. With the help of some all-star collaborators like long-time producer Marius de Vries, actors Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner, Austrian coloratura soprano Anna Prohaska and a pleasantly surprising appearance Florence Welch from Florence + the Machine, Wainwright has put together an album that is incredibly balanced while pushing the boundaries of conventional record-making. READ THE FULL Uinterview
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  • Watch Rufus Wainwright on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
    Posted At : May 2, 2016 12:00 AM

    Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright's Take All My Loves - celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in typically dramatic fashion by releasing a unique collection of nine sonnets in stunning performances by both actors and vocalists. The Deutsche Grammophon release marks the first collaboration between Rufus and Marius de Vries since they co-produced the epic Want albums.The performers on this new recording include vocalists Florence Welch, Martha Wainwright, Anna Prohaska and, of course, Rufus himself, as well as actors Siân Phillips, Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner. Wainwright Joins Jimmy Fallon. Episode also includes - Emmy Award-winning comedian/actor/writer/producer/director Louis C.K, and drummer, producer, DJ & frontman of 'The Roots' Questlove. WATCH THE SEGMENT
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves / Yahoo Tech review
    Posted At : May 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    So sayeth William Shakespeare with the opening and closing lines of Sonnet 71, one of 154 infamous mini poems the noted English Bard penned about the passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality over five centuries ago. My fellow Bard has now been gone for exactly 400 years, having shuffled off this mortal coil on April 22, 1616. So who better to celebrate such an auspicious anniversary by focusing on his Sonnets' storied legacies than another noted wordsmith of our modern times - the baroque-minded singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright?   Released by Deutsche Grammophon in multiple formats on, of course, April 22, Wainwright's Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets merges pop, classical, and spoken-word themes to create a new aural hybrid. "This really hasn't been done before," Wainwright says exclusively to Digital Trends. "There's no album that equals classical with pop. Yeah, there have been some soundtracks and some rock operas, but they're not as pure as what this album has to offer in terms of those two worlds being very true to each other." READ THE FULL Yahoo Tech ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright / CLASH Interview
    Posted At : April 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    William Shakespeare may be best known as a playwright, but his collection of sonnets – some 154 altogether – were every bit as significant as the plays that made his name in the Elizabethan theatre era. Writers, actors, musicians and artists have drawn huge inspiration from Shakespeare's sonnets over the four centuries that have elapsed since Shakespeare slipped off his Tudor ruff and put down the quill for good. Rufus Wainwright is one. For almost 15 years, those pesky sonnets have been like an on-off and decidedly unrequited romance, weaving their way in and out of his unique take on pop music. Finally, in a year that marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Wainwright has decided to stop seeing his relationship with the sonnets as a mere dalliance and has now crafted a whole album built around nine of the poems, ‘Take All My Loves'. And, like most things Wainwright has done, it isn't necessarily what you might expect. "The sonnets are a wonderful artistic punching bag," laughs Wainwright. It's a laugh every bit as distinctive as his singing voice, a sort of nasal laugh somewhere between nervousness and complete surrender. "You can keep swiping at the sonnets, and there's always a push-back. They're pretty sturdy." READ THE CLASH INTERVIEW
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  • Rufus Wainwright appears in many guises on - Take All My Loves / ABC News
    Posted At : April 27, 2016 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright appears in many guises on "Take All My Loves," composing, producing, arranging and, least of all, singing. Instead, he presents nine of the Bard of Avon's sonnets as individual or combined performances by singers like sister Martha Wainwright and Florence Welch (without The Machine) and thespians like Helena-Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner. Nearly all the poems are recited and sung, sometimes within the same track. Five arias by coloratura soprano Anna Prohaska, accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, alternate with five different shades of pop songs. The contrasts can be jarring, but the recitations act as buffers. In a take both sensuous and tender, Wainwright has only one genuine solo spot, reprising "A Woman's Face (Sonnet 20)" from an earlier album. READ THE FULL AP/ABC News ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright's motivations for taking on Shakespeare are entirely honourable / theguardian
    Posted At : April 27, 2016 12:00 AM

    Were most pop artists to record an album of Shakespearean sonnets to mark the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death, it would be impossible not to suspect rank opportunism. It's to Rufus Wainwright's credit, then, that his own motivations for taking on such a potentially credibility-shredding project appear to be entirely honourable. Wainwright has a history of audacious ventures – his last recorded work was a crowdfunded, self-penned opera, 2015's Prima Donna – and also previous form with the Bard. He first scored one of Shakespeare's sonnets, for Michael Kamen, more than a decade ago, while three further orchestrations popped up on his 2010 album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu. The Canadian singer-songwriter's new offering, Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, is a fittingly extravagant document that makes use of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, guest vocalists, and thespians ranging from Siân Phillips to Carrie Fisher, Helena Bonham Carter and William Shatner. However, Wainwright pithily explains why he is unable to showcase the entire album tonight: "I can only play five of them." READ THE FULL guardian REVIEW
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  • Rufus Wainwright: Take All My Loves / WFMT: Featured Release of the Week
    Posted At : April 24, 2016 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death by releasing a collection of nine sonnets in performances by actors and vocalists. The seeds for this album were sown in 2009, when director Robert Wilson asked Wainwright to compose music for his Shakespeare's Sonnets production. Alongside Wainwright's songs, Shakespeare's poems are also recited by a roster of renowned actors. Rufus Wainwright: Take All My Loves on Deutsche Grammophon is a WFMT: Chicago - Featured Release of the Week. Featured tracks are - Shakespeare: Sonnet 43 (1:14) Siân Phillips, narrator & Wainwright: Nine Shakespeare Sonnets: When Most I Wink (Sonnet 43) (4:56) Anna Prohaska, soprano; BBC Symphony Orchestra / Jayce Ogren
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves shows style and invention / The Independant review
    Posted At : April 22, 2016 12:00 AM

    Shakespeare's sonnets are an interpretive minefield for composers, which Rufus Wainwright negotiates quite nimbly on this selection, his first collaboration with producer Marius De Vries since the lush pair of Want albums. There's a keen appreciation of mood and meaning throughout, from the wistful yearning of "A Woman's Face" to the pounding guitar rock of "Unperfect Actor", delivered by Rufus and his sister Martha as if fronting Queens Of The Stone Age, an apt vessel for "some fierce thing replete with too much rage".  Initially prompted by earlier commissions from Robert Wilson and the San Francisco Symphony, Wainwright's orchestrations provide the base for interpretations by singers such as Florence Welch and most notably Anna Prohaska, often preceded with recitations by actors such as Helena Bonham Carter, Sian Phillips and William Shatner - who delivers an unexpectedly brilliant, gripping account of "Th'Expense Of Spirit In A Waste Of Shame" prior to Prohaska's windswept navigation of the album's most turbulent arrangement. READ THE FULL Independent ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves / The Telegraph review
    Posted At : April 22, 2016 12:00 AM

    "If music be the food of love, play on,/ Give me excess of it," commands Duke Orsino in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. And to celebrate today's 400th anniversary of the Bard's death, Rufus Wainwright has obliged, decking out a selection of sonnets in a dazzling array of musical genres from high opera, through grungey rock, sweet Seventies pop, minimalist piano ballads, world trance and Berlin cabaret. Those who have always found the Canadian singer-songwriter's baroque pop over-egged and theatrical must suspect this is the album which will clinch their argument. Even as a fan, I read the list of contributors with a mixture of excitement and concern: Siân Phillips, Florence Welch, Carrie Fisher, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Eyre and – yikes! – William Shatner? Had Wainwright boldly gone too far this time? READ THE FULL Telegraph REVIEW
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves / exclaim! review
    Posted At : April 21, 2016 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright has always had a knack for weaving together technicolour dreamscapes and Willy Wonka-esque funhouse worlds, and this latest album, Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets puts his penchant for the theatrical front and centre. Each track features Shakespearean sonnets (some sonnets appear in more than one track), spoken and sung by Hollywood personalities like Carrie Fisher, William Shatner, Siân Phillips and Helena Bonham Carter, classical singers Anna Prohaska and Fiora Cutler, pop singers Frally Hynes and Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) and Wainwright's sister, Martha Wainwright. Lush orchestration brings the poetry to life, as does the incredible sound quality Deutsche Grammophon is famous for. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin String Section in tow, the whole album has a decidedly classical feel until halfway through.
     
    This recording is a great addition to his musical catalogue, and a fine way to fall in love with Shakespeare all over again, to boot. (Deutsche Grammophon)  SEE THE FULL exclaim! PAGE
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  • Rufus Wainwright's Shakespeare Sonnets / Irish Times review
    Posted At : April 21, 2016 12:00 AM

    If there's one musician who can pull off an album of Shakespeare's sonnets set to music, it's Rufus Wainwright. Having previously dabbled in the Bard's material on his All Days Are Nights album, Wainwright here enlists everyone from William Shatner to Florence Welch to voice his compositions, only occasionally taking the lead vocal himself. Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska features most prominently on these largely classical and orchestral pieces, best heard on the theatrical romp of For Shame, although the Helena Bonham Carter-featuring Unperfect Actor is a dashing, rock-oriented affair. It's all bit stuffy and long-winded, even for ardent fans of Wainwright's, but, if nothing else, it proves his uncanny versatility as a musician. SEE Irish Times PAGE - WATCH VIDEO
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves tribute to 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death / Vanity Fair
    Posted At : April 20, 2016 12:00 AM

    There are a lot of options out there, from all over the globe, for commemorating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death on April 23. But none of them likely come with the same rock 'n' roll pedigree as Rufus Wainwright's Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets. The album, which will be released on April 22, is precisely what it promises: adaptations of nine Shakespeare sonnets, performed by Wainwright and a series of remarkable special guests, from Carrie Fisher and William Shatner to Florence Welch and opera singer Anna Prohaska. For as diverse as the album is though, the lead single, "A Woman's Face"-the video premieres exclusively above-is classic Wainwright, featuring the singer's unmistakable voice and the same raw emotions familiar from his most popular songs. "It's a nice way to make some sense of all the wondrous confusion that's occurring, in a very Shakespearean manner," Wainwright says about the song, which is the second version of the sonnet on the album-the first is sung by Prohaska. "There are so many guest performers, and it's nice to bring it back to the fact that at the end of the day, I did write all this music, and I am a fairly good singer," Wainwright adds with a laugh. SEE Vanity Fair PAGE & WATCH VIDEO
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  • Right on time for Shakespeare Week, Rufus Wainwright commemorates Bard's death / Yorkshire Evening Post
    Posted At : April 20, 2016 12:00 AM

    Right on time for Shakespeare Week, Rufus Wainwright commemorates the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death with an album that sets nine of his sonnets to music. The project had its genesis in 2009 when the Canadian singer-songwriter was asked to compose music for Robert Wilson's Shakespeare's Sonnets production first staged at the Berliner Ensemble. A year later Wainwright was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra to orchestrate five of the sonnets and three appeared on his 2010 album Songs For Lulu. Reuniting with the producer Marius de Vries, with whom he worked on the epic Want One and Want Two albums, Wainwright has drafted in the likes of Sian Phillips, Florence Welch, his sister Martha and opera singer Anna Prohaska to help him realise classical/pop crossover versions of poems such as of A Woman's Face, Take All My Loves and When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes. But it's the recitations of Hollywood stars Helena Bonham-Carter, Carrie Fisher and William Shatner that are likely to command most attention. It's a curious mixture of the grandiose, the theatrical, the arty and the reflective that at times is as head scratching as it's impressive, but perhaps Wainwright intended it to be that way. Happy anniversary, Mr Shakespeare. SEE ALL REVIEWS ON Yorkshire Evening Post
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  • Rufus Wainright sets Shakespeare sonnets to music on - Take All My Loves / Frontiers Media
    Posted At : April 19, 2016 12:00 AM

    It was announced back in February of this year: the new release by baroque pop artist Rufus Wainwright, titled Take All My Loves: Nine Shakespeare Sonnets, would feature the talents of several other artists in addition to the openly gay performer, from the dulcet tones of Florence Welch and his sister Martha Wainwright to the spoken word prowess of actresses (and known friends) Helena Bonham Carter and Carrie Fisher. Inspired by a project Wainwright undertook back in 2009 before his Songs for Lulu record saw release,Take All My Loves (available April 22) sets several of The Bard's most well-known sonnets to music. The result is at once grandiose and grounded, and features the same lushness and cinematic qualities of hisWant One and Want Two albums-not surprising since Wainwright worked once again with those albums' producer, Marius de Vries. READ THE FULL Frontiers Media ARTICLE
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  • Two-time Juno winner Rufus Wainwright pays homage to Shakespeare on 'Take All My Loves' / Toronto Sun
    Posted At : April 17, 2016 12:00 AM

    Two-time Juno winner Rufus Wainwright taps an all-star cast to honour the Bard Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death If you're thinking of marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death this coming Saturday, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has crafted the perfect soundtrack. Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, out Friday, marries the Juno-winner's love of classical and pop music with an eclectic cast of characters that includes Helena Bonham Carter, Florence Welch, William Shatner, Carrie Fisher and his sister Martha. After reworking three sonnets for his 2010 disc All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, and collaborating with theatre director Robert Wilson and the Berliner Ensemble on the stage production Shakespeare's Sonnets, Wainwright figured that he needed to do a full-blown Shakespeare record. "Just to get it out of my system," he tells Postmedia Network. "It's been haunting me for a long time and lo and behold it turned out to be the 400th anniversary of his death this year." READ THE FULL Toronto Sun ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets / NPR: First Listen
    Posted At : April 14, 2016 12:00 AM

    Any given Rufus Wainwright album brings with it a wealth of backstory to unpack: The singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist has never shied away from grandiose ambitions, concepts and sounds, and he's rarely followed a predictable path in a career spanning nearly two decades. (His most recent album, after all, is a recording of Wainwright's debut opera, Prima Donna.) But this one's a doozy, even by his standards. As its title suggests, Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets finds Wainwright tackling the Bard's work in a grandly sweeping collection of recordings - including reworkings of three sonnets the singer covered on 2010's All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu - and yet there's still more to this set than that. Collaborating with Marius De Vries (who produced the Want albums more than a decade ago), Wainwright enlisted an assortment of singers and actors to perform these 16 tracks, many of which pair rich orchestral pieces with dramatic readings by the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher and even William Shatner. Wainwright's voice disappears from the mix for long stretches, as he yields most frequently to Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska, but also to the likes of Florence Welch, whose presence propels "When In Disgrace With Fortune And Men's Eyes (Sonnet 29)" to a territory that approaches pop. In "Unperfect Actor," he shares lead-vocal duties with Tasmanian singer Fiora Cutler and his sister Martha Wainwright, while the eight-minute "All dessen müd" allows him to show off his German alongside Christopher Nell and Jürgen Holtz. Backed in spots by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rufus Wainwright and his many guests pile on the gravitas while still transforming and illuminating Shakespeare's material with playful and provocative spirits. For a singer and composer who's always toyed with ways to pair pop showmanship with a classical musician's finely honed chops, Take All My Loves feels like a natural culmination of Wainwright's many passions - released, it turns out, exactly 400 years (minus a day, but who's counting?) after William Shakespeare's death.   LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT SEE The Current PAGE
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  • Of course Florence Welch and Rufus Wainwright recorded a Shakespearian sonnet / Mashable
    Posted At : March 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    It was only a matter of time before Rufus Wainwright made an album of Shakespeare sonnets. On April 22, Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets will be released featuring vocals from Carrie Fisher, Helena Bonham Carter, William Shatner and his sister, Martha. Wainwright celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in typically dramatic fashion by releasing this unique Deutsche Grammophon collection in stunning performances by both actors and vocalists. The release also marks the first collaboration between Rufus and Marius de Vries since they co-produced the epic Want albums. You can get your first taste now and listen to Florence Welch, living A Midsummer Night's Dream character, joins Wainwright for "When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes (Sonnet 29)."

    READ RTT News   
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  • Rufus Wainright pays homage to Shakespeare on new album / Exclusive billboard Song Premiere
    Posted At : March 18, 2016 12:00 AM

    Most people talk about William Shakespeare in terms of his plays. But Rufus Wainwright would rather have the sonnets. For proof of why he feels that way, the singer-songwriter offers Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, which comes out April 22 and includes two versions of "A Woman's Face (Sonnet 20)," which Billboard is premiering exclusively below. "I guess a fair number of people know the sonnets, but the plays are the centerpiece of Shakespeare's legend," Wainwright tells Billboard. "But I've found in working with the sonnets they even transcend the plays, though to even fathom that is inconceivable since the plays are so amazing. But once you start to get into the sonnets it takes on this timeless, ageless, almost futuristic quality. So much of the language and so much of the sentiment is contemporary -- gender and sexuality and love and hate are just so plainly exhibited that it's really searing."   READ FULL billboard ARTICLE AND LISTEN TO  "A Woman's Face"        Take All My Loves is an outgrowth of Wainwright's work with the sonnets, dating back several years ago to when the late Michael Kamen asked him to write a version of "When In Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes (Sonnet 29)," sung on the new album by Florence Welch. A few years later playwright and director Robert Wilson asked Wainwright to compose more music for his 2009 piece Shakespeare's Sonnets, while the San Francisco Symphony subsequently commissioned him to orchestrate five sonnets. Three of those, including "A Woman's Face," appeared on Wainwright`s 2010 album All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. 
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  • Rufus Wainright marks Shakespeare's 400th with 'Take All My Loves' / The Australian
    Posted At : March 7, 2016 12:00 AM

    Canadian-American songwriter Rufus Wainwright has turned his hand to all manner of musical and theatrical projects, including putting his interpretation on the work of William Shakespeare, but now he's gone the full monty in that direction by recording nine of Shakespeare's sonnets. The album Take All My Loves, to be released on April 22, commemorates the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death and features the BBC Symphony Orchestra as well as an impressive and wildly disparate roster of collaborators that includes Wainwright's sister Martha, Florence + the Machine's Florence Welch, Helena Bonham Carter and William Shatner. Wainwright has worked on sonnets before, first producing music for director Robert Wilson's Shakespeare's Sonnets production in 2009. He also orchestrated five sonnets for the San Francisco Symphony in 2010. Three of the nine pieces on the new recording (albeit in different versions) appeared on Wainwright's 2010 album Songs for Lulu. The new recording reunites Wainwright with producer Marius de Vries, who worked on his albums Want Oneand Want Two. "For me, recording this album has been a marriage made in heaven," says Wainwright, "as it combines my love of classical music with my love of pop music, It's literally historically fun. And made all the better by working again with Marius." READ THE FULL Australian ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright's Next Album Will Honor Shakespeare and Feature Princess Leia / Slate
    Posted At : March 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    This April 23 marks 400 years since the death of that great bard William Shakespeare, an anniversary expected to ride in on a global frenzy of tributes and a surplus of Shakespeare-themed volumes that range from academic to alcoholic. But the latest entry is an unlikely album from Rufus Wainwright, titled Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets. The LP, set for release on April 22 by classical record label Deutsche Grammophon, will feature guest performances from Florence Welch, Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher, and William Shatner, among other vocalists and actors. Helena Bonham Carter's Shakespearean chops are well-established and Florence Welch aptly embodies the Pre-Raphaelite inner light necessary for a contempo Shakespeare revival. Princess Leia and Captain Kirk are reading sonnets, presumably from space. READ THE FULL Slate ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright & 'Prima Donna' in the Classical Classroom
    Posted At : January 5, 2016 12:00 AM

    You may know Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright as a singer-songwriter, a piano man, a dude who hangs out with Elton John and Joni Mitchell. But as it turns out, he also writes classical music and opera. In this episode, he talks about his debut opera, Prima Donna, and writing a traditional romantic opera today. Wainwright releases the opera for the first time on audio since its 2009 premiere at the Manchester International Festival.  The recording, just released on October 2 on Deutsche Grammophon/UMC follows the live event, Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert held at the Athens Festival in Greece in September. Prima Donna's central character, a retired Diva struggling to make her return to the stage and regain her former years of greatness, was inspired by the BBC Lord Harewood interviews with Maria Callas in her later years. Audio production for KUHA: Houston's Classical Classroom by Todd "Toddwright" Hulslander with polite claps from Dacia Clay and editing by Mark DiClaudio. All music in this episode from the opera Prima Donna, available on Deutsche Grammophon. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT
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  • How to Expose New People to Opera, Rufus Wainwright / malaymail online
    Posted At : December 21, 2015 12:00 AM

    Joyce DiDonato was speaking Wednesday at New York's SubCulture club in a conversation with Rufus Wainwright, a successful pop singer who has turned to writing opera. Wainwright recalled his five-night sold-out residency in 2011 at Covent Garden in London, saying that 75 per cent of the people who attended had never been previously to the opera house. "I believe there is a whole bunch of young people who really don't know what classical is, and they secretly hunger for it," he said. READ THE FULL MALAYMAIL ONLINE ARTICLE SEE THE DAILYMAIL.COM POST
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  • Rufus Wainwright on How to Expose People to Opera / DailyMail.com
    Posted At : December 19, 2015 12:00 AM

    How can opera thrive in the modern era of instant and free entertainment? The solution, is to expose people when they least expect it. "Yes, we are in a critical time for opera. But I think for about 400 years opera has been at a critical point," mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato said. DiDonato was speaking Wednesday at New York's SubCulture club in a conversation with Rufus Wainwright, a successful pop singer who has turned to writing opera. Wainwright recalled his five-night sold-out residency in 2011 at Covent Garden in London, saying that 75 percent of the people who attended had never been previously to the opera house. "I believe there is a whole bunch of young people who really don't know what classical is, and they secretly hunger for it," he said. READ THE FULL DAILYMAIL.COM ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright Q&A's with WFMT: Chicago
    Posted At : December 10, 2015 12:00 AM

    Opera has always been important to composer Rufus Wainwright, though many know him as the man behind the piano crooning confessional songs. If you listen closely, you can hear hints of French mélodie and even references to Verdi in his chart-topping hits. Wainwright began composing his first opera, Prima Donna, because the Metropolitan Opera was interested in commissioning the work from him. He began composing in 2008, but severed ties with the company after disputes arose over the language for the libretto. Wainwright insisted the opera be written in French, while the Metropolitan Opera demanded that the opera be in English. In addition, Wainwright hoped the opera would premiere in 2009, though the Met could not schedule the premiere until 2014, according to a report in New York Times. Prima Donna had its world premiere in 2009 at the Palace Theatre as part of the Manchester International Festival, and was recently recorded. I spoke with Wainwright about his first opera and operas that influenced him. WFMT: Chicago - Stephen Raskauskas interviewed Wainwright for this Q&A
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  • Rufus Wainwright interview / WNYC - Soundcheck
    Posted At : December 3, 2015 12:00 AM

    Soundcheck goes to the opera, with a distinguished - if surprising - guide. Pop star, pianist, and composer Rufus Wainwright grew up in one of the grand families of contemporary music. His mother, the late Kate McGarrigle, was a celebrated songwriter who performed with her sister Anna. But it wasn't folk music she used to rouse Rufus in the mornings: it was Bach. (As for dad, singer Loudon Wainwright III? Says Rufus: "He likes baseball.") Fast forward a few decades, and Rufus has followed in both parents' footsteps with a major pop career. And in 2009, Rufus also wrote his very first opera, "Prima Donna" (the recording of which has just been released on Deutsche Grammophon). It's a day in the life of a graying operatic diva who lost her voice mid-performance and is now left to reflect on her halcyon days. It's a grand story, told entirely in French, and moves with unmistakably Wainwright melody. Rufus talks to host John Schaefer about his plans (or not) to ever actually perform in an opera, and explains why his new recording was crowd-funded.  LISTEN TO THE WNYC SEGMENT
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  • Huffington Post Chats with Rufus Wainwright
    Posted At : November 25, 2015 12:00 AM

    Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright releases his debut opera, Prima Donna, for the first time on audio since its 2009 premiere at the Manchester International Festival.  The recording, just released on October 2 on Deutsche Grammophon/UMC follows the live event, Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert held at the Athens Festival in Greece in September. Prima Donna's central character, a retired Diva struggling to make her return to the stage and regain her former years of greatness, was inspired by the BBC Lord Harewood interviews with Maria Callas in her later years. In addition to its Manchester premiere and most recently the Athens visual concert, Prima Donna also had a run at Sadler's Wells in London, Luminato: Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity in Toronto and its American premiere in New York City Opera in February 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Mike Ragona from Huffington Post Chats with Rufus Wainwright
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  • Rufus Wainwright on the future of opera / YourClassical
    Posted At : November 24, 2015 12:00 AM

    Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright recently released his debut opera, Prima Donna on Deutsche Grammophon/UMC. The album follows the live event, Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert held at the Athens Festival in Greece in September. Prima Donna's central character, a retired Diva struggling to make her return to the stage and regain her former years of greatness, was inspired by the BBC Lord Harewood interviews with Maria Callas in her later years. YourClassical.org - Jay Gabler recently spoke with Wainwright about the inspiration for the opera, why he's proud of the new recording, and what he has planned next.  READ THE Q&A
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Prima Donna / theguardian
    Posted At : November 22, 2015 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright, no stranger to the lyric stage since the premiere of his opera Prima Donna at last year's Manchester international festival, is to be the first pop artist to take up residency at what he called the "distant and implacable fortress" that is the Royal Opera House. Though the Royal Opera House has in the past hosted such artists as Bjork, Sting and Elton John for one-off events, Wainwright is the first to tackle a week-long series of concerts at the London venue. The five evenings next July - under the banner House of Rufus: Five Nights of Velvet, Glamour and Guilt - will include two evenings of his show Rufus Does Judy!, his restaging of Judy Garland's 1961 comeback concert; an evening performing with his father Loudon; another with his sister Martha; and finally, a concert version of Prima Donna starring soprano Janis Kelly, followed by Wainwright performing some of his own solo work. READ THE FULL THE GUARDIAN ARTICLE
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  • Rufus Wainwright interviews w/Classical Radio about 'Prima Donna'
    Posted At : November 16, 2015 12:00 AM

    Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright releases his debut opera, Prima Donna, for the first time on audio since its 2009 premiere at the Manchester International Festival.  The recording, just released on October 2 on Deutsche Grammophon/UMC follows the live event, Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert held at the Athens Festival in Greece in September. Prima Donna's central character, a retired Diva struggling to make her return to the stage and regain her former years of greatness, was inspired by the BBC Lord Harewood interviews with Maria Callas in her later years. In conjunction with the release, RW will be doing a series of Classical Radio Interviews Today.
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  • Rufus Wainwright - Prima Donna / classical MPR
    Posted At : September 23, 2015 12:00 AM

    Rufus Wainwright says that his opera Prima Donna was "written and performed during the most dramatic period of my life to date, and considering my life, that's pretty dramatic."   That was 2009, when the singer-songwriter - the son of folk legends Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle - premiered the two-act opera at the Manchester International Festival. The work had its U.S. premiere three years later, but hasn't made it to disc until now. After crowdfunding the recording, Wainwright is now releasing the album - on storied label Deutsche Grammophon, no less, with a cover featuring the same instantly recognizable yellow medallion that's adorned releases by Karajan and Kleiber.   READ THE FULL CLASSICAL MPR ARTICLE
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