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He did it his (relatively safe) way
Rufus Wainwright at Verizon Hall
Steve Cohen
As singer-songwriters go, Rufus Wainwright is an anomaly.
Unlike his parents, Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, Rufus doesn't sound folky, nor does he sing about rural life. Instead, Rufus loves Judy Garland and prefers her type of music. His own recent songwriting has been operatic.
It must have been traumatic for his parents when Rufus, as a 14-year-old, rejected their choice of musical genre, not to mention heterosexuality. Like many other gay men, Rufus fixated on Garland, possibly because she rejected the image that the establishment forced upon her and because of her struggles to overcome personal problems.
Rejected by the Met
In his concert last week, Rufus devoted the first half to excerpts from his opera, Prima Donna, an opera Peter Gelb of the Met rejected in 2006, saying that newly-commissioned works had to be in English (Wainwright wrote Prima Donna with a French libretto). This incident seemed to be a clash of two intransigent egos, but I suspect that Gelb seized on the language issue as an excuse for bypassing a work that he just didn't like in the first place.
Prima Donna is an unabashedly melodic and lush work, written in a conservative musical idiom. It reminds me of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur, which similarly chronicles the travails of an aging performer. In Cilea's case, the protagonist was a historic French tragedian, in Wainwright's, it's a woman modeled upon Maria Callas.
Prima Donna concerns a woman confronting aging, loss, and betrayal in Paris (like Callas) while hoping to regain her status as one of the world's great stars. Wainwright's score provides flamboyant moments, which were sung very well by sopranos Melody Moore and Katheryn Guthrie. But it's hard to know how the opera would work as a totality, since last week's performance omitted secondary performers and plot development.
Clarity deficiency
In the program's second half, Wainwright channeled Garland's historic 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, song by song. Although the 36-piece orchestra followed the 1961 arrangements, this performance was less an impersonation of Garland than a reflection.
Occasionally Wainwright used imitative slides or attacks, and he struck a few Garland poses. More importantly, he constantly reminded us that this was what Wainwright felt when he heard Garland's music. On standards like "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Swanee" and "Get Happy," he soared with a voice that was more solid and exuded more freedom in its top notes than Garland did at that time of her life.
What he lacked was the directness of communication that characterized Garland's art. She was known for her powerful projection of words; Wainwright, by contrast, favored an artificiality of vowels. Instead of "me" with a strong E sound, he sang "mih." And instead of "crazy" with a hard A, he sang "crehzy." He seemed more concerned with smooth vocal production than with clarity of lyrics.
Wainwright astutely emphasized the universality of emotions by alternating masculine and feminine personal pronouns, e.g., "The bells are ringing for me and my gal/pal." But in "The Man That Got Away, " Judy's iconic lines— "The road gets rougher/ It's lonelier and tougher"— didn't sound very tough, especially coming from a beaming handsome singer decked out in a sequined shirt and a black tux with sequined lapels.♦
To read a response, click here.
Unlike his parents, Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, Rufus doesn't sound folky, nor does he sing about rural life. Instead, Rufus loves Judy Garland and prefers her type of music. His own recent songwriting has been operatic.
It must have been traumatic for his parents when Rufus, as a 14-year-old, rejected their choice of musical genre, not to mention heterosexuality. Like many other gay men, Rufus fixated on Garland, possibly because she rejected the image that the establishment forced upon her and because of her struggles to overcome personal problems.
Rejected by the Met
In his concert last week, Rufus devoted the first half to excerpts from his opera, Prima Donna, an opera Peter Gelb of the Met rejected in 2006, saying that newly-commissioned works had to be in English (Wainwright wrote Prima Donna with a French libretto). This incident seemed to be a clash of two intransigent egos, but I suspect that Gelb seized on the language issue as an excuse for bypassing a work that he just didn't like in the first place.
Prima Donna is an unabashedly melodic and lush work, written in a conservative musical idiom. It reminds me of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur, which similarly chronicles the travails of an aging performer. In Cilea's case, the protagonist was a historic French tragedian, in Wainwright's, it's a woman modeled upon Maria Callas.
Prima Donna concerns a woman confronting aging, loss, and betrayal in Paris (like Callas) while hoping to regain her status as one of the world's great stars. Wainwright's score provides flamboyant moments, which were sung very well by sopranos Melody Moore and Katheryn Guthrie. But it's hard to know how the opera would work as a totality, since last week's performance omitted secondary performers and plot development.
Clarity deficiency
In the program's second half, Wainwright channeled Garland's historic 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, song by song. Although the 36-piece orchestra followed the 1961 arrangements, this performance was less an impersonation of Garland than a reflection.
Occasionally Wainwright used imitative slides or attacks, and he struck a few Garland poses. More importantly, he constantly reminded us that this was what Wainwright felt when he heard Garland's music. On standards like "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Swanee" and "Get Happy," he soared with a voice that was more solid and exuded more freedom in its top notes than Garland did at that time of her life.
What he lacked was the directness of communication that characterized Garland's art. She was known for her powerful projection of words; Wainwright, by contrast, favored an artificiality of vowels. Instead of "me" with a strong E sound, he sang "mih." And instead of "crazy" with a hard A, he sang "crehzy." He seemed more concerned with smooth vocal production than with clarity of lyrics.
Wainwright astutely emphasized the universality of emotions by alternating masculine and feminine personal pronouns, e.g., "The bells are ringing for me and my gal/pal." But in "The Man That Got Away, " Judy's iconic lines— "The road gets rougher/ It's lonelier and tougher"— didn't sound very tough, especially coming from a beaming handsome singer decked out in a sequined shirt and a black tux with sequined lapels.♦
To read a response, click here.
What, When, Where
“Prima! Rufus! Judy!†Including excerpts from Prima Donna, an opera by Rufus Wainwright; and Rufus Does Judy, with Rufus Wainwright, singer. April 21, 2013 at Verizon Hall. Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Sts., as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. (215) 790-5800 or www.kimmelcenter.org.
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