Rufus Wainwright: "the opera world is in a very desperate place right now"

Rufus Wainwright (whose opera Prima Donna will premiere in Manchester) begs for a backstabbing:

"I would say the majority of opera critics are waiting in the wings with long daggers waiting for me to trip. I think it’s the nature of that perfection and that universe; the opera world is in a very desperate place right now. They’ve been able, largely, to keep the daily world out of their affairs but now with both arts funding dissipating and their public getting older and no longer buying tickets, they have to really lower themselves in order to survive. They really had no choice but to work with people like me who aren’t as refined or as educated or classically trained as they are. But I’m excited to be abused by them – you know, I’m gay; it’s one of the perks."

(from the Daily Telegraph's transcription of his recent Oxford Union Q&A session)

 

Comments

[Doundou Tchil]

He'll hate me for saying it but he's a chip off the old block, just like his dad.

[Henry Holland]

Disclaimer: I love Rufus Wainwright's first album (the others, not so much) but I'd have laughed out loud if I was in the audience when he said this:

"I’m orchestrating it all myself, which is very rare. Even well known composers like Bernstein used orchestrators, but I’m doing everything"

For f's sake, you ignorant twerp. Britten didn't need an orchestrator --nor did/do almost all of the other composers that make up the operatic canon-- because he was *a composer*, not a songwriter with delusions of grandeur. What an insult to Mozart, Berlioz, Wagner, Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, Schreker, Scriabin and all the other incredible orchestrators.

"they have to really lower themselves in order to survive. They really had no choice but to work with people like me who aren’t as refined or as educated or classically trained as they are"

For f's sake, Part 2. They *DO* have a choice but they keep insisting on putting on works that aren't really operas --*cough* Damon Albarn's piece at the ROH-- written by people who aren't opera composers. Meanwhile, REAL opera composers with track records go begging for a commission. Yikes, what shortsighted thinking: the non-opera going people that went to the Albarn piece are NOT going to buy tickets to "Lulu" just because both were presented at Covent Garden.

Love your blog, by the way.