Rufus Wainwright
February 4th, 2008 Posted in Pets Guide Inthe slightly envious words of his kid sister, Martha
Wainwright, “Rufus always knew what he wanted”. While she humbly
deferred and prevaricated over her brilliant career, he locked
sights on his yellow brick road the first time he was hauled out of
bed to sing Over The Rainbow at one of his showbiz
parents’ parties.
His audacious impression of Judy Garland’s signature tune had
the ring of a fait accompli on his first Australian tour of January
‘05. Even flanked by his gifted sister and their mesmerising mother
and aunt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, he seemed almost incandescent
with destiny.
The intervening three years have seen it come to pass. Last
year’s Release The Stars topped a five-album spiral of
escalating confessional and symphonic ambitions. His latest
release, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, is the
whimsical conceit of a 34-year-old stage prodigy with little left
to prove.
“I’ve definitely made a notch in the wall of the prison cell of
entertainment and things are looking up,” is his wry progress
report.
“I’m not making millions of dollars, playing baccarat in Vegas
with Snoop Dogg but I’m proud of the fact that I can bring eight
(band members) over to Australia. I’m satisfied with that
reward.”
Well he might be. Wainwright’s last Melbourne show was a modest
solo recital at Manchester Lane. Then again, he gives the distinct
impression that, in his head at least, he has already outgrown the
prestigious velvet sanctum of next week’s two Hamer Hall
engagements.
“This is my life’s work in a certain way but once you’ve
completed your life’s work, you’ve got to move on to another life,”
he says. “I don’t wanna end it here. I just don’t like to stagnate,
which I find tends to happen a lot with pop careers.
“My great fantasy to some day write a great opera is kind of
down the line now,” he reveals. “So what that does, in terms of
this whole pop thing, is it really makes it a game, and not too
personal, and something that I can enjoy. And that will get me
laid.”
The last, self-effacing gag is self-defence. Pop artists aren’t
generally allowed to be as cocksure as Rufus Wainwright, in words
or music.
Even with Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant ensconced as “executive
producer”, Release the Stars came close to overwhelming the lavish
parameters of Wainwright’s Broadway-influenced style.
“Neil was kind of my adviser,” he says. “He would give me his
opinion from time to time about how things were going and I’d
either agree or disagree. I respected him so much because he has
been able to accomplish his goals being a pop star while at the
same time maintaining his integrity.”
Again, the P-word is tossed off with the slightly patronising
air of an artiste with grander ambitions than making the masses
whistle on their way to work. And while he almost concedes the
charge of excessive production, he qualifies a little frostily that
“there are certain moments on the album that are the most intimate
of my life”.
That’s the Wainwright magic, of course. For all their stylistic
differences, fans of Rufus are usually fans of Martha because the
blood-and-guts of life experience is the essence of their work.
“I just like my songs to be utterly enrapturing. I think people
who don’t like my music are people who don’t necessarily want to
pay full attention to things. They’re more into the ephemeral
pleasures of life.
“With my music, if you’re listening, you really have to be very
dedicated. And that’s a very operatic tradition. You have to be
dominant, musically.”
Commercially, of course, opera is anything but dominant.
Wainwright’s ambition and relatively young and passionate fan base
may be a potent combination for New York’s Metropolitan Opera,
which has commissioned his work, and conceivably for opera in
general.
“Yeah, there’s definitely the sense that they need me more than
I need them,” he says, untroubled as usual by false modesty.
Certainly, the Metropolitan’s Peter Gelb has been effusive in his
hopes for the work in progress. A “drawing room drama” titled
Prima Donna, the French libretto involves a singer who
falls in love with a journalist.
“There’s not much to really talk about now,” Wainwright says.
“It’s in its infancy but needless to say, it’s gonna be very
musical. That’s all I’ll say. It’s gonna be VERY musical.”
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