Rufus Wainwright's 'Dream Requiem' explores catastrophe and redemption
LOS ANGELES - The historic Mount Tambora volcanic eruption spewed so much ash and debris that it triggered a "year without summer" and the apocalypse seemed nigh -- an apt parallel to our own chaotic existence, says the eclectic musician Rufus Wainwright.
The artist's ambitious modern-day requiem, which draws inspiration from the 19th-century catastrophe as well as the Requiem Mass, will premiere stateside on Sunday in Los Angeles, with narration by the actor and activist Jane Fonda.
The Canadian-American Wainwright composed "Dream Requiem" as the globe was picking up the pieces after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and turned to Lord Byron's poem "Darkness" which is centred on the fear and disarray that followed the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption.
The artist, best known for his distinct theatrical pop, has focused more on opera in recent years and said the poem is all the more prescient given the looming threat of climate cataclysm, as well as our tumultuous contemporary politics.
"In this day and age, it's a similar kind of intense sense of doom," Wainwright told AFP in an interview ahead of the Los Angeles show.
"I think we're a little less misguided than they were back then, but who knows what the future holds?"
Wainwright's global premiere of "Dream Requiem" was at the Auditorium de Radio France in Paris last summer, with Meryl Streep narrating and featuring soprano Anna Prohaska.
A recording of the work is available from Warner Classics.
Wainwright said Fonda's participation in the upcoming performance with the Los Angeles Master Chorale lends additional intensity to the piece, given her long history of activism and her special emphasis in recent years on climate change.
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