Wainwright Opera For Luminato 2010

03/31/09 4:42pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Rufus Wainwright's first opera, Prima Donna, will have its North American premiere at Toronto's Luminato Festival Of Arts And Creativity in 2010.

Prima Donna, which will make its world premiere at Manchester, England's Manchester International Festival in July, tells the story of a soprano who returns to the opera world after having been laid off.

The libretto is performed in French and was originally commissioned by New York City's Metropolitan Opera, which turned it down after Wainwright refused to change it into English.

"I'm so thrilled to have my opera, Prima Donna, performed at Luminato in Toronto," says Wainwright. "The further I venture through the world of opera, the more I realize how daring and risky one has to be in order to succeed in this fickle medium.

"From the composer to the producer and the hundreds of glorious people in between, there must be a steel rod of dedication linking all the elements. Thank you Toronto for having the guts to make it happen."

Wainwright is encouraging people to turn off their electricity and "refrain from all energy expending activities that could harm the environment" from noon to midnight on June 21, which he's dubbed Blackoutsabbath. We wonder if Wainwright took part in Earth Hour this past weekend.

You can see Wainwright at these shows:

April 23 New Haven, CT @ Woolsey Hall
April 24 Great Barrington, MA @ The Mahaiwe Theatre
April 25 Harrisburg, PA @ Sunoco Performance Theater
April 29 Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues w/Lucy Wainwright-Roche
April 30 Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
June 16 Paris, France @ Cite De La Musique
Aug. 14 Lyons, CO @ Bluegrass Ranch
Aug. 15 Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Aspen