Wainwright: Dream Requiem (CD) – Rufus Wainwright

Composer: Rufus Wainwright
Artists: Rufus Wainwright, Meryl Streep, Anna Prohaska, Mikko Franck, Maitrise de Radio France, Chœur et Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Warner Classics
Release Date: November 7, 2024

Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem is an extremely prestigious project, the result of a commission from major cultural institutions in the US, UK, and Europe. This world premiere recording features a new composition by the legendary, Grammy-nominated musician, who has collaborated with a who’s who of the pop music world. 

With narration by Meryl Streep, the project will be followed by a worldwide tour starting in January 2025. Written during the pandemic, it is a requiem “for the people we have lost in this crisis, for the past from which we are cut off, and for the future to which we do not yet know how to connect, a Requiem for human contact, solidarity and the human voice that have all become dangerous and contagious.”

It’s also a reflection on environmental collapse and the increase in the number of natural disasters. The text of Dream Requiem weaves together words from the Latin Mass for the Dead – as used by Wainwright’s hero Giuseppe Verdi – with Lord Byron’s apocalyptic poem “Darkness,” written after the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 and which brought about “the year without summer.”

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