RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

Dream Requiem (Warner Classics)

With two operas and a musical under his belt, it’s hard to refer to Rufus Wainwright as a singer-songwriter these days. A childhood steeped in classical music has long been reflected in his baroque-pop pieces, but even compared to his operatic works Dream Requiem feels like Wainwright’s most serious undertaking to date.

Weaving the liturgical text of the Requiem alongside Byron’s poem Darkness, narrated on this recording by Meryl Streep, the ‘dream’ Wainwright wants to address is the nightmare reality of the pandemic. The piece is dedicated to Verdi and there’s a lot of the Romantic composer’s theatrical style in Wainwright’s Requiem.

Interestingly, however, the lighter Sanctus is one of the most original moments. Elsewhere the writing is sublime, sometimes dense, with bombast often balanced by simplicity. Unfortunately, the live recording struggles to successfully balance the solo soprano, double chorus and orchestra, which does make it difficult for the listener to become truly lost in this very humanistic setting of the mass for the dead.

words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES