Rufus Wainwright

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Image courtesy of Grec Festival de Barcelona.

Elton John considers him one of the greatest composers of our time. And this artist—son of folk musicians and brother of a singer-songwriter who will accompany him in Barcelona—lacks neither ambition nor restlessness. He has positioned himself among the greats of folk and pop, and he has gained followers across the globe since he started releasing albums at the end of the last century. But this is only one dimension of the artist, who has also branched out into composing contemporary operas.

His second and most recent opera, Hadrian (based on the figure of the emperor) was seen at the Peralada Festival in 2022, with a staging by the artist's husband, Jörn Weisbrodt, who was inspired by the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. And indeed, Rufus Wainwright's career oscillates between high culture and popular music, passing through the songs of Judy Garland along the way. Quintessentially unclassifiable, he has become an icon of our times, as famous for his epic, lyrical, and always moving performances as for the music he composed for the soundtracks of well-known films (Bridget Jones's Diary, Shrek... .) or the open references to the traumatic sexual experiences that he went through as a young man.

He may at some point have expressed his desire to center his efforts on opera composition, but he certainly isn’t giving anything else up. The Barcelona concert will be one of only three shows with his band that he will perform in Spain, meaning that there won’t be many other opportunities to experience a summer’s night with Rufus Wainwright.

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