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Rufus Wainwright: Dream Requiem album review – a sense of special occasion, all concerned believe in it
Hollywood royalty in the shape of Meryl Streep, and the soaring soprano of Anna Prohaska lend authenticity to Wainwright’s expressive eulogy to human loss
The threat of ecological catastrophe permeates the work just as intensely as the requiem’s traditional sense of human loss, for Wainwright interleaves his setting for solo soprano and chorus of the standard mass with Byron’s poem Darkness, which was written in 1816, after a volcanic eruption in the Dutch East Indies resulted in the so-called “year without a summer” across Europe and North America. Artwork for Rufus Wainwright: Dream Requiem Photograph: Parlophone Records LtdThe performance under Franck certainly suggests that all concerned believe in the authenticity of the work, and the message it conveys. With Meryl Streep delivering Byron’s poem and Anna Prohaska as the soprano soloist soaring over the French Radio Chorus, there’s a real sense of a special occasion about it all, though whether the Dream Requiem finds its way into the mainstream choral repertory remains to be seen.
Or read this on The Guardian
