Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwrightis an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer. He has recorded seven albums of original music and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written a classical opera and set Shakespeare sonnets to music for a theater piece by Robert Wilson...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionOpera Singer
Date of Birth22 July 1973
CityRhinebeck, NY
CountryCanada
voice denver way
I've developed a bit of a fascination with John Denver. I always thought he was kind of tacky and somewhat revolting and had a kind of simplistic weirdness, but on second listen, he actually did have an incredible voice, and the blatant naiveté of his work is straight-edge, in a way.
demise way plot
I've paid the price; I definitely have a reputation that precedes me, and there is a camp that plots my demise. But then again... it's funner that way.
albums way next
The Germany I was enthused with was more old fashioned and kind of romantic. I just got there, and the next thing you know, I had this huge gilded album. It was kind of an amazing experience because I didn't intend it to be that way.
way eras fans
I'm a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. Millais, Edward Burne-Jones, and I realised recently that my music is Pre-Raphaelite in a certain way, in that it reinvents an older era and romanticises it, puts it in this gilded frame.
dinner eight full great toast until
Dinner at eight was okaybefore the toast full of gleams.It was great until those old magazinesgot us started up again.Actually it was probably me again.
light pact
We made a pact to light up and then we were whisked away,
genius feels
Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't.
wall biblical thinking
But I don't even think you hear me at all Under your medieval ceiling behind your biblical wall
dream falling-in-love drinking
It's about how whenever I fall in love, I have these expectations of the experience being a perfect dream, which, of course, ruins it. I imagine cradling my lover's head in my lap in a cab in the middle of the night, and drinking champagne in an elegant hotel suite. But life's rarely like that, and I usually end up walking home by myself in the rain.
boys addiction horrible
I'm not a terrible smoker, actually. My major addiction, which is horrible, is straight boys.
careers america meat
I've had my ups and downs, and I definitely have a sense - in America, especially - that once you've made your mark and gotten your Rolling Stone piece and your Grammy nomination, that they're on to the next piece of meat, and they don't necessarily like to follow the twistsand turns of an artistic career. Throwing an opera at them is something they have to notice. There's nothing subtle about it.
artist torn
As an artist, you put so much into what you do and it can all be torn down in a nanosecond.
years cleaning cleaning-up
After years of hotels, I'm horribly inept at cleaning up after myself.
thinking sids combination
I like to think of myself as a combination of Sid Vicious and Virgil Thompson