waste not want not
“Opera is above drugs and alcohol and you don’t have to be fucked up to either write it or see it. It’s about transcendentalism. It’s not of this world. So I’d suggest not being fucked up, because you’re just wasting your money.”
Compositeur de musique Rufus Wainwright shares practical penny-pinching tips in Interview magazine.
Didn’t Susan Hayward say something similar in “Valley of the Dolls?”
Gosh, that’s nice to know. As it happens, however, Mr. Wainwright is wrong. From what one reads in the biographies, Modest Moussorgsky was probably pretty fucked up at least some of the time while writing his operas.
Having enjoyed many evenings at the opera in one or another state of inebriation I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Wainwright’s assertion. Consumption of spirits, vegetation or even a little time spent on the ski slopes can and usually does have a salutary effect on my opera going experience. Chacun a son gout Roofies…oops…Rufus.
I don’t know about Wainwright’s compositional skills, but his “Judy Garland” concert was one of the worst nights of singing I have ever heard. He was just awful, awful.
#4
I completely agree with you. I usually like Wainwright. I think there is a sincerity about him. I cannot listen to that kind of voice for long stretches of time. But I always wanted to have a dialogue about why that Judy Garland concert that he sang did not work and why it was so critically celebrated.
… the Judy Garland concert wasn’t celebrated or even endured politely by anyone over 30, much less anyone who’d actually heard the divine Miss G. (I didn’t, but the records are grand.)
As for Wagner on dope or acid … well, it was many years ago in my vanished youth … but memorable! Oh my! There was the time I ran screaming from a Seattle performance of Gotterdamerung, yelling that they were boiling my head alive! And I was reviewing that performance, too. Well, I have to say it improved my concentration much better than my current drug-of-choice for the opera (espresso) ever does.
Thank god we have Rufus Wainwright to teach us What Opera Is About.
#7
I don’t believe he is trying to teach us What Opera Is. I am of the opinion that he is simply expressing his passion for opera as you just did in your post but in a different way. And maybe he is bringing a measure of self-examination into the statement by addressing his own battle with addiction.
#6
Wow…so nobody over 30 endured the concert politely. What did they do? They refused to take Metamucil for a month?
Considering that Rufus spent the majority of his time while living in New York either high on crystal meth or drunk cruising Manhunt, he would know what he’s talking about.
In general, he needs to shut up. Especially about opera.