Saturday 19 June 2010
Rufus Wainwright @ Elgin Theatre, Toronto
(photo: Kasia Bobula)
You’d think I’d died and gone to heaven.
First, I got myself tickets to the closing night performance of the North American premiere of Prima Donna, Rufus Wainwright‘s first opera at this year’s Luminato Festival in Toronto. That was cool enough, I thought, until I heard that Mr. Wainwright would also be kicking off his North American tour in support of All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu at said same festival. “‘Effin’ fantstic!” was my next reaction. Yeah, the first show was sold out before I could get my paws on passes, but with the addition of a second show Thursday night, I made sure that this quiet weekend in June would be Wainwright-packed. Two shows, two nights apart, in the same theatre. I was all set. Could it get any better?
Apparently so. Turns out that between Thursday night’s solo piano-and-voice concert and tonight’s opera performance, Wainwright managed to squeeze himself onto the bill at Rockin’ at the Knox, the annual outdoor concert in support of the Alright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo NY last night. He shared the bill with his sister, Martha Wainwright. Oh yeah, and The National, too. I know. That was my reaction, too.
Though I wasn’t able to attend last night’s show in Buffalo, I was most certainly at the Elgin Theatre on Thursday for the second of Wainwright’s two shows there, along with a full house of devoted fans eager to spend a night with one of the greatest songwriters of our time. The evening was divided into two distinct halves: the first was a dramatic live performance of All Days Are Nights… in its entirety. I had wondered how such an emotionally heavy album would translate in a live concert setting, as in-between song banter just doesn’t lend itself to the subject matter. The answer was to not play a concert, but stage a theatrical interpretation of the songs. Decked out in a shimmery, black, flowing robe or gown (it was hard to tell in the minimal lighting) Wainwright took to the stage silently (after the audience had been instructed not to clap until the song cycle was over and he had exited) in what I imagined was the guise of the titular Lulu, the dark feminine energy he’s often cited in interviews as being his muse for All Days Are Nights…
Because both the recorded and live versions of the songs were identical, one might guess that sitting in the theatre that night with your eyes closed you’d be able to imagine yourself sitting in your home listening to the disc. What set this night apart, though, was the live performance of these intricate arrangements and complicated melodies against a backdrop of his own heavily made up eye. In this setting, the songs took on a new mystical energy that you can’t get from headphones or a good home stereo. Wainwright has always been on the theatrical side, and interpreting All Days Are Nights… as a piece of theatre is the only logical way to present the material. Suddenly, it all made sense. Accompanied by a series of visuals created by Douglas Gordon, Wainwright let the emotion, passion and power of the music take over, at one point getting lost in “The Dream”. You could sense the tension growing amongst the audience, watching him struggle to find his place and bring the song back from the brink. Even though he had asked us not to clap, it was all some people could do not to applaud his recovery and triumph at the song’s end.
After intermission he returned to the stage to volleys of cheers and applause, noting at one point that “it feels good to clap”. Wainwright focused on paino-based pieces from his back catalogue, playing material from each of his albums (including “Complainte de la Butte” from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack). Family is very much on Wainwright’s mind this tour, as he’s included a song about his siblings (“Little Sister”) and father (“Dinner at Eight”) in the set, and book-ending the night with a tribute to his late mother, Kate McGarrigle, by opening the second half of the show with his own “Beauty Mark” and closing with a cover of her “Walking Song”.
Earlier in the day I was saddened when All days Are Nights… didn’t make the cut for this year’s Polaris Music Prize longlist, which seemed to favour more of Canada’s indie artists. As I left the theatre that night, I realized that, right at this very moment in the Canadian and world music scene, there is no artist working who earns the title of “independent artist” more than Wainwright. He is in a class of his own, a unique visionary that’s untouched by what popular culture dictates to be hip or cool. Rufus Wainwright is one-of-a-kind, and that’s kind of special.
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