Rufus Wainwright & Brussels Philharmonic

Rufus Wainwright’s passion for opera dates back to his early childhood. He even recalls forcing his sister Martha and the rest of the family to help him perform and enact scenes from Puccini’s Tosca at home. But it wasn’t until 2009 that the dream of writing his own opera became reality when the Manchester International Festival, the Luminato Festival and Sadler's Wells in London asked him to compose Prima Donna. This ground-breaking piece, since performed by many companies throughout the world, was followed by his dramatic opera Hadrian in 2018 commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. 

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In this production, the Brussels Philharmonic, with 5 soloists including Davóne Tines as protagonist in Hadrian, stage an hour version of Hadrian in semi-concertante style as visual symphonic concert. In a completely new interpretation of Rufus Wainwright’s opera Hadrian, Robert Mapplethorpe’s images are used to express the story and more importantly inner tensions and torments of the characters of this opera. After the break, Rufus himself will perform a 'very best of' set from his extensive song catalogue, of course in beautiful orchestral arrangements.