Wainwright: Dream Requiem Rufus Wainwright, Meryl Streep, Anna Prohaska, Mikko Franck, Maîtrise de Radio France, Chœur de Radio France, Orestre Philharmonique de Radio France

• Rufus Wainwright (b. 1973): Dream Requiem:
• 1 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Darkness I 06:39
• 2 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Requiem aeternam 01:59
• 3 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Lux perpetua 03:26
• 4 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Kyrie eleison 01:56
• 5 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Sequentia I. Dies irae 05:15
• 6 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Darkness II 01:12
• 7 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Sequentia II. Mors stupebit 02:42
• 8 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Sequentia III. Rex tremendae 04:13
• 9 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Sequentia IV. Ingemisco 03:54
• 10 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Sequentia V. Confutatis 03:37
• 11 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Darkness III 05:52
• 12 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Offertorium 05:16
• 13 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Sanctus 04:26
• 14 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Agnus Dei 05:14
• 15 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Lux aeterna 04:07
• 16 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Darkness IV 11:09
• 17 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: In paradisum 04:47
• 18 Wainwright: Dream Requiem: Applause 01:43
• Total Runtime 01:17:27

Info for Wainwright: Dream Requiem

If the term ‘universal musician’ applies to anyone, then it applies to Rufus Wainwright: as a pop musician and singer-songwriter, he is a global star, but he has also been pursuing an equally stellar career as a classical composer for years. After two successful operas, Wainwright presented his ‘Dream Requiem’ to the world in June 2024. Like his great musical role model Giuseppe Verdi, he dramatises the text of the Latin requiem mass with impressive choirs and orchestral sounds, contrasted with words by the British poet Lord Byron, to which none other than Oscar winner Meryl Streep lent her voice at the Paris premiere. Rufus Wainwright composed his oratorio in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic ‘for the people we have lost in this crisis, for the past from which we are cut off and for the future to which we do not yet know how to connect’. With Byron's apocalyptic poem ‘Darkness’, written in 1815 after the devastating eruption of the Javanese volcano Tambora, Wainwright's ‘Dream Requiem’ establishes a link to climate change and thus to another major crisis of our time. In the performance by the choir and the philharmonic orchestra of Radio France under the direction of Mikko Franck and with soprano Anna Prohaska as the soloist, the score is transformed into a sound experience that is as colourful as it is stirring.

The intensity of the Paris premiere is fully conveyed on the recording released by Warner: music that gets under your skin.

Meryl Streep, recitation
Anna Prohaska, soprano
Maitrise de Radio France
Choeur de Radio France
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Mikko Franck, conductor

Anna Prohaska
Austrian-English soprano Anna Prohaska made her debut aged 18 at Berlin’s Komische Oper as Flora in Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” and soon after with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, entering the ensemble at age 23. She has since gone on to have an extraordinary international career with some of the world’s greatest opera houses and orchestras, though the Staatsoper remains her artistic home.

Operatic highlights include Zabelle in the world premiere of George Benjamin’s “Picture a day like this” and Morgana “Alcina” for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Pamina “Die Zauberflöte”, Constance “Les Dialogues des Carmélites” and Nannetta “Falstaff” for the Royal Opera House, “Pelléas et Mélisande” for the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Anne Trulove “The Rake’s Progress”, Merab “Saul” and Angelica “Orlando” for Theater an der Wien, Zerlina “Don Giovanni” for La Scala, title role “Orphée et Eurydice” for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Blonde “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” at Opéra national de Paris, Sophie “Der Rosenkavalier” in Baden-Baden, Iphis “Jephtha” in Amsterdam, as well as Marzelline “Fidelio”, Purcell’s “Fairy Queen”, Blonde, Ännchen “Der Freischütz” and Adele “Die Fledermaus” for the Bayerische Staatsoper. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, Anna has appeared as Vitellia, Zerlina, Despina, Deola in Luigi Nono’s “Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore”, Susanna and Cordelia in Aribert Reimann's “Lear”.

Noted for her diverse repertoire with the Deutsche Staatsoper, her roles include Anne Trulove, Susanna, Sophie, Pamina, Ilia, Oscar, Blonde, Poppea, Euridice, Aricie, Ännchen, Anna Reich as well as world premieres by Beat Furrer and Peter Ruzicka. Conductors she has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Philippe Jordan, Gustavo Dudamel and René Jacobs.

In huge demand on the concert platform, Anna has performed regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker since her debut with them at age 24, performing under Rattle, Harding and Abbado. Other orchestras include the Vienna Philharmonic under Boulez, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jansons, Harding, Blomstedt and Nézet-Séguin, the London Symphony Orchestra under Rattle, Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra under John Eliot Gardiner, the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under von Dohnányi. Recent seasons have included artistic residencies at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Philharmonie Luxembourg.

Plans for the 23/24 season include Angelica “Orlando” cond. Ivor Bolton for Teatro Real Madrid, Silvia “Violette Schnee” cond. Matthias Pintscher for the Deutsche Staatsoper, L’Ange in Messiaen’s “Saint François d'Assise” cond. Kent Nagano for the Hamburgische Staatsoper and a return to Festival Aix-en-Provence where she appears alongside Patricia Kopatchinskaja in “Songs and Fragments” directed by Barrie Kosky. On the concert platform, Anna gives the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s “Dream Requiem” with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France cond. Mikko Franck. Other performances include Mozart's arias cond. Ivor Bolton for the Mozartwoche Salzburg, Mendelssohn’s “Hör mein Bitten” and “Infelice!” Op 94 with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, her “Serpent and Fire” programme with il Giardino Armonico for the Grafenegg Festival, the Paris debut of her “Ophelia” programme at the Athénée Théâtre, as well as appearances with the Phantasm ensemble at the Wigmore Hall, and the London Mozart Players for their 75th-anniversary concert cond. Jonathan Bloxham. Tours in the 23/24 season include a solo concert tour with Ensemble Modern cond. Sir George Benjamin featuring the world premiere of Filidei’s “Cantico delle Creatura”, a collaborative dance project with the Emanuel Soavi Company and Lautten Compagney, and a recital tour of her ‘Paradise Lost’ programme alongside Julius Drake.

Anna’s various recordings and music videos made her the subject of a documentary feature “The Fabulous World of Anna Prohaska” dir. Andreas Morell in 2013. Her first solo album, “Sirène”, was released in 2011 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, followed by “Enchanted Forest” in 2013 and “Behind the Lines” in 2014. Recent albums include chart-topping “Serpent & Fire” with Il Giardino Armonico, “Paradise Lost” with Julius Drake, “Bach: Redemption” with Lautten Compagney and “Celebration of Life in Death” with La Folia Barockorchester for Alpha Classics, and “György Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente” with Isabelle Faust for Harmonia Mundi. Last season also saw the release of her latest album “Maria Mater Meretrix” with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Camerata Bern for Alpha Classics.

Booklet for Wainwright: Dream Requiem