Rufus Wainwright is a musical polymath who occupies a unique and beloved place in our musical lives as a singer, songwriter, and composer of two operas and a musical. His latest work, Dream Requiem, is an epic composition for orchestra, chorus, soprano, and narrator. It received its world premiere in June this year in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the chorus, and the children’s choir of Radio France, conducted by Mikko Franck, featuring Meryl Streep as the narrator and soprano Anna Prohaska. On January 17, 2025, Warner Classics will release the live recording from the premiere.
A co-commission by major cultural institutions in the US, UK, and Europe, Dream Requiem was written during the pandemic. In Wainwright’s own words, it is a requiem "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—a requiem for human contact, solidarity, and the human voice, all of which have become dangerous and contagious."
Dream Requiem is also a reflection on environmental collapse. Its text combines words from the Latin Mass for the Dead—as used by Verdi, Britten, Mozart, and many others—with Lord Byron's apocalyptic poem Darkness, an imagined dream about total planetary ecological collapse. Byron’s poem was inspired by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, which darkened the skies worldwide and led to the “year without a summer.”
Both texts are interwoven in the composition but treated distinctly different musically. Byron’s text is primarily narrated by an actor and underscored by dark orchestral arrangements, demonstrating the brutality and force of the apocalyptic images the poem conjures. The Latin Requiem text is sung by a large mixed choir, children’s choir, and soprano. Massive choral moments are interrupted by quieter soprano solo passages, highlighting the fragility of life and nature. Wainwright’s Dream Requiem ultimately transcends this desolation and tragedy, giving rise to hope and beauty through music.
Dream Requiem is dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi and Puccini. When Wainwright’s mother played him a recording of Verdi’s Requiem at the age of 13, he underwent one of the most transformative experiences of his life, revealing a clear artistic path for his future. The co-dedicatee, Puccini, is not the operatic composer but Wainwright’s beloved little dog, who was tragically killed during the pandemic in a violent encounter with a larger dog when he was only 18 weeks old.
“No matter what one’s spiritual leanings are, as an artist dealing with a strong and ancient sacred text revolving around death, you kinda have to go there. This, I humbly believe, happened while composing Dream Requiem. Be it turning 50 and my final earthly landscape beginning to form on the horizon, my latent Catholic upbringing—which, though not strict, was still incredibly impactful—or just the fact that this ain’t my first time at the rodeo, many strong forces converged in the composition of this piece, and not once was I lacking in a sense of direction.” —Rufus Wainwright
Over the next two years, Dream Requiem will be performed at major international venues, including Barcelona’s Palau de la Música in 2025, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Jane Fonda, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
Rufus Wainwright
Praised by The New York Times for his “genuine originality,” Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, songwriters, and composers of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer-songwriter has released 11 studio albums, three DVDs, and three live albums, including the Grammy-nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. He has collaborated with artists such as Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Miley Cyrus, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Carly Rae Jepsen, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, and producer Mark Ronson. He has written two operas, a musical, and numerous songs for movies and TV.
His latest GRAMMY®-nominated album, Folkocracy, reinvents folk duets with artists like Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, John Legend, and Anohni.
For more information on Rufus Wainwright, please visit: https://rufuswainwright.com/about/
Commissioners
Dream Requiem was commissioned by Radio France, The Royal Ballet London, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Palau de la Música Catalana/Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Helsinki Festival, and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
The recording was made possible by the generous support of Ina Fichman and Intuitive Pictures.
Dream Requiem Tour
Dream Requiem will be performed at major international venues from 2025 to 2027. Forthcoming dates in 2025 include:
- January 25: Barcelona, Palau de la Música
- May 4: LA Master Chorale, Walt Disney Concert Hall, with Jane Fonda
- June 20: Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with Carice van Houten
Other dates, including performances in Finland, Germany, Greece, and Ireland, will be announced later.
Track Listing:
Darkness I
Requiem aeternam
Lux perpetua
Kyrie eleison
Sequentia I: Dies irae
Darkness II
Sequentia II: Mors stupebit
Sequentia III: Rex tremendae
Sequentia IV: Ingemisco
Sequentia V: Confutatis
Darkness III
Offertorium
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Lux Aeterna
Darkness IV
In paradisum
Applause
Artists:
- Meryl Streep, narrator
- Anna Prohaska, soprano
- Nathan Mierdl (concertmaster), violin solo
- Marc Desmons (principal viola), viola solo
- Maîtrise de Radio France, chorusmaster Marie-Noëlle Maerten
- Chœur de Radio France, chorusmaster Guillemette Daboval
- Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
- Mikko Franck, conductor
