Having produced a note-for-note reconstruction of Judy Garland's Carnegie Hall concert, writing an opera was clearly next on Rufus Wainwright's to-do list. Prima Donna was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, and controversially cancelled when Wainwright refused to relinquish the concept of writing it in French. New York's loss is the northwest's gain as the Manchester International festival, in association with Opera North, presents the operatic debut of the man Elton John calls "the greatest songwriter on the planet".
The first thing to point out is that this is no mere rock star's vanity project, though few stars are quite as vain as Wainwright, who swans to his seat in the stalls sporting a top hat and silver-topped cane, having apparently decided that the best way to announce himself as an opera composer is to grow a beard and dress up as Verdi.
The score itself comes clothed as Strauss, Massenet and Puccini; Wainwright would seem to be on a mission to drag opera back into the late 19th century. But his gift as a melodist and an orchestrator are in no doubt, having been proved on a series of albums which are mini-operas in their own right.
Set in France on Bastille Day 1970, the opera features a celebrated, retired soprano, Regine Saint Laurent, as she prepares to make a much-anticipated return to the stage. The libretto, co-written with Bernadette Colomine, is not the piece's strongest suit, and features the line, "It's like being in an opera", which is shorthand for: "Anything preposterous might happen."
Yet it is in rising to the challenge of the supremely preposterous that director Daniel Kramer succeeds. In Antony McDonald's breathtaking design, Regine's apartment becomes a sensational, animatronic show-home with purple, leopard-print sofas and a team of factotums dressed up as if about to go out and do battle with Batman.
Janis Kelly gives a regal performance as Regine, richly sung though dramatically circumscribed by the dictates of playing a generic, reclusive diva. As her maid and confidante Marie, Rebecca Bottone is sprightly, while Jonathan Summers does a towering comic turn as the overassiduous butler Phiippe. Only William Joyner falls foul of Wainwright's slight naivety as an opera composer, having been handed a punitively high-lying role. With his vast range, Wainwright himself probably sings it with ease, though he'll have to accept that most tenors only go as far as C without recourse to an operation.
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