Musician and composer Rufus Wainwright will bring his second opera to the Peralada festival, Hadrian, the homosexual love story between the Roman emperor Hadrian and his young lover with a stage proposal by Jörn Weisbrodt inspired by the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It will be on July 29, at the premiere of the opera in Catalonia after its passage, two days before, by the Teatro Real in Madrid. This is what Wainwright himself explained this Friday in Barcelona with Jörn Weisbrodt and the director of the Peralada Festival, Oriol Aguilà, while defending that Hadrian search “Creating a connection to unite opera with contemporary audiences.”
Wainwright explains that it is a deep, complex and mature contemporary opera with libretto by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor and that in four acts narrates the last day of the Roman emperor’s life, a “controversial and contemporary in many ways” character who ruled between 117 and 138 AD.
With this project the singer wants to return to the classics in the same way as he believes that Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), remembered for his obsession with ancient Greece and nude portraits, also wanted to claim them “to save the beauty in the face of the destruction of AIDS ”in the 1980s.
For him, it is opportune that his work conveys this desire to seek beauty now “which is being a hard year for Europe” by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and to propose this piece at the Peralada festival highlights the importance of culture and peace.
For his part, Weisbrodt emphasizes that the stage proposal presents a “visual poem” and a narrative constructed from the projections of 300 Mapplethorpe images through which the viewer will perceive the tensions and torments of the different characters and the drama of the plot.
For him, Hadrian condenses “the richness of opera and epic love stories” with a cast led by Thomas Hampson, Ainhoa Arteta, Xabier Anduaga, Rubén Amoretti and Vanessa Goikoetxea in the lead roles, which will be accompanied by the Choir and Orchestra Holders of the Teatro Real in Madrid and with Scott Dunn on the podium.
On his second foray into opera, Wainwright defines musical composition as “darker and more powerful” than Prima Donna, his lyrical debut. He also confirmed that he wants to make a third opera piece, but that he has just written a musical play and that he is also working on a “classic piece” without going into further detail.
Coinciding with the opera, the Palau Robert in Barcelona is hosting the exhibition until April 29 Flowers and peoplewhich includes photographs from Mapplethorpe that establish a visual dialogue with Wainwright’s opera, and is curated by Weisbrodt himself.