World Premiere Recording of Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem – Out 17th January 2025

with Meryl Streep as Narrator

First Single Sequentia V: Confutatis – Out Today

Rufus Wainwright is a musical polymath who occupies a unique and beloved place in our musical lives – singer, songwriter and composer of two operas and a musical.

His latest work, Dream Requiem, is an epic work for orchestra, chorus, soprano and narrator. It received its world premiere in June this year in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the chorus and children’s choir of Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck with Meryl Streep as the narrator and soprano Anna Prohaska.

On 17th January 2025, Warner Classics will release the live recording from the premiere on digital, CD and vinyl.. The first single, Sequentia V: Confutatis, is released today.

A co-commission from major cultural institutions in the US, UK and Europe, Dream Requiem was written during the pandemic and in Wainwright’s own words it’s 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 that have all become dangerous and contagious.”

Dream Requiem is also a reflection on environmental collapse with its text combining 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 written after the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1915 that darkened the skies worldwide and led to the “year without a summer.”

Both texts are interwoven in the composition but treated in a distinctly different manner musically. Byron’s text is mostly narrated by an actor and is underscored by dark orchestral arrangements demonstrating the brutality and sheer force of the apocalyptic images that 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 to underline the fragility of life and nature. Wainwright’s Dream Requiem ultimately overcomes this desolation and tragedy, giving rise to hope and beauty through the music.

Dream Requiem is dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi and Puccini. When his mother played him a recording of Verdi’s Requiem when he was 13, Wainwright underwent one of the most transformative experiences of his life, showing him a clear artistic path for his future.

The co-dedicatee, Puccini, isn’t the great operatic composer but Wainwright’s beloved little dog who was killed during the pandemic in a violent encounter with a larger dog when he was only 18 weeks old.

Rufus says; “No matter what one’s [spiritual] leanings are, as an artist when 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.”

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 eleven studio albums to date, 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, among many others. He has written two operas, a musical and numerous songs for movies and TV.

His latest GRAMMY® nominated album Folkacracy reinvents folk duets with artists like Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, John Legend and Anohni and many more.

Over the next two years, Dream Requiem will be performed at major international venues including in 2025 Barcelona’s Palau de la Musica, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Jane Fonda, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Dream Requiem Tour Dates
Jan 25th Barcelona/Palau de la Musica
May 4th LA Master Chorale Walt Disney Concert Hall, with Jane Fonda
Jun 20th Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with Carice van Houten

Other dates to be announced in 2025 including major venues in Finland, Germany, Greece and Ireland.

Dream Requiem Track Listing:

  1. Darkness I 
  2. Requiem aeternam 
  3. Lux perpetua 
  4. Kyrie, eleison 
  5. Sequentia I: Dies irae 
  6. Darkness II
  7. Sequentia II: Mors stupebit 
  8. Sequentia III: Rex tremendae 
  9. Sequentia IV: Ingemisco 
  10. Sequentia V: Confutatis 
  11. Darkness III 
  12. Offertorium 
  13. Sanctus 
  14. Agnus Dei 
  15. Lux Aeterna 
  16. Darkness IV
  17. In paradisum 
  18. 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

Choeur de Radio Francem, chorusmaster Guillemette Daboval

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Mikko Franck, conductor