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Portland's Time-Based Art festival kicks off this year on Thursday with a performance by versatile musician Rufus Wainwright backed by the Oregon Symphony. This sort of elaborate show is nothing new for Wainwright. The 37-year-old singer/songwriter comes from a musical family and his accomplishments include six albums of original songs and a tribute concert to Judy Garland. His most recent project is an opera he wrote called "Prima Donna," which will be part of his performance on Thursday with Scottish singer Janis Kelly, another multi-faceted artist.
The Rose City is no stranger to blending classical music with other genres. As we've talked about on this show, Chamber Music Northwest has found success joining forces with bluegrass musicians. The Portland Cello Project has collaborated with a number of folk and rock musicians and have recently garnered attention outside of Oregon.
Are you a fan of Rufus Wainwright or the Oregon Symphony — or both? What intrigues you about musical collaborations? Are you a musician yourself? What have you learned from genres outside your own?
GUESTS:
- Rufus Wainwright: Singer/songwriter who will perform as part of the TBA festival
- Thomas Lauderdale: Band leader of Portland's Pink Martini
- Charles Calmer: Artistic administrator for the Oregon Symphony
Tagged as: classical · music · opera · pica
Photo credit: Brocco Lee / Creative Commons
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The upsetting thing about collaborations, is that they are necessary at all. For a collaboration to exist, it indicates that things are indeed separate, otherwise how could they be joined together. Collaborations rarely seem to be new, they are generally just a meeting of the old, or the new tolerating the old in a superficial make-nice display----that generally ends with the performance. They often come off like a postmodern gimmick, or like an endless litany of cover songs and self-conscious cheeky commentary.
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I disagree with the comment above-collaboration can be between a writer and an illustrator, say, can help us discover new layers of meaning in the work. Collaboration between a musician and libretticist (SP??) is the basis for most opera, musical theater etc. And collaboration, though sometimes not the original intent, can create something as brethataking as Rufus's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel No. 2...
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Thank you Rufus and Thomas for offering such an opportunity for Portland to grow musically! The likes of Rufus, Duncan Shiek and others give us an opportunity to live within the music through Opera. As a vocalist myslef, and a Mom for an Opera singer I'm So very Deliciously lushly pleased.... Again Gracious Thanks! Best,
Shannon Day
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Rufus, you have long been a favorite of mine, the journey of your albums and your recorded moments with Martha, your collaborations with other artist.... I teach dance and I find tremendous inspiration and body in your music, it crosses many formats from a lyrical to burlesque and always finds it's way into my classroom and performances.
A sincere thank you for the gifts you share with your fans and the international music community. I can't wait for tomorrow.
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As a pop musician, one of the problems I can see having with collaborating with an orchestra is that, like many musicians, I'm self-taught. The idea of translating ideas and compositions to orchestral scores may seem impossible or unfamiliar to many self-taught musicians.
Fortunately, I use computers to sequence and compose, the software will allow me to translate music into a normal musical sheet music. However, many musicians (guitarists using entablature or no written score at all, for example) would find the process of getting their music to sheet music unsurmountable. For that reason they may not often try to reach out to areas of music that require working from scores.
Looking forward to TBA!
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I take issue with Rufus' claim that he is "saving" classical music by bringing melody and tonality back to opera. I am a classical composer and have been writing songs and opera using melody and tonality for the last twenty years, as have many other well known composers--Steve Reich, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, and many more (people who rebelled against atonal, hyper-academic serialism of the 1950s--tonality and post-romanticism/minimalism have been around since then). His statement comes off as arrogant and poorly informed, despite his apparent good intentions.
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I saw Rufus's amazing show in Seattle two weeks ago and I was wondering if you could discuss the eyeball visualizations that were included in the first half. Great show! -Lindsey in Portland