Rufus Wainwright's Dream Requiem explores catastrophe

The historic Mount Tambora volcanic eruption spewed so much ash and debris that it triggered a “year without summer” and the apocalypse seemed nigh — an apt parallel to our own chaotic existence, says the eclectic musician Rufus Wainwright.

- MAGGY DONALDSON

The artist's ambitious modern-day requiem, which draws inspiration from the 19th-century catastrophe as well as the Requiem Mass, will premiere stateside on Sunday in Los Angeles, with narration by the actor and activist Jane Fonda.

The Canadian-American Wainwright composed Dream Requiem as the globe was picking up the pieces after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and turned to Lord Byron’s poem Darkness which is centred on the fear and disarray that followed the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption.

The artist, best known for his distinct theatrical pop, has focused more on opera in recent years and said the poem is all the more prescient given the looming threat of climate cataclysm, as well as our tumultuous contemporary politics.