RUFUS WAINWRIGHT'S HADRIAN OPERA TO BE PREVIEWED IN CINCINNATI

THE new opera by Rufus Wainright about Hadrian and Antinous will be workshopped in Cincinnati Ohio in December 2017 ahead of its worldwide premiere in Toronto.

The opera ... simply titled HADRIAN ... with a libretto by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor will have its world premiere as the opening production of Toronto's Canadian Opera Company's 2018 season.

Wainwright and MacIvor have been selected to be in Cincinnati as part of the Opera Fusion: New Works program, a collaboration between the Cincinnati Opera and University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music's Opera Department.

Dates have not yet been set and could change, but an Opera spokesperson said it is looking at December. Both Cincinnati Opera's Marcus Küchle and CCM’s Robin Guarino confirmed the general details.

The workshop sessions for the opera-in-progress are private, but there are plans for a public presentation of selections, with Wainwright and MacIvor present for discussion. CCM’s Robin Guarino will be directing the workshop presentations.

The opera, which the Canadian company commissioned in 2013, tells the story of the Roman emperor Hadrian and his profound grief following the death of his lover Antinous. 

According to an interview with Wainwright, he envisions this being produced on a grand scale. Wainwright's previous opera, "Prima Donna," debuted in 2009.

"What's interesting about the story of Hadrian is he was actually in love with Antinous, who was another man," Wainwright says in the interview with PRI radio. 

"And he was persecuted for it. A lot of the same problems that exist today with homophobia and so forth were very much present back then," he adds.

Wainwright is the gifted Canadian singer/songwriter/musical man about the world who has forged a unique career in mainstream contemporary music as an original, quirky, thinking person's pop star. And he's not new to the world of opera.

"Prima Donna," his 2009 debut, which told the story of an aging opera singer attempting to make a comeback, has been presented in Manchester, London, New York, Toronto and around the globe, to reviews that roamed from the enthusiastic ("a love song to opera," wrote The Times of London) to the outraged (The New York Times called it "an ultimately mystifying failure") – the quality of reaction being determined, more or less, by the closeness of the reviewer to the world of classical music.

Wainwright started talking about Hadrian around the time he was serenading his mother with the opera's overture in early 2010.

As his mother, Kate McGarrigle, faced her final days in January, 2010, Wainwright played his latest composition for her at the family piano ... the overture to his new opera about Antinous and Hadrian.

What attracted him to Hadrian was the power of the story Wainwright wanted to tell. 

Certainly the story of the Emperor Hadrian has plenty to offer contemporary audiences. Quixotic, domineering and visionary, Hadrian represented the end of the Classical era in Roman history, a fascinating period when the influence of Greek ideas began to predominate in Roman society, changing its political landscape in significant ways.

Wainwright adds, "And then there's Antinous, essentially the male equivalent to Helen of Troy - though we know he actually existed and exactly what he looked like. At one point he was neck and neck with Christ in terms of cult status after disappearing in the Nile. Imagine what a different world that would have been if he had lived!"