In 2009, When Singer-Songwriter Rufus Wainwright Premiered Prima

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In 2009, When Singer-Songwriter Rufus Wainwright Premiered Prima

Vanity Fair UK: ‘Trio Bravo’ by Derek Blasberg, May 2015 Rufus Wainwright, Cindy Sherman, and Francesco Vezzoli, photographed at Lillie’s Victorian Establishment in Times Square. Photograph by Pari Dukovic In 2009, when singer-songwriter Rufus “Of all postwar artists, she has explored hu- Wainwright premiered Prima Donna, an man identity in all its facets in the deepest appropriately melodramatic modern opera ways. I don’t have expecations. I have the about an aging soprano (think Maria Callas) excitement of the novelty,” Vezzoli says. on the eve of a comeback gig in Paris on And for her part, Sherman is excited to em- Bastille Day, he knew his biggest challenge body the role of a character that, for once, would be to keep the work in the public she didn’t conjure. “What made me want to consciousness. “It’s opera”, he deadpans. do it is the fear that the character is going “Those either last for 200 years or you through. She’s old now. Can she live up to never hear of them again.” So he turned to her audience’s expectations? I think it’ll free contemporary artist Francesco Vezzoli and me up to just let it all hang out.” Such talk Cindy Sherman to create a video installa- of divas makes one wonder if there could tion of the grand finale, which debuts in be too many cooks in this creative kitch- July at the Odeon of Herodes Alitucs, in the en. But Wainwright says he’s happy in the Acropolis, Athens. Vezzoli, best known for audience now: “I have already very much video works that satirize celebrity, was keen taken the position of the dead composer!” to direct Sherman, who has spent four dec- ades creating provocative conceptual self- ies in a whirlwind of solitary introspection. .

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