Wainwright opera leads line-up for MIF 2009

Published Friday 10 October 2008 at 13:15 by Alistair Smith

Manchester International Festival has unveiled its first three commissions for the 2009 event, including a new opera written by singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

Prima Donna will be the musician’s debut opera and will tell the story of a fading opera singer in Paris. It will be sung in French, performed by Opera North, directed by Daniel Kramer and conducted by Pierre-Andre Valade.

“Rufus Wainwright has an exceptional gift for melody and clearly has a deep affinity with opera. We’re delighted to be working with him as he moves into this new form,” said MIF director Alex Poots.

The work follows last year’s sell-out success with Damon Albarn’s first opera - Monkey: Journey to the West, which later transferred to the Royal Opera House and is soon to perform in a specially constructed tent alongside the O2.

Other commissions announced for the 2009 festival include Everybody Loves a Winner - for which the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre will become a bingo hall - and JS Bach/Zaha Hadid Architects, in which an exhibition space will be transformed into a chamber music hall where the composer’s solo works will be performed.

“These are the first of the twenty-plus commissions from leading artists that will premiere at next year’s festival,” added Poots. “A commissioning festival is inherently a risky endeavour - the warm reception the first festival [in 2007] received across the UK and internationally was remarkable. I hope we can build on that in 2009.”