All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu
All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu is the sixth studio album by Canadian- American singer- songwriter Rufus Wainwright. It was released in Germany on 12 April 2010 on Polydor Records.
The album contains three set to music by Wainwright Shakespearean sonnets and the final aria of his opera Prima Donna.
2012 published the sheet music for voice and piano of all twelve tracks on the album by Schott Music.
Genesis
Unlike Rufus Wainwright otherwise richly orchestrated and orchestrated albums, the songs on this album have a piano-only accompaniment, so that the whole album was recorded Wainwright alone.
The first part of the title, "All Days Are Nights", is a quote from Sonnet 43, one of three set to music Shakespeare sonnets on the album. Originally set to music Wainwright these sonnets alongside 22 others for a production by Robert Wilson at the Berliner Ensemble. "Songs for Lulu " refers to the role of Louise Brooks in silent film Pandora's Box of 1929 and the opera Lulu by Alban Berg. Wainwright said: "It's about this idea of a person who is so overwhelming that it destroys everything and everyone in its path. A mere blink of her is enough to bring entire buildings to collapse. "
This album was a work of mourning, with which he prepared himself for his mother's death for Wainwright. Kate McGarrigle died shortly before the album's release in January 2010 at the age of 63 years to cancer.
Live
All Days Are Nights was presented for the first time live in March 2010 at the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York. Among the handpicked guests were celebrities such as Susan Sarandon, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Lucy Liu and Lou Reed.
On the following tour Wainwright led the first part of the concert to the entire album as a song cycle and asked the audience during the performance to refrain from applause. The performance was accompanied by a video installation by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, in his made- eye was seen in slow motion.
Performance by other artists
The New York City Opera presented Who Are You New York: The Songs of Rufus Wainwright on November 17, 2011 for the season opener at Lincoln Center in New York City. Here the complete album of opera singers was performed. During the season 2011/2012 Wainwright's opera Prima Donna had at the NYCO U.S. premiere.
On 1 March 2012, the Canadian mezzo - soprano Wallis Giunta led the song cycle in the Jane Mallett Theatre on in Toronto.
Reception
The album was recorded mostly positive from the critics. Laut.de writes: " The great strength of this album lies in its coherence. None of the pieces comes to mind, all lined up beautifully in the consistently sophisticated song cycle. Rufus Wainwright may have composed it for cathartic overcome his anguish, he invites the listener on a so comforting, wonderful musical journey. "Rolling Stone called the album as" his hardest to loving far drive. " Plattentests.de cautions "All days are nights: songs for Lulu must be understood as a song cycle, such as Franz Schubert's" Winterreise ". In any case, the twelve pieces rather than art songs pop songs, classical music rather than pop music " JazzEcho concludes: ". All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu is a work of art that goes beyond the dimension of the CD. This album is not made for the transience of the market, but invites a reassessment of human creativity in a larger scale. In earlier times they had for this kind of work an unbeatable name: masterpiece "!
Title list
All pieces of Rufus Wainwright, unless otherwise noted.
Chart success
All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu reached number 13 of the Greek, # 21 of the UK and # 27 in the Norwegian album charts.