All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu

All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu
Rufus Wainwright's studio album
Publication (s)	April 12, 2010
admission	2009
Label (s)	Polydor Records , Decca Records
Genre (s)	pop
Title (number)	12
running time	47:48
production	Rufus Wainwright, Pierre Marchand
chronology Milwaukee at Last !!! (2009) All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu Out of the Game (2012)

All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu is the sixth studio album by the Canadian-US singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright . It was released in Germany on April 12, 2010 on Polydor Records .

The album contains three Shakespeare sonnets set to music by Wainwright and the final aria of his opera Prima Donna .

In 2012 the sheet music for voice and piano for all twelve pieces on the album was published by Schott Music .

History of origin

Rufus Wainwright in 2010

In contrast to Rufus Wainwright's otherwise richly orchestrated and orchestrated albums, the songs on this album have a pure piano accompaniment, so that the entire album was recorded by Wainwright alone.

The first part of the title, "All Days Are Nights", is a quote from Sonnet 43 , one of the three Shakespeare sonnets on the album. Wainwright originally set these sonnets and 22 others to music for a production by Robert Wilson at the Berliner Ensemble . "Songs for Lulu" refers to the role of Louise Brooks in the silent film Pandora's Box from 1929 and to the opera Lulu by Alban Berg . Wainwright explains, “It's about this idea of ​​someone who is so stunning that they destroy everything and everyone on their path. A mere blink of an eye from her is enough to bring entire buildings to collapse. "

This album was a grief work for Wainwright as he prepared for his mother's death. Kate McGarrigle died of cancer shortly before the album was released in January 2010 at the age of 63.

live

All Days Are Nights was presented live for the first time in March 2010 in the Rose Bar of New York's Gramercy Park Hotel. Among the hand-picked guests were celebrities such as Susan Sarandon , Drew Barrymore , Scarlett Johansson , Lucy Liu and Lou Reed .

On the following tour, Wainwright performed the entire album as a song cycle as the first part of the concerts and asked the audience not to applaud during the performance. The performance was accompanied by a video installation by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon , in which his make-up eye could be seen in slow motion.

Performed by other artists

The New York City Opera presented Who Are You New York ?: The Songs of Rufus Wainwright on 17 November 2011 for the season opener at Lincoln Center in New York City. The entire album was performed by opera singers. Wainwright's opera Prima Donna premiered at NYCO during the 2011/2012 season.

On March 1, 2012, the Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta performed the song cycle at the Jane Mallett Theater in Toronto.

At a joint concert with Wainwright at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten on March 9, 2014, soprano Janis Kelly sang the song cycle after Angelika Kirchschlager had to cancel her performance. Kelly had already sung the lead role in Wainwright's opera Prima Donna . Angelika Kirchschlager finally sang the song cycle on June 14, 2015 at a joint concert with Wainwright as part of the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival .

reception

The album was received mostly positively by the critics. Laut.de writes: “The great strength of this album lies in its coherence. None of the pieces are obtrusive, they all fit perfectly into the consistently sophisticated song cycle. Rufus Wainwright may have composed it to overcome his anguish in a Carthatic manner, and he invites the listener on a comforting, wonderful musical journey. " Rolling Stone describes the album as" by far his hardest record to love. " Plattentests.de points out : “ All days are nights: Songs for Lulu must be understood as a song cycle, like Franz Schubert's ' Winterreise '. In any case, the twelve pieces are more art songs than pop songs, more serious music than light music. ”Jazzecho concludes:“ All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu is a work of art that goes beyond the dimensions of the CD. This album is not made for the transience of the market, but invites you to reevaluate human creativity on a larger scale. In earlier times this type of work had an unbeatable name: masterpiece! "

Track list

All pieces by Rufus Wainwright unless otherwise noted.

1. "Who Are You New York?" - 3:42
2. "Sad with What I Have" - ​​3:06
3. "Martha" - 3:12
4. "Give Me What I Want and Give It to Me Now!" - 2:08
5. "True Loves" - 3:52
6. "Sonnet 43" ( William Shakespeare , Wainwright) - 4:28
7. "Sonnet 20" (Shakespeare, Wainwright) - 2:59
8. "Sonnet 10" (Shakespeare, Wainwright) - 2:56
9. "The Dream" - 5:27
10. “What Would I Ever Do with a Rose?” - 4:23
11. "Les feux d'artifice t'appellent" (Wainwright, Bernadette Colomine) - 5:57
12. "Zebulon" - 5:38

Chart successes

All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu reached number 13 in the Greek album charts, number 21 in the UK and number 27 in the Norwegian album charts.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Songs For Lulu Sheet Music Now Available ( Memento from April 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
2. ↑ Shakespeare's sonnets ( Memento from November 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ http://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.rufus-wainwright-wuenschte-waere-lulu-gewesen.22f34bdc-3656-4d46-912b-d9b51e0841c7.html
4. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.de/news/mektiven/article63116/rufus-wainwright-ueber-all-days-are-nights-songs-for-lulu-eine-trauerarbeit.html
5. ↑ The piano as a cocoon ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
6. ↑ http://www.tagblatt.de/Home/nachrichten/kultur/soundcheck/soundcheck-live-check_artikel,-Songwriter-Rufus-Wainwright-auf-Deutschlandtour-_arid,101238.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/how-operatic-rufus-wainwright-in-london/
8. ↑ Addition of Fall Concert to Season - Songs of Rufus Wainwright at the Rose Theater ( Memento from May 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ http://music.cbc.ca/#/concerts/Wallis-Giunta---All-Days-Are-Nights-Songs-for-Lulu-2012-03-01
10. ↑ Rufus Wainwright & Janis Kelly ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ http://www.schlossfestspiele.de/de/veranstaltungen/angelika_kirchschlager_rufus_wainwright.htm
12. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/music/all-days-are-nights-songs-for-lulu/rufus-wainwright/critic-reviews
13. ↑ http://www.laut.de/Rufus-Wainwright/All-Days-Are-Nights:-Songs-For-Lulu-(Album)
14. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.de/reviews/alben/article63098/rufus-wainwright-all-days-are-night-songs-for-lulu.html
15. ↑ http://www.plattentests.de/rezi.php?show=7510
16. ↑ http://www.jazzecho.de/aktuell/uebersicht/news/article:95965/rufus-wainwright--all-days-are-nights--songs-for-lulu-
17. ↑ All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu (album). Greekcharts.com, archived from the original on September 29, 2012 ; Retrieved October 17, 2014 . 
18. ↑ http://chartarchive.org/a/rufus+wainwright
19. ↑ http://norwegiancharts.com/search.asp?cat=a&search=Rufus+Wainwright