Wainwright parts ways with Met over opera project

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has dropped plans to write an opera for theMetropolitan Opera after the New York opera company rejected his plan to write it in French.

The Montreal-raised Wainwright has written most of the libretto for Prima Donna in French and says the language fits too well with the music to change it at this point.

According to the the New York Times, Met manager Peter Gelb would have preferred a libretto in English.

"Presenting a new opera that is not in English at the Met when it could be in English is an immediate impediment to its potential success with audiences," he told the Times.

Wainwright was one of several pop and stage composers commissioned to write new works in English by the Met and the Lincoln Centre two years ago.

He and the Met also parted ways over the timing of the opera. The Met, which plans several years out, could not fit the work into its lineup until 2014.

"They work on that sort of scale. I wanted to get it out as soon as possible because I'm an impatient pop star," Wainwright told the New York Times.

However, he praised the Met for its support in the early stages of his project.

Wainwright says he is still working on Prima Donna and now has plans to premiere the work next July at the Manchester International Festival.

He initially planned to translate the work, about an aging Paris opera star in the 1970s, into English, but now says he will leave it in French.

Wainwright, the son of Canadian singer Kate McGarrigle and singer-actor Loudon Wainwright III, grew up in Montreal and began his career in that city's nightclub circuit.

He has been working on the libretto for Prima Donna as well as touring in support of his most recent album, Release the Stars.

The Met commissioned a total of 10 teams to write new operas at a cost of $2 million.

Among the teams is one comprising composer Michael Torke, writer Michael Korie and Canadian director Des McAnuff. McAnuff is artistic director at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Torke composedthe ballet An Italian Straw Hat and the choral work A Christmas Story and Korie earned a Tony nomination as lyricist for Grey Gardens.

Their production will be workshopped in the first half of 2009.