Williams/Rufus Wainwright, 3. Opera, Gender and Sexuality

Opera is a persistent and pervasive theme throughout Wainwright’s pop songs and western art music projects. Wainwright explicitly connects his discovery of opera with his emerging homosexuality in his teens. In Chapter 3, I draw on multiple methodologies to nuance this connection, considering perspectives from new musicology, literature and philosophy. Songs considered include ‘Damned Ladies’, ‘Barcelona’, ‘Going To A Town’, ‘Greek Song’ and ‘Vibrate’. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here.