Available onlineGlimpses of his domestic life add an extra frisson to the singer-songwriter’s latest living room gig, which revisits his classic 2007 album
Stuffed brown bear, Persian rug, book about Maria Callas rammed on to a tight shelf – the venue is most definitely Rufus Wainwright’s
Los Angeles home. Wainwright is on acoustic guitar, softly crooning Not Ready to Love, a song from his 2007 album Release the Stars. His vibrato – far oakier now than when the song was written – coils itself sonorously around a handful of loaded words: “beast”, “surrender”, “murderer”.
The camera shot is, necessarily, tight – though not as cosy as it was during lockdown last spring, when the singer-songwriter and part-time opera composer sang daily in his Japanese dressing gown straight to cameraphone. These Robe Recitals began in late 2019 but came into their own during lockdown; Wainwright reprised them last December during another LA lockdown.