Affectionately referred to by Elton John as “the greatest songwriter on the planet” and praised by The New York Times for his "genuine originality," Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists and songwriters of his generation. He is the son of folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and brother of Martha Wainwright but Rufus has achieved his success by carving out his own singular sound in the worlds of rock, opera, theater, dance and film.

Wainwright’s much acclaimed first opera, titled “Prima Donna,"  premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009. The opera will make its London debut at Sadler’s Wells in April 2010, and its North American debut in Toronto at the Luminato Festival in June 2010. The New York Times said, "There are inspired touches and disarmingly beautiful passages in this mysterious, stylistically eclectic work in Rufus Wainwright's first opera...” The London Times declared, "...the Canadian singer-songwriter hasn’t just written an opera. He’s written a love song to opera, soaked in the perennial operatic themes of loss, betrayal, delusion and nostalgia, and saturated in the musical styles of opera’s golden age."