Pitchfork

When it comes to Christmas extravaganzas in New York City, you'd be hard pressed to match the fabulousness of the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. But Rufus Wainwright is going to try. On December 13 at Carnegie Hall, Rufus and his sister Martha will host "The Wainwright Family & Friends Christmas", a concert "celebrat[ing] the spirit of the holidays and family camaraderie" according to a press release. It's the sequel to last winter's "The McGarrigle Christmas Hour", hosted by the Wainwright siblings along with their mother Kate McGarrigle and aunt Anna McGarrigle.

"It's an off-the-cuff evening of friends and family kind of popping on and off stage as if the stage was our living room," Rufus said in an interview with Pitchfork late last week. "There will be many amazing guests like Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Antony, David Byrne, Linda Thompson, and Teddy Thompson. Sort of an old fashion Christmas sing-along, but with, you know, Carnegie Hall."

"I like the idea of people singing to each other in the privacy of their homes. I think it should happen more often. So that's what I want to recreate...We are all going to be up there pretending to be WASPs, having eggnog. Maybe we will get a black lab on stage or something. Or a golden retriever."

Will they be wearing ugly Christmas sweaters? "Perhaps. Either that or a loud tie. A tie that you never wear that your aunt gave you."

But getting into the Christmas spirit isn't the only thing occupying Rufus Wainwright right now. In June, he recreated Judy Garland's legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall performance in its entirety, generating rave reviews. The concert will be released on CD this coming fall, and Rufus will bring the show to London and Paris in January and February. He hopes to perform it at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles sometime this year as well.

Wainwright is also busy working on his next album, tentatively titled Release the Stars. "I'm going to mix it in January and release it in the spring," he said. "I originally wanted it to be kind of bare, stripped down, and intimate. And it kind of became more dramatic. It's kind of huge, actually. It's kind of operatic. I produced it myself, so I went all-out a little bit."

Wainwright said that Joan Wasser (Joan as Police Woman) guests on the album, as does British actress Sian Phillips.

Finally, once the Christmas show, the Judy Garland concerts, and the new album are finished, Wainwright will begin working on an opera which he has been commissioned to write for New York's Metropolitan Opera. Classy!

Rufus Wainwright dates:

12-13 New York, NY - Carnegie Hall (The Wainwright Family & Friends Celebrate Christmas)
01-26 Ann Arbor, MI - Hill Auditorium (Ann Arbor Folk Festival)
02-18 London, England - Palladium (Judy Garland concert)
02-20 Paris, France - L'Olympia (Judy Garland concert)
02-25 London, England - Palladium (Judy Garland concert)