MY SPLENDID ISOLATION
The musician and composer is indulging in Angelenos’ favourite hobby – watching TV – and listening to Prince
What I’m watching
There’s an eerie quality in lockdown LA. With that California mirage in Hollywood, you can pretend for hours that everything’s fine. It’s always sunny, we have a lovely garden, there’s never a lot of people on the streets anyway, and everyone spends a lot of time watching television because it’s the local industry. In many ways, it’s like being in LA on steroids. My husband, Jörn, and I have devoured Tiger King (on Netflix) and just recently finished a great series called The Act with Patricia Arquette. We’ve started Unorthodox, which is about a woman’s journey out of the Hasidic faith. But we’d have watched all those anyway. It’s easy to hibernate in LA.
What I’m listening to
Around the World in a Day by Prince, which reminded me of my childhood and simpler times. I fluctuate between up-tempo, fun things and dark, heavy classical pieces like Mahler’s 7th or 2nd symphonies. I was never very familiar with John
John Prine’s music is a great discovery in bad circumstances
Prine’s music, maybe because I grew up with so many singer-songwriters around – my parents and friends of theirs – that I gravitated towards opera. But with John in the news battling the virus that sadly took his life, I started listening to him. It’s wonderful, absorbing material, a great find in bad circumstances. Then, of course, there’s Bob Dylan’s 17-minute JFK song, Murder Most Foul, which I dutifully did my homework with.
What I’m reading
Jörn and I have developed a real passion for an Austrian writer, Stefan Zweig. He was Jewish and left Austria after Hitler’s rise to power, then committed suicide in 1942 in South America. But he left behind some great novels and two very brilliant biographies of queens, one being Marie Antoinette ( Portrait of an Average Woman) and the other Mary Queen of Scots
( Maria Stuart) and we are reading them in turn. History reminds us the world was always crazy.
What I can’t wait to do when this is all over
Being at our home in France, kissing people on the cheek, and being dreadfully European again.
At 8.15pm tonight, Rufus Wainwright launches the #Royalalberthome programme with free streaming of a session from his home: go to royalalberthall.com/rahome.
Rufus Wainwright’s new album, ‘Unfollow the Rules’, is out on July 10, and he is also broadcasting daily recitals via Instagram IGTV #Roberecitals