Speaking of queer opera zealots, iTunes lovers will be interested to learn that pop icon Rufus Wainwright has put together an exclusive iTunes EP for anyone who might want to know where he gets his inspiration:

"… some of the more daunting tracks, the operatic, weird stuff, some heavy number that relate to my classical sensibilities."

The compilation features, among other things, Joan Sutherland's Greatest Hits recording of "Gualtier Mald?… Caro nome" from Rigoletto and Leontyne Price's take on "Absence" from Berlioz's Les nuits d'?t?. Wainwright also includes a short description for each track's inclusion. Of the Eurythmics' "Love Is a Stranger":

"This song ignited my childhood brain and hurled me into puberty."

Rufus Wainwright is an admitted opera queen, having written and recorded a tribute to opera's "Damned Ladies" for his eponymous debut album. He's also been known to perform selections from Verdi's La Traviata and Bizet's Les P?cheurs des Perles in live shows, sometimes invoking the ghost of Callas when he's about to execute a particularly difficult vocal passage. There are a few records of his obsession. Here he is singing "Vainement, ma bien-aim?e" (a tenor aria transposed for his baritone) from ?douard Lalo's rarity, Le Roi d'Ys:


? Download Rufus Wainwright - Vainement, ma bien-aim?e.
  MP3 [96 kbps] | 2.3 MB

Pretty durn charming, n'est-ce pas?