Rufus Wainwright's latest release, September's Want One, was conceived as a double album. Instead, per the singer's bargain with his record label, the work was broken into two volumes. Want Two is finished, and Wainwright hopes to get it to listeners by fall.

"My personal goal is to have it out before the presidential election," Wainwright says. "Want One very much deals with my own personal battles, whereas Want Two turns around and tries to tackle some of the earthly troubles that we're in right now. And I'd hate for the Democrats to win the election," he adds with a boisterous laugh, "and then have that sound weird."

Wainwright describes Want Two as an ambitious affair. "It's a bit darker, a little more operatic," he says. Wainwright has been playing several of the album's tracks, including "Little Sister" and "Gay Messiah," on his current tour.

Wainwright has always been colorful and up front about his sexuality, but -- with The Passion of the Christ and gay marriage dominating the headlines -- is the world really ready for the unleashing of the gay messiah?

"I don't know," he says, laughing. "I'm just taking orders from heaven. So, it's really out of my hands."

Since he finished Want Two, Wainwright has been working on new material, some of which he may try to squeeze on the album. "I'd love a huge tootsy radio hit," he says. "So, I'm aiming to have that radio bomb on the record. I'm just trying to cover every single damn base."

Aside from recording and touring, Wainwright has been busy with a new venture: acting. He has a small role in Martin Scorsese's upcoming film, The Aviator, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes and Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn.

"I'm sort of like a Bing Crosby-esque kind of nightclub singer," Wainwright says. "I'm in the background."

Wainwright, an unabashed opera fan, has mixed the genre with pop throughout his career, beginning with his 1998 self-titled record. Fans wonder when he will write his first great opera.

"I'm cornering the market," Wainwright quips. "And soon will devour it. But that's a slow and arduous process that I wouldn't hold your breath for anytime soon."

Rufus Wainwright tour dates:

2/27: Las Vegas, The Joint
2/28: Ventura, CA, Majestic Theater
2/29: San Diego, 4th & B Theater
3/1: Anaheim, CA, House of Blues
3/4: Los Angeles, UCLA Royce Hall
3/5-6: San Francisco, The Fillmore
3/7: Sacramento, Harlow's Night Club
3/9: Tempe, AZ, Club Rio
3/11: Houston, Verizon Wireless Theater
3/12: Austin, La Zona Rosa

BRIAN ORLOFF
(February 26, 2004)