Un-Policed

Sting, when he was lead singer of the rock band The Police, had to be discreet about his love of classical music. "It was frowned upon, and that’s the whole ridiculous premise of rock 'n' roll becoming this Taliban-esque, closed thing. 'You can’t do that, you can’t do that.' What’s the spirit of rock 'n' roll except freedom," he wonders aloud to The New York Times' Dave Itzkoff:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/music/13sting.html?ref=music

The un-Policed Sting sings orchestrated versions of his songs (soon to be released on disc) tonight and tomorrow with the Royal Philharmonic at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. With his wife, Trudie Styler, Sting recently performed in "Twin Spirits," a theater piece on Robert and Clara Schumann.

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Rufus Wainwright, a second-generation pop singer-songwriter (son of Loudon Wainwright III and the late Kate McGarrigle), recently introduced his opera "Prima Donna" in Canada.

He recalls being introduced to the art form in his teenage: "[I]t was as if I was being poisoned, or virused or developing scales. My whole body was shifting, and by the end I knew that opera was my main squeeze. It became my religion and my language," Wainwright tells Marcia Adair in the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-ca-rufus-wainwright-20100711,0,4487567.story