It must have been a year ago this week when I wrote a very similar Set The Video post, as this new episode of Alan Yentob’s arts show Imagine…is about the main event at the Manchester International Festival – just like last year. 12 months ago, the programme concentrated on Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s opera Monkey: Journey To The West, and once again it’s an opera written by a pop star that’s grabbing all the headlines.

Related: Set The Video – Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! Does Judy! Judy! Judy!

And this particular pop star is so interesting and unique that he would be worthy of a documentary even if he wasn’t premiering his own opera this week. First and foremost, Rufus Wainwright is such a talent that he has been hailed by Elton John no less as the greatest living singer-songwriter, but he is also known for being part of a wonderful, sprawling musical family.

His father is folk legend Loudon Wainwright III, his mother and aunty are, well, the folk legends Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and his sister is, you got it, folk legend Martha Wainwright. Even among this company, however, there is something just a little bit special about Rufus.

Rufus’s music has always hinted (rather heavily at times) at a love of opera – he cites ‘Papa Verdi’ as one of his influences on MySpace – and now he has taken that one step further, and written one himself. Thanks to his Canadian heritage, he has been able to write in opera-friendly French, and the show follows a day in the life of a diva, hence the name ‘Prima Donna’.

With all of this to talk about – plus a drug-addled past that culminated in Rufus going temporarily blind – this should be a fascinating and frank documentary.