
JACQUELINE
Music by Luna Pearl Woolf
Libretto by Royce Vavrek
Dramaturgy and Direction by Michael Hidetoshi Mori
A Tapestry Opera production.
Content warning: Depiction of severe illness, loss of mobility and implication of death, coarse language.
Photo by Dahlia Katz
FROM TAPESTRY OPERA
Welcome to Jacqueline If it’s your first time at a Tapestry show, welcome. If you know us well, welcome back! Either way, we’re so glad you’re here.
Composer’s Note
– Luna Pearl Woolf
Librettist’s Note
– Royce Vavrek
Director’s Note
“Playing lifts you out of yourself into a delirious place.”
– Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline is invested in a real-life, truly operatic struggle between world famous virtuoso cellist Jacqueline du Pré (1945-1987) and the multiple sclerosis that ravaged her body, mind, and talent, robbing her of her identity, her breathtaking musical gift, and ultimately her life, striking at the height of her meteoric rise to the best concert halls of the world.
It was incredibly appropriate and fascinating to work with two contemporary virtuosi in telling this story: celebrated soprano Marnie Breckenridge as Jacqueline, and renowned cellist (and former protégé of Jacqueline du Pré) Matt Haimovitz playing du Pré’s only constant companion, her cello, in his dramatic debut.
Luna and Royce’s creation composition is partly inspired by the structure and emotional landscape of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, one of Jacqueline du Pré’s most famous repertoire, using the concerto’s four-movement structure to navigate her passionate, if all too short, life in music. Jacqueline also references Haimovitz’s personal recollections of du Pré herself, having spent time as a young prodigy under her wing.
The fragmented nature of the poetic libretto and score inspired this production to frame everything we see from the point of view of Jacqueline in her final days. Her mind was keen long after her body had begun to fail, and these scattered scenes become a fantasy of her obsessing about her youth, music-making, love and stardom. In the first two movements, the set design of the concert hall is the perfect backdrop for her life, as is the partial destruction of it the perfect backdrop for her later reality. In the third and fourth movement, we see the nature of her trapped obsessions and losses revealed.
I began working on Jacqueline when I was around the same age as her when she was 10-years into her illness, and now I have just passed how old she was when she died. Talking to those who had the privilege to know her and see her perform, she was a truly exceptional performer and human combined, one-of-a-kind with reverberations still influencing musicians and listeners 60 years later, despite having been an active professional for only 10 years or so. She was incredibly human, lonely, curious, devoted, heartbroken… invested in the music, not the stardom. In the end what we have to be inspired by is her music, alive with the joy and natural talent of her brief time playing cello.
– Michael Hidetoshi Mori
ABOUT THE SHOW
“Playing lifts you out of yourself into a delirious place.”
Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline dives into the real-life struggle between world-famous virtuoso cellist Jacqueline du Pré and the multiple sclerosis that ravaged her body, mind, and talent, robbing her of her identity, her breathtaking musical gift, and ultimately, her life.
This intimate piece for soprano and cello brings two contemporary virtuosi to the stage: celebrated American soprano Marnie Breckenridge as Jacqueline and renowned cellist (and former protégé of Jacqueline du Pré) Matt Haimovitz playing du Pré’s only constant companion, her cello.
Inspired by the structure and emotional landscape of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, composer Luna Pearl Woolf and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek chart the development of great virtuosity and tragedy. Jacqueline references Haimovitz’s recollections of du Pré, having spent time as a young prodigy under her wing. The form of the work is inspired by du Pré’s iconic interpretation of the Elgar, using the concerto’s four-movement structure to navigate a prismatic and passionate, if all too short, life in music.
JACQUELINE DU PRÉ
“The greatest thing is, at any moment, to be willing to give up who we are in order to
become all that we can be.” – Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline du Pré was born in Oxford in 1945. She received her first cello at age 5, and by age 11, she earned an acclaimed scholarship that exposed her to some of the most outstanding music teachers available. Her life revolved around the cello, and she was one in the rare group of musicians with both a flawless technique and an innate capacity to be passionately expressive. At 15, she was the youngest person to be awarded the Queen’s Prize, and by age 18, she was already a soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 1965, du Pré made her definitive recording of the Elgar concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, which was considered so perfect that other renowned cellists stopped playing it.
Jacqueline du Pré met her future husband, celebrated composer and pianist Daniel Barenboim, at a party in London in 1966. Originally born in Argentina to Argentinian-Jewish parents, Barenboim moved to Israel at 10, two years after his first recital as a pianist.
Within a year of their meeting, du Pré and Barenboim travelled to Israel to show solidarity in the weeks before the Six-Day War. The young couple stayed in Israel for the duration of the conflict, performing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Du Pré and Barenboim then decided to marry spontaneously before leaving Jerusalem. Du Pré, who had expressed interest in converting to Judaism but had not yet begun the conversion process, participated in a whirlwind overnight conversion in which she took on the Hebrew name Shulamit. The ceremony took place in a house overlooking the newly liberated Old City of Jerusalem, and the reception was attended by friends, musicians, and the former Prime Minister of Israel.
In 1968, Jacqueline began experiencing numbness in her fingers, which her doctor misdiagnosed as exhaustion. Four years later, at 28 years old, she was finally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and the numbness in her fingers had become so extreme that she could no longer play. Jacqueline du Pré succumbed to her disease in 1987 at the age of 42.
SHOW HISTORY
THE CHILD PRODIGY
Matt Haimovitz began studying the cello at age 7, after his family relocated from Israel to California. Like Jacqueline du Pré, he showed a ferocious talent for the instrument at an early age. When Haimovitz was 12, he was noticed by Itzhak Perlman at a master class in Santa Barbara. Perlman quickly began mentoring Haimovitz, and it was through Perlman that many of Haimovitz’s career key points were initiated. “I was essentially adopted by the Perlman family,” Haimovitz recalls.
Perlman introduced Haimovitz to cellist Leonard Rose, and Haimovitz’s family moved to New York so that he could study with Rose at Julliard. Perlman also introduced Haimovitz to Zubin Mehta, the musical director of the New York Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic. Through this relationship, Haimovitz began his professional career playing with orchestras and as a soloist. He was 13 years old.
On Passover Seder evening in New York that same year, Perlman called Haimovitz and asked him to come to his house. Pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim was Perlman’s guest and wanted to play some chamber music. Haimovitz took the bus to Perlman’s home, where he met Jacqueline du Pré’s husband, and they played a Brahms E minor sonata.
“I didn’t realize what an important moment that was for Daniel because that was the first time he had really played with another cellist since Jackie,” says Haimovitz. “He had been incredibly loyal and faithful to her, in that sense, not wanting to play with anyone else.” After playing together, Barenboim was so moved he lifted the 13-year-old cellist and hugged him. Over the next year, Haimovitz spent time with Barenboim and du Pré, eventually having his London debut conducted by Barenboim.
“Jacqueline was unbelievably generous,” Haimovitz remembers. It was a challenging time for both Barenboim and du Pré as they came to terms with du Pré’s musical and physical life coming to a tragic end. Yet for them, Haimovitz created a bridge that allowed Barenboim to rebuild his complex relationship with the cello. In London, Haimovitz spent the week with du Pré, as Barenboim wanted her to meet Haimovitz before they played together. Du Pré was very sick then, and Haimovitz fed and played for her. “Jackie was one of my idols,” Haimovitz explains. “Daniel wanted me to spend time with her.”
Haimovitz describes du Pré’s understanding of cello as visceral, organic, and natural. Du Pré attended Haimovitz’s London debut and every London performance he had from that point forward until she finally passed away when Haimovitz was 17. “We were very close,” Haimovitz adds thoughtfully.
THE CONCEPT
For composer Luna Pearl Woolf, Haimovitz’s account of his relationship with du Pré sparked the idea for the opera Jacqueline. Close collaborators for decades, Woolf has written numerous works for Haimovitz, who has performed her work all over the world. In February 2016, she heard Marnie Breckenridge and Matt Haimovitz perform together on her piece, Rumi: Quatrains of Love for Soprano, cello, and Piano, and the idea of an operatic work for the two of them began to form.
“Marnie’s deep sense of joy in music making and her exuberant beauty reminded me of du Pré,” Woolf explains, “along with the heart-wrenching voice of Matt’s cello, and his connection to that world where Jacqueline inhabited, and their electric musical chemistry together… I felt that the two of them could make this story come alive, and that really excited me.”
At an OPERA America conference in 2014, Woolf introduced herself to Breckenridge and began collaborating on several projects. When Woolf pitched the idea for the opera, they both thought librettist Royce Vavrek would be the perfect voice for Jacqueline. Vavrek adds, “It just seemed like a confluence of just really amazing fate that we would come together and create this dynamic portrait of Jacqueline and her virtuosity.”
Director Michael Hidetoshi Mori and several other opera producers were invited to Tippet Rise, an art centre in Montana, to hear the excerpts of Jacqueline, which Woolf and Vavrek had written to date. Mori was immediately intrigued. “Unlike many biographies, du Pré’s true story is one that was operatic in nature, dramatic at many stages, and tragic in the end. Our journey with this opera is to explore the heart and mind of Jacqueline as her identity is put into question.” Mori concludes, “In interpreting du Pré, we endeavour to understand and explore rather than to imitate someone who was one-of-a-generation.”
THE OPERA
In the opera, the story of Jacqueline falls into four movements – a nod to the structure of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, the work most closely associated with du Pré’s passionate performances and recordings. Within each movement, we are catapulted across time and travel between the public-facing Jacqueline, travelling the world at the height of her powers, and her inner struggle to understand and come to terms with the multiple sclerosis that began to ravage her body at the age of 26.
The cellist and his instrument embody her voice, her most genuine sense of self and her constant companion. Thus, Breckenridge and Haimovitz play core and initially fused aspects of Jacqueline, but her increasing illness tests their relationship. Mori concludes, “It is beautiful in a way, Marnie without Matt could not play Jacqueline, Matt without Marnie could not play Jacqueline, yet together they combine to realize something of her essence, life and struggle and in separating her tragedy.”
Synopsis
“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”
Jacqueline du Pré
STAR BIRTH
Having just stepped off the stage, we see Jacqueline at a post-concert gathering, telling absurd jokes; we meet her at 5 years old, falling in love with her cello for the first time; we glimpse her in the recording studio, sure of every musical move; in a dramatic, war-torn moment, she converts to Judaism and marries the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim.
SUPER NOVA
Her symptoms begin to show; Jackie reacts to a diagnosis of “mental fatigue” and ponders the delirious excitement – and the continual exhaustion – of life on the road; as the first pressing of her new LP arrives, she is dizzy with her musical power.
INTERVAL
METEORITE
At home and lonely, Jacqueline can hear her mother’s voice blaming the illness on her conversion to Judaism; with Daniel away on tour, Jackie tries to outrun her disease and imagines the sensual pleasures of a hoped-for recovery, even as a definitive diagnosis arrives; trying in vain to reclaim the innocent passion of her youth, she explodes in rage as she rejects the cello once and for all.
IMPACT
A farewell. The body is mortal, the music…
Creators
Luna Pearl Woolf
Composer
Award-winning composer Luna Pearl Woolf has long used her evocative voice to advocate for social and political change. Her work has been praised as “brilliant … profoundly moving” (Opera Going Toronto) for its “psychological nuances and emotional depth” (NY Times). Her dramatic works are championed by major opera houses and international performing artists.
Woolf’s oratorio Number Our Days, with concept and libretto by David Van Taylor, was commissioned and premiered by PAC NYC in its inaugural 2023-2024 season, receiving a thunderous response: “extraordinary, completely original…new and electrifying,” “death-affirming, life-inciting,” “elegiac, funny, haunting…poetic, and utterly unique.”
Canada’s CBC Music named the JUNO award-nominated recording Vagues et Ombres, including Woolf’s 2022 work, Contact, as their #1 Classical Album of the Year and her 2021 composer-portrait album, LUNA PEARL WOOLF: Fire and Flood (Pentatone Oxingale Series) was nominated for a GRAMMY Award.
Woolf’s opera Jacqueline, about legendary cellist Jacqueline du Pré, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, commissioned and premiered by Tapestry Opera, was hailed as an “extraordinary piece, one that deserves an unquestioned place in the 21st-century canon” (The Globe and Mail). Its 2020 premiere garnered five nominations and a win in Toronto’s prestigious Dora Awards.
Woolf mentors new opera creators in her work with Montreal’s Musique 3 Femmes, and teaches about the intersection of text and music at institutions such as the National Theater School of Canada and McGill University. She is co-founder of Oxingale Productions, a ground-breaking record label and music publisher supporting new music by lyrical and innovative contemporary composers.
A dual Canadian-American citizen, Woolf was born in Western Massachusetts and lives in Montréal, Quebec.
Royce Vavrek
Librettist
Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera “Angel’s Bone” with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote “Song from the Uproar,” premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves,” premiered at Opera Philadelphia to critical acclaim in September of 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2017 International Opera Awards. Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story “Proving Up,” was commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and The Miller Theatre, and will be presented by the three institutions in 2018. They are currently developing a grand opera for a future season at Opera Philadelphia.
His collaboration with composer David T. Little led Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal to proclaim them “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.” In April of 2016 they premiered their first grand opera, “JFK,” at Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that was called “ravishing” (Opera News), earning a ten-star review in Opera Now Magazine. This followed the success of their first opera, “Dog Days,” which received its world premiere in September of 2012 at Peak Performances @ Montclair, in a production co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by American maverick Robert Woodruff. The work was celebrated as the Classical Music Event of the year by Time Out New York and a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. They are currently developing an original work for the Metropolitan Opera through the Met/LCT commissioning program.
Royce has also worked extensively with composer Paola Prestini, first on the song cycle “Yoani,” inspired by the blog posts of Yoani Sanchez, and then on “The Hubble Cantata,” a virtual reality oratorio produced by VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust in association with Beth Morrison Projects. The latter work, called “a thundering opus” by Hyperallergic has been presented by BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, Kennedy Center and LA Opera, and was preserved in a studio recording released by National Sawdust Tracks. They are currently working on a number of new projects including an operatic adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” with director Robert Wilson; “The Glass Box” for the Young People’s Chorus of New York; and an adaptation of Carlos Reygadas’ film “Silent Light” with Thaddeus Strassberger. This year they will also workshop “Film Stills,” a project for mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti that dramatizes four of Cindy Sherman’s iconic photographs through musical monologues composed by Paola, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Du Yun, and directed by R.B. Schlather. Royce and Paola’s collaboration can be further heard on the AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope recording, where their song “Union,” as sung by Isabel Leonard, is featured.
In 2014 Royce premiered “27,” his first collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Created for renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, the work brought to life Gertrude Stein’s famous salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. Mark Ray Rinaldi of the Denver Post wrote that the opera “tells a great American story, about Gertrude Stein, as well as opera in the 21st century.” The opera was subsequently presented by Pittsburgh Opera and MasterVoices at New York City Center, and will next be seen at Michigan Opera Theater. In 2017 their adaptation of Gail Rock’s Christmas classic “The House Without a Christmas Tree” for Houston Grand Opera was premiered to critical acclaim.
Other recent and upcoming projects include “Strip Mall” with Matt Marks for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; “Diana Vreeland” with Mikael Karlsson for VisionIntoArt; “Midwestern Gothic” with Josh Schmidt for Signature Theatre, Virginia; “Naamah’s Ark” with Marisa Michelson for MasterVoices; “O Columbia” with Gregory Spears for HGOco; and “Knoxville: Summer of 2015” with Ellen Reid for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and National Sawdust.
Royce is co-Artistic Director of The Coterie, an opera-theater company founded with Tony-nominee Lauren Worsham. He holds a BFA in Filmmaking and Creative Writing from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal and an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University. He is an alum of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.
Michael Hidetoshi Mori
Director
Michael Hidetoshi Mori is a stage director and the artistic director of Tapestry Opera in Toronto, Canada. As an operatic stage director, Michael has been twice awarded Canada’s highest honour for “Outstanding Direction of an Opera” for Rocking Horse Winner and R.U.R., a Torrent of Light. In 2024, he directed Jacqueline, a story of cellist Jacqueline du Pré at West Edge Opera and Le Nozze di Figaro for Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera.
His work ranges from explorations in immersive digitally enhanced presentation with Augmented Opera at Sidewalk Labs and integration of original wearable tech in R.U.R., a Torrent of Light to neo-classical settings of Il Trittico & Rigoletto, to community-integrated story development and collaborations with Indigenous artists with Shanawdithit in Toronto and St. John’s and Maada’ookii Songlines with the Luminato Festival. As a film director, his music video Where do I go, in collaboration with singer/pianist/songwriter Morgan Paige Melbourne, recently won best picture at Toronto’s Experimental/Dance/Music Film Festival.
In early 2018, BBC World profiled Michael’s direction of Forbidden as an example of barrier-breaking in opera, and as early as 2015, VICE reviewed how Tap:Ex Tables Turned “gives a glimpse as to what opera can offer us in our multimedia-savvy world.”
Cast
Marnie Breckenridge
Jacqueline du Pré
Acclaimed soprano and actor Marnie Breckenridge is known for her “commanding voice with a splendid high register” (Opera News), “lyrical poignancy and dramatic power…a young Meryl Streep” (Chicago Tribune), “bell-like ring over an enormous range and personality spilling from every note” (The Globe and Mail), “lovely soprano” voice (The New York Times), is captivating international audiences in a diverse range of roles from the Baroque to Modern. A favourite among some of the most gifted composers of our time, she has sung lead roles in 8 world premieres of award-winning new operas and countless art songs/recordings. Several of her favourite contemporary works include Mother in DOG DAYS by David T. Little (LA Opera, Ft. Worth, Prototype), Ruth in Luna Pearl Woolf’s, THE PILLAR (Washington Chorus), Sierva Maria in Peter Eötvös’s LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS (Glyndebourne), La Princesse in Philip Glass’ ORPHÉE, title role in Milhaud’s MÉDÉE, Margarita Xirgu in AINADAMAR (Opera Parallèle), and as Cunegonde in CANDIDE (English National Opera).
She received the 2020 DORA award for “Outstanding Performance by an Individual in an Opera” in Woolf’s JACQUELINE (Tapestry Opera). Recent song albums include David Conte’s Everyone Sang, Herschel Garfein’s, The Layers and Mortality Mansions, Henry Mollicone’s There Is Another Sky, Robert Paterson’s Summer Songs and In Real Life, Richard Aldag’s Arab Love Songs (and several others) as well as her self-produced Holiday Album, Happy Golden Days on all streaming platforms.
She is a featured soloist on Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s Heroes & Villains and New World Records’ Victor Herbert Collected Songs and portrayed the role of Kathie in Gordon Getty’s feature film of the opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Matt Haimovitz
Cello
Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz is praised by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and by The New Yorker as “remarkable virtuoso” who “never turns in a predictable performance.” He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music, initiates groundbreaking collaborations and creates innovative recording projects. In addition to his touring schedule, Haimovitz mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal. He is the first-ever John Cage Fellow at The New School’s Mannes School of Music in New York City.
Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as a soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. He has gone on to perform on the world’s most esteemed stages with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Kent Nagano. His latest endeavour, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, encompasses 81 new commissions from a diverse intersection of North American communities and featured in the most recent 59th Venice Biennale Arte.
Making his first recording at 17 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Haimovitz’s recording career encompasses more than 30 years of award-winning work on Deutsche Grammophon (Universal), Oxingale Records, and the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. His honours include the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Grand Prix du Disque, and the Premio Internazionale “Accademia Musicale Chigiana.” He studied with Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School and graduated magna cum laude with the highest honours from Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller.
Creative, DESIGN & Production Team
Camellia Koo
Set & Costume Designer
Camellia is a set and costume designer for theatre, opera, dance and site-specific performance installations. Recent designs for opera include Bremen Town Musicians and Operation Superpower (Canadian Opera Company School Tours), Macbeth (Minnesota Opera), Marilyn Forever (Aventa Ensmeble), Carmen and The Tales of Hoffman (Edmonton Opera), Maria Stuarda (Pacific Opera Victoria), The Lighthouse (Boston Lyric Opera), Pélleas et Mélisande, Turn of the Screw and La Bohéme (Against the Grain), Giiwedin (Native Earth), and The Shadow (Tapestry New Opera). Recent designs for theatre include collaborations Tarragon Theatre, The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival, and Cahoots Theatre Projects. She has received six Dora Mavor Moore Awards, a Sterling Award, a Chalmers Award Grant, Siminovitch Protégé Prize, 2011 European Opera Directing Third Prize Team, and the 2016 Virginia & Myrtle Cooper Award for costume design. Upcoming plans include set and costume designs for The Rape of Lucretia (Banff/AtG), and Simon Boccanegra (POV).
Bonnie Beecher
Lighting Designer
Bonnie Beecher has designed over 400 productions for theatre, opera and dance across Canada and internationally. Recent productions include Something Rotten and Twelfth Night (Stratford), My name is Lucy Barton (Can Stage), Carmen (Edmonton Opera), Aportia Cryptych (COC), Classic Soul (Wurzburg Ballet), A Streetcar Named Desire (Citadel/Theatre Calgary), and Waitress (RMTC). Upcoming productions include Sanctuary Song (Tapestry), Lady M (Dutch National Ballet), Demian (Hamburg Ballet), Major Barbara (Shaw), and Mary Queen of Scots (Scottish Ballet.)
Benton Roark
Sound Engineer
The music of composer Benton Roark (he/him) has been described as “visionary” (The Vancouver Sun), “ardent and soaring” (The National Post), and “an experience of deep and darkling beauty” (The Austin Chronicle). In recent years much of his work has focused on new opera, with full productions including Tapestry Opera’s Augmented Opera (“gorgeous Straussian vocal writing,” The Globe and Mail) and Bandits in the Valley (Dora Mavor Moore award nominee, 2018), Vancouver Pro Musica/Tomoe Arts’ Shadow Catch (“an evocative score” The Bulletin), and Fugue Theatre’s Off Leash (“one of the most unique theatrical experiences currently on Vancouver stages” Vancity Buzz). Roark has also enjoyed acclaim as a bandleader and songwriter with projects such as The Benton Roark Band, Rollaway (“backwoods choir elegance” The Georgia Straight), and Arkora (“the standout event of Vancouver’s spring music season” Vancouver Observer), whose Songs from the Rainshadow’s Edge earned him a 2016 WCMA nomination for Composition of the Year. Current projects include new opera work slated for premiere at the Chan Centre in November 2024 (Eurydice Fragments, re:Naissance Opera), and recording projects The Sign of Jonas (Mother Country, Laughing Heart Records), and Transfigured Light (Arkora, Redshift Records). Roark holds a D.M.A. from the University of British Columbia and has served as Associate Artistic Director of Redshift Music Society and Sound Symposium. He currently serves as Artistic Director of Arkora and makes his home in Toronto.
Annasofie 诗慧 Jakobsen
Production Manager
Annasofie 诗慧 Jakobsen is an emerging production and stage manager based in Toronto. She is thrilled to join the Jacqueline team and hopes you enjoy the show!
Favourite theatre credits include: Interior Design (Tarragon Theatre), Dusk Dances, Are You The One (xLq), Insert Clown Here (Parlous Theatre), Give ’em Hell (Theatre Direct/Prairie Fire Please), Harabogee & Me (Crossroads Theatre.)
Tamara Vuckovic
Stage Manager
Tamara is a Toronto-based Stage Manager, Producer and Director in primarily Theatre and Opera. Her work has taken her across Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, London, Halifax, US, and overseas. Tamara is the Managing Producer and Resident Stage Manager of indie performance company ARC and the SM of opera performance company Off Centre Music Salon.
Recent Assistant Stage Manager credits include Fidelio (Canadian Opera Company), Treemonisha (Volcano), and HMS Pinafore (Vancouver Opera).
Selected Stage Management credits include Handel’s The Resurrection (Opera Atelier); Martyr, Gloria, and Oil (ARC); The Shape of Home (Crow’s Theatre, County Stage); Electric Messiah, and Hell’s Fury (Soundstreams); Prototüüpe (ZOU Theatre); Marjorie Prime (Coal Mine Theatre); Hook Up (Tapestry Opera).
Natassia Brunato
Wig and Wardrobe Coordinator
Natassia is a Toronto-based customer in Theatre, Opera, Film, & Television. She spends her days working full-time as a Costume Coordinator at the Canadian Opera Company.
Selected credits include: Madama Butterfly (COC), The Flying Dutchman (COC), Star Trek Strange New Words (Season 1: Streak Productions), and Nightmare Alley (Tyrone Productions
Inc.)
Camille Rogers
Surtitlist
Camille Rogers (they/them) has been praised for their “tremendous stage presence” and “real flair for comedy” (Operaramblings). Opera roles include Suli/Suzie in Buddies in Bad Times’s world premiere of Pomegranate, Lake in FAWN’s collectively improvised techno opera Belladonna, Young Girl in The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Atelier, and the title role of L’Italiana in Algeri with MYOpera. Camille has also been featured as a soloist with Pax Christi Chorale, Toronto Bach Festival, and the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra. They have presented solo recitals with Centric MusicFest and Lethbridge Pride. As Co-Artistic Director of Toronto’s queer opera collective OperaQ, Camille has produced three full-length productions. They have been invited to speak at events hosted by Against the Grain Theatre, Amplified Opera, and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.
Behind the scenes
Recording JACQUELINE
A behind-the-scenes look at Marnie Breckenridge & Matt Haimovitz in the studio to capture Jacqueline’s official recording by Luna Pearl Woolf and Royce Vavrek.
Official audio is available on Spotify or wherever you prefer to stream music.
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Ellen Richardson
Elmira Kashani
Emily McMinn
Eric Petersen
Ernest Balmer & Barb Parsons
Eva Ing
Eva Innes
Gail Cook Johnson
Genevieve Proulx
George & Kathy Kawasaki
Gillian Kearney
Gillian Cummings
Harold Chmara & Danny Hoy
Isabelle Gibb
Jane Liu
Janice Ketchen
Janice Lavery
Jeffrey Coull
Jennifer Hashimoto
Jennifer & Peter McGillivray
Jialiang Zhu
Jill Kelman
Jill & David Roussy
Joe Martino
Joel Goldberg
Jordan de Souza & Jana Miller
Joseph Mulder
Joseph Lewis
Josie Ionno
Judith John
Julia Bass
Julia Gorman
Julia Grant
Julie M Foley
Karen Rice
Kelly Lin
Ken Marple
Ken & Ginny Goldberg
Kim Hewitt
Kimberly Barber
Kristine Anderson & Richard Wolfe
Laura Lane
Laurence Packer
Leslie Dala
Leslie Jost
Lilie Zendel
Liza Balkan
Lorraine & Ken Coull
M Ann Jones
Mahmoud Rezk
Maral Maclagan
Marc-André Savoie
Margaret Genovese
Margaret Fisher
Maria Soulis
Maria Braico
Marie Josée Chartier
Marilyn Cook
Marsha Groves
Marta Braun
Martin Nash
Mary Newman
Mary MacKinnon
Matthew Jocelyn
Maureen Tingley
Michael Tranter
Michael & Linda Hutcheon
Michael Lewis and Rita Deverell
Miranda Hubbs
Mohamed Khaki
Molly Thom
Murray Gold
Nancy Hermiston
Norah Bolton
Pamela Thomson
Patricia Bellamy
Paul Gingrich
Paul Maly
Pavel Straka
Peter & Hélène Hunt
Philip Adams
Philip Conlon
Racheal McCaig
Reginald Bronskill & Helen Findlay
Rex & Rita Deverell
Riki Turofsky
Robert Dick & Krista Halder
Robin Shonfield
Robin Roger
Roderick McKeown
Ronald Forbes
Ronan McGrath & Sarah Perry
Rosemary Thomson
Sally Holton
Samantha Summers
Sami Anguaya
Sarah Winterton
Scott Brubacher
Seiichi Ariga
Shawn Kerwin
Stewart Arnott
Sue White
Sue Mortimer
Susan Cesari
Susan Aihoshi
Susan & Joe Salek
Thomas Jason Fernandes
Timothy & Frances Price
Tom Diamond
Toshifumi Mori
Tricia Black
Trixie Postoff
Tuan Nguyen
Ulrich Menzefricke
Vilnius Manor
Vinetta Strombergs
Virginia Morra
Ward Jardine
William Terry
Wilma Spence
Yvette Nolan
TAPESTRY OPERA
Tapestry Opera is an award-winning Toronto-based company dedicated to creating, developing and performing original Canadian opera. Tapestry is passionate about uniquely Canadian stories, told in innovative settings and unforgettably interpreted by world-class artists. Tapestry supports emerging artists, develops new audiences and brings Canadian opera to the world stage. Founded in 1979, Tapestry is the voice of original contemporary Canadian opera.
Michael Mori, Artistic and General Director
Jaime Martino, Executive Director
Stephanie Applin, Director of Advancement
Mélanie Dubois, Artistic Producer
Clay Jones, Marketing and Communications Manager
Dona Arbabzadeh, Box Office and Audience & Community Coordinator
Camille Rogers, Program Manager, Women in Musical Leadership
Katie Mariz, Development Coordinator
Máiri Demings, Social Media Specialist
Zile Liepens, Graphic Designer