Tapestry’s Artistic Director, Michael Mori, shares his thoughts on his recent trip to direct Jacqueline in San Francisco.
“a perfect and intricate dance of storytelling… absolutely the highest level of virtuosity, artistry and communication…. Spectacular!”
– Jake Heggie, opera composer (Dead Man Walking, Moby Dick, Everest…)
This past month, I was in San Francisco to direct the US premiere of Luna Pearl Woolf and Royce Vavrek’s Jacqueline, based on the life of Jacqueline du Pré. You may have joined Tapestry five years ago (!) for the world premiere in February 2020 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre. The cast, creators, and I were thrilled to have luminaries such as Kent Nagano, Frederica von Stade, and Jake Heggie in the San Francisco audience… offering pretty high praise!
“I was mesmerized and amazed at this brilliant work…. Marnie Breckenridge and her orchestra; Matt Haimovitz was so powerful and truly magnificent… We left the theatre knowing of the brilliance of music, theatre, and passion!”
– Frederica von Stade, legendary mezzo soprano
We were in good company at the West Edge Opera Festival, with the world premiere of Bullrusher (featuring Tapestry alumna mezzo-soprano Rebecca Cuddy) and a 3 1/2 hour condensed version (initially 15 hours!) of Wagner‘s entire ring cycle featuring some fantastic voices! Bullrusher tells the story of an African-American girl growing up in Northern California’s remote Anderson Valley in 1955. She has never seen anyone that looks like her until a young Black woman from Alabama comes to town… It was beautifully sung and nuanced in revealing how relationships in small-town California work, thoughtfully considering the changing culture of the day without falling into racial tropes.
With Jacqueline as the third premiere of the festival, we were set to share the drama and tragedy of Jacqueline du Pré with our Bay area friends and audiences. Cellist Matt Haimovitz, who plays the role of Jacqueline du Pré’s cello, was age 14 when he was brought into Dupré and Daniel Barenboim’s household as one of Jacqueline’s last proteges and the first cellist to play with Daniel following her illness.
This work has come so far with the team of Royce, Luna, Matt, Marnie Breckenridge, and myself first meeting in artistic retreats at the art ranch at Tippet Rise in Montana, at McGill University, and now with enthusiastically received premieres in Toronto and San Francisco.
L to R: Luna Pearl Wolf, Matt Haimovitz, Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Royce Vavrek, Marnie Breckenridge.
The Inverted Portal massive sculpture at Tippet Rise
Workshopping scenes at Tippet Rise.
Designer Camie Koo’s and my concept of an exploded concert hall resonated as a symbol of what might transpire in Jacqueline, who identified as a professional cellist for her entire life and then completely lost that capacity. The design initially benefitted from using fly rails to ‘explode’ the chairs and stands into the air and was adjusted for the San Francisco production to use hidden floor lines to have the chairs and stands ‘magically’ collapse.
Matt Haimovitz, Cello and Marnie Breckenridge as Jacqueline.
All Photos, credit: Cory Weaver/West Edge
Please check out the entire series of photos from West Edge Opera’s production of Jacquline.
After a slow three years of pandemic, it’s truly awesome to see two Tapestry commissioned works continue to find new homes and success in the world, with Rocking Horse Winner having its 5th production and this recent US premiere, Jacqueline’s 2nd production of hopefully many many more!
Michael Hidetoshi Mori
General Director and Artistic Director
Tapestry Opera