Luna Pearl Woolf – Jacqueline
Marnie Breckenridge; Matt Haimovitz
Pentatone PTC5187341 (pentatonemusic.com/product/jacqueline)
“It is with a heavy heart that I must cancel my engagements,” announces Jacqueline du Pré towards the end of Canadian-American composer Luna Pearl Woolf’s gripping chamber opera, Jacqueline. It’s 1973, and the incomparable British cellist is only 28 years old. But the ravages of MS have forced her to stop performing.
Woolf and her librettist, Canadian Royce Vavrek, focus on du Pré’s most significant relationship – with her cello. There are just two performers. It’s a daring artistic choice, and it works brilliantly here. The charismatic American soprano Marnie Breckenridge is du Pré, and cellist extraordinaire, Montreal-based Matt Haimovitz, is her cello. It is as dramatic as it is moving.
Other performers will undoubtedly want to take on these two challenging roles. But it’s hard to imagine anyone surpassing either Breckenridge or Haimovitz. Breckenridge evokes du Pré with untethered intensity. Yet her voice retains its luminous allure throughout. Haimovitz does full justice to du Pré’s matchless sound with his richly expressive tone and effortless technique.
Vavrek, newly-appointed Artistic Director of Against the Grain, shows why his work is in such demand by composers today. His libretto is unsparing. But it’s poetic and playful enough to offset the grimness of du Pré’s struggles, recalling joyful childhood memories and key works that defined her career.
Pentatone has produced an especially attractive CD set, with a booklet containing the full libretto and photos of the original staging by Toronto’s Tapestry Opera in 2020.
