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Track Listing:

I Star Birth - On Stage

Disease I

5 Years Old

You and Me

Recording

Intense Perfumes

Marriage I

Samson

II Super Nova - Psychoanalysis

Dirty Joke

The Record I

Dizzy

Psychoanalysis II

Seductress I

Persecution

III. Meteorite - Telephone

Mon ami I

Disease II, Part I

Run

Disease II, Part II

Bathing in the Sea in October

Mon ami II

8 Cancellation

IV. Impact - Ode

Scuttlebum

Seductress II

The Record II

Luna Pearl Woolf :

Jacqueline - Libretto by Royce Vavrek

A HEARTWRENCHING OPERA OF METEORIC TALENT AND HUMAN TRAGEDY

“A brilliant, wrenching chamber work…flings us headfirst body and soul into the centre of towering virtuosity and pain that was and always will be du Pré…Jacqueline is a profoundly moving opera, one that shreds the emotions.” Opera Going Toronto

“Jacqueline is the thrilling result of real simplicity…stripping away the inessential to reveal a moving story free from ego…[an] extraordinary piece, one that deserves an unquestioned place in the 21st-century canon.” - The Globe and Mail

Jacqueline is a powerful, award-winning new opera that dives into the real-life struggle between famed 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.

The story is brought to life by celebrated American soprano Marnie Breckenridge (as Jacqueline) and former du Pré protégé and world-renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz, playing the role of her constant companion: her cello. GRAMMY-nominated composer Luna Pearl Woolf and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek chart the development of great prodigy and, ultimately, great tragedy. Told in four movements – I. Star Birth; II. Super Nova; III. Meteorite; IV. Impact – the opera references Haimovitz’s personal recollections of du Pré herself.

Colorful and at times funny, raw, joyful and audacious, the form of the work echoes du Pré’s iconic interpretation of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, using the concerto’s four- movement structure to navigate a prismatic and passionate, if all too short, life in music.

TRACK LIST

Disc 1
I. Star Birth
1 On Stage*
2 Disease I
3 5 Years Old
4 You and Me
5 Recording
6 Intense Perfumes
7 Marriage I
8 Samson

II. Super Nova
9 Psychoanalysis
10 Dirty Joke
11 The Record I
12 Dizzy
13 Psychoanalysis II
14 Seductress I
15 Persecution

Disc 2
III. Meteorite
1 Telephone
2 Mon ami I
3 Disease II, Part I
4 Run
5 Disease II, Part II
6 Bathing in the Sea in October
7 Mon ami II
8 Cancellation**

IV. Impact
9 Ode*
10 Scuttlebum
11 Seductress II
12 The Record II

* Violoncello only
** Soprano only

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 Western Massachusetts and lives in Montréal, Quebec.

Royce Vavrek is an Alberta-born librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) 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. Among his many collaborations include operas with Missy Mazzoli (Song from the Uproar, Breaking the Waves, Proving Up, The Listeners), David T. Little (Dog Days, Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera, JFK), Mikael Karlsson (Melancholia), Paola Prestini (Silent Light, The Old Man and the Sea), and Ricky Ian Gordon (27, The House Without a Christmas Tree). Royce holds a BFA in Filmmaking and Creative Writing from Concordia University and an MFA in Musical Theater Writing from NYU. He is an alum of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.

Acclaimed soprano and actor, Marnie Breckenridge known for her “commanding voice with a splendid high register” (Opera News) “lyrical poignancy and dramatic power…a young Meryl Streep” (Chicago Tribune) and her “lovely soprano voice” (NY Times) is captivating international audiences in a diverse range of roles from the Baroque to Modern. A favorite 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 favorite 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.

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, and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, as well as creating 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 and 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 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 endeavor, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, encompasses 81 new commissions from a diverse intersection of North American communities and has been 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 honors 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 highest honors from Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller.

One of the leading classical music labels in the world, PENTATONE presents a diverse range of world-class artists, and is dedicated to premium quality productions captured in exceptional sound. The label works together with today and tomorrow’s leading artists to provide timeless recordings of core, fringe, and lesser-known repertoire, with PENTATONE’s uncompromising attention to the best possible quality in artistry, design and recording technology.

The label was founded in the Netherlands in 2001 by three former Philips Classics executives, with the ambition to offer classical music in the highest quality including surround sound. In its first years, PENTATONE engaged Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren in a GRAMMY Award-winning recording of Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf (released in Spanish with Antonio Banderas), with Kent Nagano conducting the Russian National Orchestra. Another early success was a recording of the official music performed during the wedding ceremony of the then Dutch crown prince (now king) Willem-Alexander to Máxima Zorreguieta. The Music from the Royal Wedding sold more than 75,000 copies, thereby attaining the unique “triple platinum” status in the Netherlands.

During its first decade, the label released several award-winning recordings with violinist Julia Fischer and several complete cycles: Beethoven’s symphonies conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, Beethoven’s piano sonatas performed by Mari Kodama, and Bruckner’s symphonies under the baton of Marek Janowski. Violinist Arabella Steinbacher left her mark on these years and continues with several acclaimed recordings. Later, PENTATONE recorded Wagner’s ten mature operas, the only such label to take on this task in the 21st century.

From 2013, with a new management team, the label focused on embracing the digital era and expanding its repertoire. New artists and ensembles defined the label’s second decade, including conductors Vladimir Jurowski, René Jacobs and Esa-Pekka Salonen, singers Piotr Beczala, Lisette Oropesa, Javier Camarena, Ian Bostridge and Magdalena Kožená, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Francesco Piemontesi, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, as well as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Czech Philharmonic.

In recent years, PENTATONE has won multiple awards. In 2017, John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles won Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album at the 59th GRAMMY Awards. Two years later, the premiere recording of the Mason Bates opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs won a GRAMMY for Best Opera Recording. PENTATONE was awarded ‘Label of the Year’ in 2019 by Gramophone Magazine and in 2020 by the International Classical Music Awards. PENTATONE’s third decade promises to be even more exciting and innovative as we expand our growing and diverse roster of artists, producing the most thrilling recordings in the world.