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Stories   >   Matt Haimovitz Q&A's on his latest...'Jacqueline,' with The Violin Channel

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Matt Haimovitz Q&A's on his latest...'Jacqueline,' with The Violin Channel

Posted: October 25, 2024

From….The Violin Channel writes…..'"Jacqueline' The album, presents a recently produced opera based on the life of legendary cellist Jacqueline du Pré

American soprano Marnie Breckenridge and cellist Matt Haimovitz have released a new award-winning opera, Jacqueline, on Pentatone that tells the story of the real-life struggle between famed cellist Jacqueline du Pré and multiple sclerosis. 

GRAMMY-nominated composer Luna Pearl Woolf and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek collaborated on Jacqueline, charting the development of the great prodigy in four movements: I. Star Birth, II. Super Nova, III. Meteorite, and IV. Impact.

Breckenridge represents Jacqueline and former du Pré protégé and world-renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz, plays the role of her constant companion: her cello.

We caught up with Haimovitz to learn more about the project.       What inspired the creation of this project?

There is no reference for the lightning rod that was Jacqueline du Pré. The artistic chemistry between soprano Marnie Breckenridge and myself sparked the idea of a full-scale opera specifically for the two of us. Marnie and I had just performed another one of Luna Pearl Woolf’s works, “Rumi: Quatrains of Love” for soprano, cello, and piano. Luna was aware of my time with Jackie and immediately gravitated to her transcendent and tragic story. She was intrigued by the challenge of creating a truly operatic work with minimal forces – to sustain a complete theatrical experience with only two voices, or even a single voice and an instrument.

We understand you spent some time with the late, great Ms. Du-Pre before her passing in 1987. Tell us about this experience and what influence she had on you?

For me, Jacqueline du Pré was my cello idol long before I ever imagined meeting her. She was the ultimate communicator. Her cello – “mon ami” – was her lifeline, a voice with a direct connection to her heart.

At the age of fourteen, my family Seder was nearly over when I received a phone call from my mentor, Itzhak Perlman. Would I be able to join the end of the Perlman Seder, to meet and play chamber music with their guest, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim? Daniel asked me to read through the Brahms Sonata Op. 38 in e minor. It was the first time Daniel had played with a cellist since his wife Jackie became ill with MS. The first movement came to rest on the final E Major triad. I looked over at Daniel who had tears in his eyes.

Weeks later, Daniel would invite me to make my European debut in London, with him conducting the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center. On that occasion, I was invited to spend time with Jackie in her apartment. She took out her cellos – two Stradivari, a Goffriller, and her favorite, a modern cello by Sergiu Peresson – and asked me to play them. Even with limited memory left to identify the repertoire, she would comment on my performance: Bach’s Suite III Sarabande must start up-bow, in the passagework of the Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto the bow should bounce off the string.

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For the next several years, I spent time with Jackie on each visit to London. She had little control over her nerves by then, arms waving uncontrollably in constant unpredictable motions, her neck and head cutting through the air like a knife. And yet, when we spent hours together listening to her recordings, and watching her films, the neurological chaos would calm down. Jackie’s body came to rest. She would break into a smile and enter a whole other world.

Each interaction was an inspiration to be in the presence of an artist whom I placed on a pedestal. I absorbed as much as I could from Jackie’s comments and especially from revisiting her recorded performances. At the same time, it was heart-wrenching to observe the fragility of life, and that the natural gifts bestowed on us could be taken away so cruelly.

Can you tell us a little about the storyline of the new opera and what aspects of her life are covered?

The story of the opera 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 Jacqueline, traveling 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.

Her voice, her truest sense of self, and her constant companion, is embodied by the cellist and his instrument. Thus Marnie and I represent the core and initially fused aspects of Jacqueline, but their relationship is tested by her increasing illness.

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