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The opera Jacqueline animates the struggle between the virtuosic cellist Jacqueline du Pré and her changing identity when the one thing that most defined her, her ability to make music, is cut away from her by Multiple Sclerosis.
The work draws on the myth of Samson, the biblical hero whose supernatural strength was shorn from him at the height of his powers, as well as cellist Matt Haimovitz’s personal recollections of du Pré.
Focused intensely on the emotional life of du Pré from childhood through the heights of her success and her retreat from public life, the opera probes questions of identity, deteriorating health, and self-definition. The opera acknowledges her relationship with Daniel Berenboim, but the primary relationships are between du Pré and her cello, and du Pré and herself.
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