West Edge Opera Festival Schedule Change

Oakland Scottish Rite Center

July, 2022

West Edge Opera has announced that they're delaying their production of Charpentier's David and Jonathan to 2025, swapping in Luna Pearl Woolf and Royce Vavrek's Jacqueline in 2024. The latter will star soprano Marnie Breckenridge and cellist Matt Haimovitz. From the press release:

Jacqueline dives into the real-life struggle between celebrity virtuosic 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 her life. This intimate piece for soprano and cello brings two contemporary virtuosi to the stage: celebrated soprano Marnie Breckenridge as Jacqueline, and renowned cellist (and former du Pré protégé) Matt Haimovitz as du Pré’s only constant companion, her cello.
 
Inspired by the structure and emotional landscape of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, composer Luna Pearl Woolf and Pulitzer Prize winning librettist Royce Vavrek chart the development of great prodigy and ultimately, great tragedy. Jacqueline references Haimovitz’s personal recollections of du Pré herself, from when he was a young prodigy under her wing. Colorful and at times fractured, the form of the work echoes du Pré’s iconic interpretation of the Elgar, using the concerto’s four-movement structure to navigate a prismatic and passionate, if all too short, life in music.

I've liked everything of Woolf's that I have heard, so I expect that this will be good. 

Also in the press release is the cast for Legend of the Ring, which looks very good:

Tracy Cox (Brunnhilde), Philip Skinner (Wotan), Alex Boyer (Sigmund/Siegfried), Mary Evelyn Hangley (Freia/Sieglinde), Stephanie Sanchez (Fricka), Kyle Bielfield (Loge/Mime), Peter Morgan (Alberich/Fasolt), Matt Lovell (Fafner/Hundig). Conducted by Jonathan Khuner, Directed by Sam Helfrich.