At its most basic, an “opera” is a dramatic work set to music and song. However, this genre of musical performance has notoriously been associated with ideas of elitism and extravagance. Picture a posh concert hall with velvet seats; in the middle of the stage, a white woman in a ball gown sings an elaborate score, most likely composed by a white European man.
I had always thought of opera as an upper-class art form that had not evolved far from its Eurocentric and classical roots, so when my creative writing professor posted a Canvas announcement saying that contemporary opera company Musique 3 Femmes (M3F) was coming from Montreal to Kelowna, I thought, “Contemporary opera?”
The opera Jacqueline, which was originally commissioned by Tapestry Opera in Toronto, saw its fifth production last month in a collaboration with Opera Kelowna that was presented at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on February 27–28, 2026. That week, Kristin Hoff and Luna Pearl Woolf from M3F visited UBC Okanagan and hosted a series of activities to introduce students to contemporary opera. After participating in those activities, I received a complimentary ticket to watch Jaqueline.
Composed by Woolf, libretto written by Royce Vavrek, and directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, this opera is about Jaqueline du Pré, a legendary British cellist from the 1960s. It features Marnie Breckenridge as du Pré and Matt Haimovitz on the cello; it narrates du Pre’s early rise to fame and the detrimental impact of multiple sclerosis on her career and life.
The piece turned out to be nothing like the stereotypical picture of opera illustrated in the first paragraph of this article. For one, it had a female composer — Woolf currently works with M3F and Hoff to spotlight women in opera, addressing longstanding issues of gender inequity within this field.
Also, Jaqueline was presented at a regular local theatre and included no fancy costumes. Breckenridge wears a simple white dress in the opening act and later adorns a chestnut cardigan. It is only in the final act that she changes into concert attire — a red silk dress — symbolising the continuation of du Pre’s musical legacy despite the fact that she can no longer perform.
The titular cellist’s vibrant personality and emotional intensity is captured in Breckenridge’s impressive vocal performance. In Part I: Star Birth, the soprano singer-actress lies face-up by Haimovitz’s feet while maintaining a stable and resonant high note. The two performers give us nothing short of a grandiose musical experience, but as a contemporary “chamber opera” — smaller in scale and shorter in duration than “grand opera” — Jaqueline defies tradition with accessible storytelling and creative stage design.
At the end of Part II: Super Nova, right before intermission, chairs hung on wires rise in the background as du Pré vocalises her agony. She has been diagnosed with a disease that hijacks her ability to play, the symptoms of multiple sclerosis including severe muscle pain, fatigue, and blurred vision.
That striking stage set-up is maintained and built upon in the second half of the show, where a chaotic pyramid of chairs looms at the back of the stage. Haimovitz ascends up the pyramid, taking his cello to the top. Above him hangs a record sleeve of du Pré’s album. Behind him, the curtains close gradually before the pained female protagonist, sitting centre-stage and directly below Haimovitz’s position, takes her dying breath in the lone company of her cello.
In addition to the evocative visual composition, Jaqueline employs sound effects of crackling vinyl and a cello orchestra recording to immerse the audience auditorially. The piece exemplifies how modern opera production does not shy away from contemporary trends of fine arts. It makes use of modern stage equipment and technologies, which has led to the increasing precedence of the director, sound designer, and lighting artist in the operatic field.
At the same time, the composer and the librettist remain vital roles in contemporary opera. The libretto (the text of an opera) marries the musical score to birth a story. Compared to theatre, opera has little to no spoken dialogue. Everything is told through song, so the libretto must be succinct and narratively effective. It is the composer, however, who steers the story’s tone and emotional trajectory using rhythm, tempo, and melody.
Jaqueline advances the artistic agency of women in opera, and has provided a platform for the multiple sclerosis (MS) community. Many MS patients and members of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada attended this opera. “I was deeply moved by an email from one man who has been living with the disease for many years and was impacted by the show on Saturday,” Woolf tells me.
It is encouraging to see companies like M3F and Opera Kelowna working together to break boundaries in musical performance. As contemporary opera creation continues to evolve, we as audiences must also stay curious about various genres of art, especially those that have been coated in stereotypes for centuries.
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