{"id":30994,"date":"2023-03-07T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T04:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=30994"},"modified":"2023-03-07T15:09:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T04:09:00","slug":"jacqueline-dark-is-back-from-the-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=30994","title":{"rendered":"Jacqueline Dark Is Back From ‘The Void’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jacqui Dark is back from \u2018The Void.\u2019<\/p>\n

The irrepressible star of opera, music theatre and cabaret is performing a comeback show called\u00a0 Songs My Friends Taught Me <\/em>at Sydney’s Camelot Lounge <\/em>in March dedicated to and inspired by the friends who supported her through an extraordinarily difficult time over the last year, a time which she has termed \u2018The Void.\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking to SoundsLikeSydney, Dark described her life over the recent past. \u201cI was lying on the couch for the best part of the year. I really didn\u2019t get out because I had no energy and because my immunity was so low I wasn\u2019t allowed to\u201d she explains. \u201cI came back and sang one song at my gorgeous friend Taryn Fiebig\u2019s memorial and that was the first thing I had done in all that time. I wasn\u2019t sure if my voice would work and whether I could physically do it but that was such a joyful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, Dark was diagnosed with a rare tumour. Surgery that was scheduled to last 3 hours blew out to 6 hours and she faced another three weeks in hospital followed by a punishing regime of chemotherapy. \u201cI had this wonderful year of shows with companies I love \u2013 The Australian Ballet and Pinchgut Opera. One of the shows was with Orchestra Victoria who picked up on the Jacques Brel show I had written. It was going to be my own show with an orchestra, but I had to cancel that which was devastating, but it went from the devastation of losing all my work to potentially losing a lot more than that.\u201d Ironically, Dark\u2019s surgeon and oncologist were the same individuals who looked after soprano Taryn Fiebig who lost a long-fought battle with ovarian cancer nearly two years ago and whose life, the stars of opera and music theatre celebrated in a fund-raising memorial in November 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing this\u201d says Dark, \u201cClaire\u2019s Kitchen asked me to put together a show. So, I spoke to my music director Daryl Wallis and Creative Director Sam Russell and they said \u2018Let\u2019s do it!\u2019\u201d Cautioned by her team to take a gentler approach to her comeback, Dark says \u201cBut of course I put all my emotion and energy into it anyway because I can\u2019t help myself. We had a couple of shows that we worked on but last year, it was my friends who got me through the hardship and I want to write a show about them and all the different kinds of friendships \u2013 anecdotes, songs that remind me of them or songs that we have sung together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exceptionally versatile and prodigiously gifted Jacqueline Dark started her working life as a teacher of physics and maths. Her musical life began in music theatre, with the Ballarat Light Opera Company. A friend of her mother\u2019s heard her and suggested she sing opera. An audition at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) singing Softly awakes my heart<\/em> from Samson and Delilah<\/em>, was successful and for three years on three nights a week from 6 to 10 pm, she would train at the opera studios in Melbourne whilst teaching physics in Ballarat during the day. Now, notable roles include Herodias in Salome <\/em>for Opera Australia, Fricka for their production of The Ring Cycle<\/em> in 2013, Marcellina, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni<\/em>, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier<\/em> and Venus in The Loves of Apollo and Dafne<\/em> for Pinchgut Opera. Add to that her hit cabaret shows like Strange Bedfellows<\/em>, the songs of Jacques Brel and a hugely successful 12-month national tour as the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music, <\/em>and it is not hard to understand why she has gathered both Helpmann and Green Room Awards for her work.<\/p>\n

Songs My Friends Taught Me<\/em> is all about friendships and how much they have meant to her recently. \u201cWe are hoping that the show will connect with people. At our preview it seems that everyone has experienced this situation in some way with a friend. There were universal themes that people could connect with without personally knowing the people I was talking about. That\u2019s why I did it. My best friend sobbed through the show. She held everything together for so long and was tough for me. She was finally letting it out and it has been quite the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dark\u2019s show will run for a little over an hour without interval. She promises a mixture of songs that she has written, covers of songs by others, and \u201cwhat we\u2019re most famous for – the mash-up of unlikely medleys and mixes of songs that really don\u2019t go together but which when combined is crazy and hilarious.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Dark will be performing with her \u201cgorgeous friend\u201d and music director Darryl Wallis at the piano. \u00a0She adds \u201cSam Russell is my creative director but it\u2019s hard to put a name to what she does. Camelot Lounge is very much a cabaret atmosphere. It\u2019s very laid back. A lot of my friends will be there even some of the people who are mentioned in the show \u2013 university friends, high school friends, others who have just changed my life and all the types of Mums in school! So if anyone has kids in school they will enjoy that little number.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Shamistha de Soysa for SoundsLikeSydney<\/em>\u00a9<\/em><\/p>\n

Songs My Friends Taught Me<\/em> is the Camelot Lounge, on Thursday March 16 at 7 pm (doors open) 8 pm show.<\/p>\n

Read our revoew of Jacqueline Dark’s last cabaret show, Jacqui Dark is Alive and Well and Living in Newtown<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Bookings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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