Christmas in Vienna

Jacquelyn will be joined by the Alassio Concert Orchestra (conducted by Marcus Martin) at the Assembly Hall on Sunday, December 4 at 2.45pm.

The programme includes Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate plus Ave Maria and arias from Lehar’s Giuditta and Gypsy Love with orchestral items by Johann Strauss, Stolz and Suppe. The finale will be Christmas Festival (Leroy Anderson).

Exsultate Jubilate is a piece Jacquelyn has sung many times, more often than not in a cathedral or church.

“It’s a super piece. I have sometimes done it with just a pianist, but obviously it is much better with an orchestra,” Jacquelyn said.

“It is so varied. It has got three movements. It has got a wonderful opening, a gorgeous middle section and a last section that everybody knows as the wonderful Hallelujah with lots of very, very fast notes in it. It is a fantastic piece. I absolutely love it. What soprano would complain about finishing on a top C?”

For Jacquelyn, the concert will certainly bring back memories: “I used to live in Vienna. I was there for six months.”

Jacquelyn studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was a prize winner in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition and was given a prestigious Royal Society of Arts Decca Prize which enabled her to complete her studies in Rome and Vienna.

Following in her footsteps, Jacquelyn’s daughter Abigail Jaye was recently in Vienna as well, as part of a monumental tour of Evita which brought her to Southampton’s Mayflower in September.

In the lead role of Eva Peron, Abigail toured for 18 months in virtually every country in Europe. She was offered another Evita tour, but declined: “She felt she needed a rest. She had done thousands of miles.”

For Christmas, instead, Abigail will be performing in the Christmas spectacular at the Thursford Collection in Norfolk.