Biography:

Jacqueline Lisa Dark (also Jacqueline Moran^[1]; 1967/1968 – 3 October 2023) was an Australian operatic mezzo-soprano. She was born in Ballarat and attended the University of Ballarat from 1986 to 1988, receiving a Bachelor of Science (Physics) and a Graduate Diploma of Education in 1989.^[2]

Dark trained at the Victorian College of the Arts where she received first class honours in the Graduate Diploma of Opera in 1995.

Dark died on 3 October 2023, aged 55, having been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer the year prior.^[3]

Performance

Dark has performed with Opera Australia, Victorian State Opera, was young artist for Opera Queensland in 2000, performed at the Vienna State Opera the roles of Giovanna (Rigoletto), Grimgerde (Die Walküre), Annina (La traviata), Mercedes (Carmen), and Il Pastore (shepherd) in Tosca.

Her 2013/2014 Opera Australia schedule included Emilia, Donna Elvira, Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin, Meg Page in Falstaff, Lady Billows in Albert Herring and Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen.^[4] She has performed the alto solos in Rossini’s Stabat Mater for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, Jacqueline Dark sang Herodias in Opera Australia’s new production of Salome and won the Green Room Award for Outstanding Principal Female in Opera as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.

Her performance experience encompasses opera, music theatre, cabaret, theatre restaurant and the concert platform; it includes the roles of The Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Carmen and Mercedes (Carmen), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), the title role and Tisbe in La Cenerentola (for which she won a Green Room Award), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Rosmira (Partenope), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Second and Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Maurya (Riders to the Sea), Mrs Herring (Albert Herring), the title role in Iolanthe, Maddalena (Rigoletto), Emilia (Otello), Lucilla (La scala di seta), Marianna (Il signor Bruschino), Flora (La traviata), Annina (Der Rosenkavalier), Pitti-Sing/Katisha (The Mikado) and Mary (Der fliegende Holländer).

Dark performed the role of Sally Lowe in the world premiere of Lindy and the title role in Iolanthe for Opera Australia, and covered the role of Pearl in the world premiere of Richard Mills‘ Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. She appeared as a soloist with groups including the Melbourne Chorale, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (concert series), Orchestra Victoria, the Australian National Academy of Music, the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

She joined the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra along with Trisha Crowe, Michael Falzon, Amanda Harrison and others to record I Dreamed a Dream: Hit Songs from Broadway for ABC Classics in 2013.^[5]

Credits: