BALLARAT’s musical and theatrical “daughter” Jacqueline Dark has been dubbed Artist of the Year by esteemed theatre writer Deborah Jones.
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Dark is an operatic mezzo-soprano who grew up in Ballarat, attending Ballarat High School, Ballarat Grammar and later what is now Federation University.
She is currently a principal artist with Opera Australia and has starred in a number of opera, music theatre, cabaret and concert performances including the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, for which she won a Green Room Award in 2014.
In 2015, she was cast in a leading role, Mother Abbess, in The Sound of Music alongside Cameron Daddo, Amy Lehpamer and Marina Prior.
In addition, she performed in Aida at Sydney Harbour and also wrote and performed in her own cabaret production, Strange Bedfellows.
Jones, The Australian’s theatre writer for 10 years, said Dark was a “thrilling and versatile” mezzo and cabaret artist as well as “a trouper of the highest order”.
“Obviously she can get to the summit and back with ease in Climb Ev’ry Mountain, but she gets the acting part of it so right too. That said, Dark could have won this title just on the basis of her courageous performances as Amneris in Opera on Sydney Harbour’s Aida early this year,” Jones said in her blog.
“Apart from the challenge of having to sing from on high – you can just see Dark in Nefertiti’s eye – the weather was appalling, costumes became waterlogged and thus as heavy as a hod of bricks, and yet the show had to go on. Dark sounded fabulous, of course. She is a trouper of the highest order.”
Dark, who is currently balancing being a top Australian performer with raising a three-year-old boy, said the accolade was “overwhelming”.
”It’s the hugest honour and I’m still a bit gobsmacked really, but it’s gorgeous,” she said.
”I did a lot of different things, it was a fantastic year, especially with the cabaret and writing and performing my own show and stepping outside the comfort zone.
“We were really lucky that people liked it.”
While growing up in Ballarat, Dark performed in amateur groups such as the Ballarat Light Opera Company, which she described as “absolutely the best fitting” to learn “all stage craft and get performance experience”.
