[From the music director of Philharmonia Baroque, in the 7/11 www.sfcv.org] I first met Lorraine and heard her sing in the Handel Festival on the SUNY-Purchase campus in upstate New York in 1985. She sang the role of Sesto in the premiere of Peter Sellar's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. It was obvious that she was an absolute star from the moment she came on stage. I remember especially the duet with Cornelia at the end of the First Act. Aside from the wondrous beauty of her voice, there was an intensity of emotion that I have almost never heard from any other singer before or since. Instantly, she became the true star of the show. The next year, we worked together on a production of Handel's Saul in San Antonio, Texas. We both hugely enjoyed the slightly raffish atmosphere of the place and even danced the cha-cha together at a party. We lost our "Messiah virginity" together, with the St. Louis Symphony in 1986. It was wonderful to watch an orchestra become totally transfixed by her artistry. It is still one of the performances of the piece that I treasure most fondly. For some seven years starting in about 1988, Lorraine sang almost every season with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and, as one might expect, she was always the highlight. We performed several Handel oratorios, including Susanna, Messiah, and Theodora. Her singing of the title role in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas was so moving that the entire audience was reduced to tears by the end of the Lament. Luckily, many of these performances were recorded, some of them live. Nothing can ever beat the experience of actually being present while she sang, but listening to the CDs is still moving, especially knowing that we will hear her no more in the concert hall. Many of the roles she sang contained much sad music, but the process of rehearsing and recording with her was always filled with joy. She had a tremendous sense of humor and was fond of a good story and a hearty laugh. I feel lucky to have known her, to have been her friend, and to have been beside her while she sang so gloriously. (N.M.) And from what was perhaps her first review, from Charles Shere in the Oakland Tribune, April 17, 1972, of a performance in the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, conducted by Denis deCoteau [late, long-time music director of the San Francisco Ballet]: The Oakland Youth orchestra showed its stuff last night in an almost frightening display of competence and musicianship. At many points along the tiring two-hour-plus concert the sound was thoroughly professional. After Miss Jacob took her place next to the principal cellist, the assistant principal violist, Lorrie Hunt, came forward to sing "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice," from Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah. It's not fanciful to suggest an affinity between her instrument and her voice, which is sweet, honey-dark and full, and seems to be produced with great ease. She simply stood there and sang, hardly even opening her mouth, with an even range, secure high notes, and marvelous control of dynamics in the swells, before the famous descending line of the aria. There was even some smolder to this 16-year-old's delivery of the seductress' aria. Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]