Jeanine De Bique exquisitely sings contrasting Semele arias

Handel: SEMELE - O sleep why dost thou leave me? & Endless pleasure, endless love, Leiden concert with the B'Rock Orchestra, 2023

THE SONGBIRD: Jeanine De Bique was born in Trinidad in 1981. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music. Her professional debut was in "Porgy and Bess" in 2008. De Bique has become a specialist in baroque music with concerts, oratorios, and operas, and a recently released solo aria recital CD. Productions include "Belshazzar" in Vienna, "Alcina" in Paris, "Jephtha" in London, and "Rodelinda" in Lille. She has also sung Mozart's Donna Anna and Susanna; Rossini's rarely heard "Moise et Pharon" at the Aix Festival; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Los Angeles; and Micaela, Musetta, and Cendrillon.

THE MUSIC: Handel's oratorio "Semele" premiered at Covent Garden in London in 1744. It was only performed six times during Handel's life, but regained popularity in the 20th Century and is now regularly performed in concert and as a staged opera. The plot centers around the god Jupiter taking human form for his affair with Semele, a beautiful self-involved mortal. Jupiter's wife Juno discovers this adultery and plots Semele's downfall by cunningly using Semele's own vanity against her. At Juno's persuasion that it will make her immortal, Semele insists that Jupiter reveal his full divine form to her -- he reluctantly agrees and his fiery thunderbolts destroy her. From her ashes arises Jupiter's son Bacchus, god of wine and festivities. Here are two arias: the haunting "O sleep, why does thou leave me?" which Semele sings as she wakes up from an awesome dream, and "Endless pleasure, endless love," her party-girl anthem, which she sings as she is arrives in her new palace.