The Caribbean soprano who triumphs in the world of opera

GironaThe soprano Jeanine De Bique (Trinidad and Tobago, 1981) is one of the most relevant and interesting singers of her generation. An interpreter with a sweet, luminous, and versatile voice, she has established herself as an accredited specialist in the baroque repertoire of Handel and the classicism of Mozart, while also delving with solvency into the romanticism of Verdi, Puccini, or the challenges of contemporary music. Born on a Caribbean island, far from the great capitals of classical music, she trained in New York, Vienna, and Switzerland and has already sung in the best theaters around the world. This Sunday, August 16, she will perform at the Festival de Torroella de Montgrí, alongside the Freiburger Barockorchester, under the direction of Éva Borhi, with a program dedicated entirely to Mozart.

As a teenager, De Bique studied singing and piano in her home country with two professors who had traveled to Europe. At that time, she hesitated between pursuing law or psychology, but eventually chose to dedicate herself to singing, driven by her teachers and also by pure intuition, as at that time, when the internet had barely reached the island, she had very little information about the path she should follow and the possible professional opportunities. In Trinidad and Tobago, there are no opera houses or role models in this field, but music, in a broad sense, is indeed extremely present. "The country has a very strong tradition of folklore, calypso, carnival, Indian music, African percussion, dance, and choral singing. I sang in school choirs, my grandmother sang in church, and my mother played the organ and guitar," explains De Bique. All this background, in one way or another, has propelled her throughout her career and forged her as a lyric singer. In fact, deep down, there aren't so many differences between the tradition of popular music from Trinidad and Tobago and the world of opera: "Some of the hymns I sang as a child in church came from adapted German Bach chorales, which arrived on the island through colonialism, but I wasn't aware of it until, years later, while pursuing classical music, I realized they were the same melodies," the singer notes.

From this background, De Bique has built a way of understanding live and open music, focused on the recovery of classical and baroque operas written more than 400 years ago, but always with the will to demonstrate their relevance. "Stories may come from another time, but the emotions are very real and continue to exist: love, jealousy, war or forgiveness are profoundly current experiences," he argues. That is why he considers it fundamental to continue programming and singing operas from the past, since, otherwise, "in a world that is moving forward so terribly fast – he says – we run the risk of forgetting our history and where many of the things that define the present come from." Likewise, De Bique claims the extraordinary capacity of opera to bring together and fuse music, poetry, theatre and visual arts in the same creation. "The more diverse opera becomes and the more languages it collaborates with, the more possibilities there will be to attract people who still think it is boring today," he concludes.

"Mozart is one of my favorite composers"

In Torroella, De Bique will complete the orchestra's symphonic program with the motet Exsultate, jubilate and the arias Deh, se piacer mi vuo, from La clemenza di Tito, and Se il padre perdei, from Idomeneo. "Mozart is one of my favorite composers," the singer certifies. What attracts him most to the composer is the precise combination between the apparent simplicity of his writing and an enormous sophistication full of details. The lightness that floats in the air but holds an enormous emotional depth beneath. "This music allows my voice to communicate emotions in a way that seems easy, but is actually extremely complicated," she highlights. The character of Vitellia, from La clemenza di Tito, is a good example: "A very intense, very powerful woman, but with a strong sense of vulnerability. It is precisely this complexity that connects me with Mozart's female characters, who are not one-dimensional, but multifaceted," describes the soprano.

Mozart's writing, so precise and polished, requires absolute mastery of technique. That's why Mozart is a very valuable school for tackling any later repertoire. "When I have sung roles like Violetta, in La traviata, or Bess, in Porgy and Bess, I had Mozart in mind. It helps me learn a kind of cleanliness and clarity to approach romanticism without straining the instrument," states De Bique. Handel gives her the same foundation from which to explore new repertoires. "These two composers help me to know the capabilities of my voice and where it is heading," she explains. 

And where is the Caribbean soprano's voice heading? De Bique doesn't want to make promises or commit to specific characters, operas, and composers. However, she admits that, from her beloved baroque and classical genre, she still has composers to explore like Vivaldi, Graun, and Rameau. She also wants to return to roles she has already performed, such as Violetta, Micaëla from Carmen (which she sang at the Liceu in 2024) or the Countess from Le nozze di Figaro. And, on the horizon, she is eager to tackle more and more French and German romantic repertoire, and contemporary music.