Jeanine De Bique radiates passion in Alcina's monumental aria

Handel: ALCINA - Ah! Ruggiero crudel ... Ombre pallide, 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: "Alcina" was composed for Handel's first season at Covent Garden in London and premiered in 1735. The opera soon fell into obscurity and was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928, followed by occasional revivals and recordings that have since grown the opera's reputation; today it is one of Handel's most popular and widely produced. It's one of his "magic" operas with sorcery and spells woven throughout the plot. Alcina and Morgana are sisters and both sorceresses who fall in love with mortals who trick them. Alcina may be Handel's greatest soprano role. In Act Two, after Alcina's lover Ruggiero has been freed of her enchantment over him and leaves her, she tries to conjure magic spirits to seek revenge -- only to discover she has lost her magical powers. The monumental aria "Ombre pallide" begins with an evocative accompanied recitative, and then ends the act with flourishes of despair and anger that she is powerless.