With rich texture and bold femininity, Jeanine De Bique releases her debut album “Mirrors” on October 22, 2021 on Berlin Classics! Miss De Bique is accompanied by the renowned baroque orchestra Concerto Köln, with musical direction by Luca Quintavalle. The album focuses on baroque arias and includes three world premiere recordings. Arias of heroines such as Rodelinda, Alcina and Cleopatra, composed by George Friderich Handel and his contemporaries- Carl Heinrich Graun, Riccardo Broschi and Georg Philipp Telemann complete the program.
The female protagonists are central to the album’s title and concept. “Mirrors” is the profound intimacy of Handel arias explored and juxtaposed with unknown arias of the same characters from the music of his contemporaries. Yannis François, musicologist and concept creator for the album explains: “The listeners can experience different reflections of the same character as if they were looking at themselves through a broken mirror.” The arias tell of key moments in the psychological development of the protagonists, illuminate the diversity of the female experience and the relatable perspectives of their lives.
The repertoire, adapts to the extraordinary temperament of Jeanine De Bique’s voice, is designed to be rich in contrast and varied, allowing the versatile florescence of colors of her voice to stir and bloom. Mr. François remarks: “Not many sopranos can easily jump from Handel’s Rodelinda to Weber’s Agathe to Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music! The possibilities of developing a program for her debut album were endless!”
These bold female characters who, despite strokes of fate, are ultimately rewarded for their tenacity, strength, forgiveness and love. Aroused with awe and compassion, Ms. De Bique recognizes the unique opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the female experience, using her multicultural background of Trinidad and Tobago. She identifies as a new voice, not only of these familiar characters, but also for women who are still trying to find spaces to free and reclaim their voices. From her flexible expressions to the figures she embodies, she is in fact a mirror within the album.
Her collaboration with the orchestra proved inspiring for her. “It seems as if everything that has shaped me as a person and as a musician has given me the means to meet the musical and emotional demands of the program,” says De Bique. With Concerto Köln and Luca Quintvalle, “I knew I had found the finest performing partners.”
Mirrors explores human relationships in a musically rousing way, allowing the listener to feel exuberance, surprise and delight, discover new music and enjoy the familiar. This album fulfills Miss De Bique’s desire to to reflect the wealth of her cultural background in connection with baroque music, as she lifts these female characters from being notes on a page.
