Rejoice Greatly indeed

December 14, 2018 3:25 AM

Trinidadian soprano Jeanine DeBique performs 'Rejoice greatly' from Messiah (SLYT) People are gagging over her ability to accurately and gorgeously render the challenging coloratura of this piece at near breakneck speed, with such warmth and expression. Her slow sections are equally beautiful. At the 2:25 mark, her use of straight tone is devastating. DeBique is in a class by herself.

Contrast DeBiques' tempo with Renee Fleming's here - which is pretty well accepted as the standard. Or Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who is fast but it's all tightly contained inside her head and she looks, well.... stolid.

posted by I_Love_Bananas (34 comments total)

Oh my goodness, this is fantastic. I love the moment around 00:40 where her eyes are like "yep, we're still rejoicing". And at the end where she's clearly so proud that she nailed it. Incredible command of her instrument.
posted by terretu at 3:59 AM on December 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

This made for a lovely start to the day, thank you.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:30 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

A great performance! Her control and precision in the fast passages is so impressive, especially at 2:54. The orchestra should also be given credit for keeping it together at that tempo in the unforgiving acoustic of the Albert Hall. At the back of the stage, you can hear very little of what's going on at the front, so all you can do is watch the conductor's baton and the leader's bow and hope.
posted by cyanistes at 4:31 AM on December 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

Ooh, that's a wonderful rendition!
posted by Harald74 at 4:32 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is fantastic.
posted by minsies at 4:33 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I also enjoyed the big grins on some of the musicians in the orchestra when they finished.
posted by Harald74 at 4:39 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Made me cry. Great stuff.
posted by corvine at 4:43 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

The Messiah is my absolute favorite and I try to take in a performance at least every couple of years.

I have never heard Rejoice Greatly performed like this. I said Oh my God! at my desk repeatedly. Amazing. Thank you for posting.
posted by duffell at 5:01 AM on December 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Holy crap she's good. The long straight tone is a ridiculous display of technique but I was super excited by how she deployed it on a few earlier downbeats, just for a beat, to really twist the knife on some appoggiatura dissonances. I don't think I ever really appreciated how vibrato can blunt the dissonance.

Damn that was good. That tempo is fast for violins. (The whole orchestra was rocking it too.) Her clarity at that speed is unreal. All that plus happy and awesome. Wow.
posted by range at 5:10 AM on December 14, 2018 [10 favorites]

More De Bique: 'Da tempeste' from Handel's Giulio Cesare; 'Kyrie' (extract) from Mozart's Große Messe in c-Moll ; 'Io t'abbraccio' from Handel's Rodelinda (with counter-tenor Tim Mead).
posted by cyanistes at 5:13 AM on December 14, 2018 [10 favorites]

That tempo, my goodness. And just killing it all the way. Nice.
posted by Lizard at 6:19 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

She's wonderful. And that is the correct tempo. I did it for years with the Baltimore Symphony under the direction of Ed Polochick, who conducts from the harpsichord and takes everything about 10-20% faster than the standard tempo. All other Messiahs sound slow to me. :)

I particularly like De Bique's efficient use of straight tone in the right places. Wonderful expression and a lovely performance.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:04 AM on December 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

It’s also really refreshing to see an orchestra that’s not full of old white dudes, especially at royal Albert hall
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:12 AM on December 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

That was an A+ super WOW!
posted by james33 at 7:21 AM on December 14, 2018

Thank you for posting this! What a gorgeous performance. Also, kudos for tagging it "YassssQweeeeen". Sadly, this is the only post tagged "YassssQweeeeen" and I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of MetaFilter to make 2019 the Year of YassssQweeeeen.
posted by pjsky at 7:23 AM on December 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

Her slightly cocked eyebrow near the end, along with her smile, are priceless expressions of satisfaction. A wonderful performance. The entire stage of musicians knew it too. Brava!
posted by MyTwoCentsToo at 7:27 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is the first time I've flagged a post as fantastic. And I'm crying in sobs. What else should I say? So amazing.
posted by mumimor at 7:27 AM on December 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Wow. I listened to a bit of opera when I was younger, and I have a Telarc Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Layton James on harpsichord. This is ... much faster than I remember, and Ms. DeBique kills it. Lovely! I'll have to look for an opportunity to see her live -- that'd be fun. (Our local symphony has figured out that people will go for stunt concerts, so it's a lot of "live play-a-long with Star Wars" and stuff like that.)
posted by spacewrench at 7:29 AM on December 14, 2018

Jon_Evil, that's the Chineke! Orchestra, which is the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up of mostly black and minority ethnic musicians.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:30 AM on December 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

People are gagging over her ability to accurately and gorgeously render the challenging coloratura of this piece at near breakneck speed, with such warmth and expression.

This is lovely. But hardly nauseating. Does gagging mean something else colloquially elsewhere?
posted by eviemath at 7:31 AM on December 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

I was wondering about "gagging". I'm tentatively going with it being a typo/thinko for goggling.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:37 AM on December 14, 2018

I think "gagging" in this context is the next level beyond breath-taking, where not only does your diaphragm refuse to work, but your soft palate goes completely slack in awe.
posted by notsnot at 7:39 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

She’s amazing, she sang in a production of Dead Man Walking that we did a couple of years ago (not long before this video went viral and her career really blew up), and my wife provided her transportation for much of the production, so spent several hours chatting with her. Jeanine is a lovely person, and as amazing as her performances of historical music are, she was jaw-droppingly great in Heggie’s contemporary opera.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:39 AM on December 14, 2018 [13 favorites]

"Gagging for it."
posted by slkinsey at 7:48 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's an old meme but "get yourself a partner who looks at you like" the woman over her shoulder on the right in the front looks at her at 0:22.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:13 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Gagging (per Urban Dictionary): Slang term primarily used by gay men in the early to mid 90s. used when something is so fierce you can't help but wanting to gag from the overload of extreme fierceosity.

Drag culture has elevated this term a great deal, but I realize that many people don't have as much exposure to that as I might guess. Sorry about that!
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:28 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I first encountered this use of the term "gagging" in drag slang, as an expression of envy and admiration. e.g. "I am gagging over her eleganza." Pretty sure that's what it means in this case.

(On preview, jinx I_Love_Bananas.)
posted by merriment at 9:29 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

One of the things I really liked about this post and this piece is that they both took something I think of as traditionally white and stodgy and breathed life into it. Gagging made me laugh--I've never heard that language applied to Handel!-- I loved the diverse orchestra, and there are just no words for Jeanine.

Thank you.
posted by chatongriffes at 9:45 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

She. Is. Incredible.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:55 AM on December 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

well that is quite an extraordinary talent! her performance was masterful, she is incredibly beautiful (and I kinda want that dress...)

I love that the orchestra is primarily POC, I had noticed the conductor is Black. I'm not an opera person so this is all new to me. WOW!!! thanks for the post!
posted by supermedusa at 9:57 AM on December 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Without my glasses I read the first two words as "Trinidadian superhero." Indeed she is!
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 10:44 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is Western classical music at its best. What we’re all (theoretically) going for, what it should be. Bravi tutti!
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 12:03 PM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have sung this solo in concert. I never felt actively BAD about my rendition until now. So... thanks?

(No seriously she's amazing and this is great)
posted by tzikeh at 12:21 PM on December 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

not really enough meat for FPP but here is some awesome Black Opera Excellence (sorry its a facebook link...)
posted by supermedusa at 10:29 AM on December 24, 2018