Every few years, a new singer appears, sometimes from a country outside of the usual cultures that produce opera singers, and makes a splash for one reason or another. These careers sometimes prove hard to sustain, for often the singers involved are competent but little more. Listen only to the slower pieces in lower registers from this release by Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique, and one might suspect more of the same. Until that is, one hears the passagework at the top, great blooms of perfectly etched vocal flowers. It's utterly remarkable, and the fact that De Bique seems to have come out of nowhere is enough to explain the excitement and the strong chart performance of this release. The program is an attraction, mixing Handel with considerably lesser-known operas by some of his contemporaries; the likes of "Rimembranza crudel" from Telemann's Germanicus offers a hint of the many riches still to be rediscovered in this repertory. Anyone curious about De Bique need only sample the opening "Tra le procello assorto" from Carl Heinrich Graun's little-known Cleopatra e Cesare for a taste. The work of Concerto Köln and keyboardist-conductor Luca Quintavalle is excellent throughout. Avoiding the hyper-intensity of the Italian style, they support De Bique sensitively and elegantly. The other aspects of De Bique's art may well develop sooner rather than later, and in the soprano display pieces, she's already tops.