Haitian Beatz

Last summer, Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste packed up her Toyota and spent five days driving solo from Miami (her home since age 9) to the South Bay (and a new gig with Opera San Jose).

"I'd never ventured further than Tampa -- Busch Gardens," says the 31-year-old soprano, who listened, while driving, to "everything from the Beatles to the Who to the Clash to 'Aida!' " she says. "And the 'Ring' Cycle; that's 16 hours right there, a good part of the trip."

Jean-Baptiste, who dubs herself "the Haitian diva," is endowed with more than a strikingly opulent voice. Irene Dalis, Opera San Jose's founder and a former diva at the Metropolitan Opera, isn't exaggerating when she says, "This young lady has something that cannot be taught -- stage presence, the ability to get inside a character."

Yet Jean-Baptiste breaks just about every opera stereotype. The daughter of immigrants from Port-au-Prince, she barely knew the word "aria" until she was 20. A fan of HBO's "Big Love," BBC America and TV crime shows, she is also "a rock 'n' roll, pop-music fanatic," she says, citing the Who's "Quadrophenia" and the Clash's "Sandinista!" as beloved albums, and "Gimme Shelter" as her favorite Rolling Stones tune. (Describing how Keith Richards' guitar eerily rises out of virtual silence, calling a world into existence at its start, she adds: "It reminds me of the opening to 'Das Rheingold,' " connecting the Stones to the breath-of-life beginning of the first installment
Advertisement
in Wagner's "Ring" epic.)

Though she still is relatively untested onstage, local audiences are increasingly glad she made that trip to San Jose. Judge for yourself. Starting next weekend at the California Theatre, Jean-Baptiste will sing the lead role of Mimi in Puccini's "La Bohème." (She alternates in that part with another fine soprano, Jasmina Halimic.)

A walking encyclopedia of opera who can recite lineages of famous and obscure lirico-spinto sopranos (of which she is one), Jean-Baptiste is consumed with her preparation for the tragic Mimi role. But opera wasn't her initial career choice.