Jackie Opel Amphitheatre, Barbados

Jackie Opel, a Barbadian whose real name was Dalton Sinclair Bishop, created the music genre spouge. Spouge is described as a mixture of ska and calypso, and was the music that rocked Barbados and the Caribbean in the 1960s. Jackie Opel died tragically in a car accident in 1970 at the young age of 32. His music is viewed with nostalgia by his contemporaries, and the musicians who come after him see his music as representative of true indigenous Barbadian music. To honor Jackie Opel, the Barbados Government included an amphitheater in the construction plans of the General Post Office in Bridgetown in 1998 and dedicated it to his memory. The amphitheater is the site of many cultural presentations, religious services, and other events dedicated to the arts. -Marsilyn Browne

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