A voice sweet as your mother’s milk
We almost ate him alive: Jakub Józef Orliński, the countertenor everyone adores, sang at the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival and enchanted us with his Voice, his charms and his naughty smile.
Pure joy for flowers /// Pavel Kristián ml. / LVHF.cz (c)
The applause had already died away when Jakub Józef Orliński casually opened his brown jacket before the last pre break number of his concert. He was about to start, but a shy and honest ‚woo‘ from the mayors’ wife behind me prompted another wave of laughter and admiration. Poor Orliński wasn’t sure, for a second, how to react to our love. Because love it was, from the first moment he entered the pompous riding hall of Valtice Castle, pooring onto him from all corners of the audience.
Finally, we don’t have to castrate poor little boys…
No wonder. If you have ever heard him sing live, you know why we were about to eat him alive, à la ‚Das Parfüm‘. That’s just the more surprising, since countertenors in general are divisive. That somewhat thin, high-pitched singsang with which they try to imitate the castratos from the baroque period can indeed be annoying. Often they have to press too much to be heard above the orchestra, and the result is then too sharp. For the real deal, we would still have to cut off the testicles of a few hundred boys a year so that a handful of them become superstars like in Händels times, one could think ironically. Until you listen to Orliński.
His voice is as sweet and soft as your long forgotten memory of drinking milk from your mother’s breasts. And strong, without being pressed. That he is a fine musician on top of that makes the whole experience almost otherworldly. My girlfriend wasn’t by far the only one who started weeping while he sang Vivaldi’s Sento in seno. Just wouldn’t there have been the slight suspicion she cried because of his beauty that she will (hopefully) never possess...
Orliński ows a lot to the Vivaldi aria Vedrò con mio diletto. 2017 at the Festival Aix-en-provence he was asked to sing it for radio. He found out only shortly before the performance that there would be an audience and couldn’t change his outfit. So he sang in shorts, sneakers and like an angel. The video went through the roof, almost 8 Million people have watched it (that’s how I found out about him too), more than anything else by a counter. Since that, he is known for this incredible piece of music. He might already detest it after all those times, nailed it anyway.
Baroque music is a little like feeding your eyes with a beautiful facade of the period, like the one of Valtice castle. The lavishly ornamented, repetitive structures somehow satisfy your brain and your soul. That’s what I thought, listening to the excellent Ensemble Matheus under its founder Jean-Christophe Spinosi playing in between the arias. Spinosi was on fire, conducted at times with his eyebrows or with unique, shaking hand movements only his musicians could understand. He even played the violin with concertmaster Laurence Paugam (his sister-in-law) in Vivaldis (yes, he was the only composer except the encores, I certainly didn’t mind) dialogically experimental double concerto RV 513.
Breakdancing? Sure he does…
Before the last encore (Händels Agitato da fiere tempeste) Orliński hinted his breakedance abilities with a few movements. Yes. He looks like a mixture of Michelangelos David and Matt Bomer, is a charm-bomb without an equal, has a celestial voice AND he is a breakdancer. Can you believe it? I am struggling. After some patient waiting time in the VIP-tent, we got the chance, to talk to him. And yes, he is as real and open-minded as he seems on stage. To my greatest horror, he has never sung in Vienna. But stay tuned, that won’t stay like that for long...