Jakub Jozef Orlinski and Il Pomo D’Oro

Queens Hall, 3/8/24

Jakub Jozef Orlinski and Il Pomo D’Oro

 The best opening Queens Hall concert for 50 years? 

That’s what I told Festival director Nicola Benedetti at the end of this extraordinary concert. This was due firstly to the very experienced superb musicians of Il Pomo D’Oro who have made the repertoire of the baroque their own over the past 10 years. They work with great singers like Joyce DiDonato and of course today’s star, Jakub Jozef Orlinski. Indeed they have recorded four albums with him, including most recently ‘Beyond’, 2023, where most of the aria’s in today’s concert can be found. This close collaboration showed very clearly in today’s magical ninety uninterrupted minutes’ tour of the baroque repertoire. The works by Monteverdi, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Strozzi and others, were with one or two exceptions, little known – in other hands ninety minutes of interval-free singing of obscure baroque music would be risky – here it was magical and kept the sold-out Queens Hall audience rapt with attention. When it finally ended there was a roar of approval from a thousand people and, after four encores and six curtain calls, a standing ovation!

 Orlinski has of course become a modern legend in the concert halls and opera houses of the world as “the breakdancing counter tenor“. Indeed his first visit to Edinburgh was preceded by a performance at the Proms and in the Olympics opening ceremony (on a roof in the rain). When I entered the Queens Hall I saw the stage was set with the musicians at the rear of the stage and a big space at the front. I said to the cellist tuning up, “so will he be dancing?” She smiled and said, “wait and see”! He did of course, but only to complement that lovely pure countertenor voice that has made him famous. Incidentally in one of his encores he showed us he has retained his original baritone voice and it sounded pretty good.

At the beginning of the concert he slipped onto the stage in a dark cloak, which became a much used prop - he hid behind it, danced with it and turned it into an old crone’s shawl. He began with a Monteverdi aria and enchanted us with perfect pitch, but also remarkable harmony with the musicians. Orlinski sang, he acted, he danced, and he enthralled the audience. This was aided by the use of surtitles, a rare but welcome element in the Queens Hall; we could all share in the anguish of love and death which dominated Orlinski’s baroque agenda. Orlinski sang, he acted a young lover, an old woman, he danced and yes even managed a bit of break dancing. He was superb.

Orlinski is not only a great artist but a very friendly man. I greeted him at the end to congratulate him and to ask him to come back next year, maybe with an opera. He said he would be delighted! I hope Nicola will take him up on that. He then sat for half an hour meeting festival goers, signing their programmes and letting his fans take photos. Incidentally, congratulations to the Festival in getting rid of expensive programmes (which only half the audience bought/could afford) and replacing them with a free programme sheet which contained all the essential information about the concert, and opening up to become a big portrait of Orlinski! 

Last year I was critical of the Queens Hall programme which began with a worthy but underwhelming half empty concert. Clearly the Festival got the message. Today’s opening concert was a triumph which delighted Festival director Nicola Benedetti, who introduced the concert and received a wave of love from the Queens Hall audience. With concerts like this and much more opera than last year, this promises to be a very good festival.

Photo Credit: Andrew Perry