A bigger-than-life opening to the EIF’s Queen’s Corridor sequence from Jakub Józef Orliński – Seen and Heard Worldwide

United Kingdom Edinburgh Worldwide Pageant – Music from seventeenth Century Italy: Jakub Józef Orliński (countertenor), Il Pomo d’Oro. Queen’s Corridor, Edinburgh, 3.8.2024. (SRT)

The sunshine has been notably missing from this 12 months’s British summer season, with Scotland no exception; nevertheless it got here out for the beginning of August and, with it, the beginning of the Edinburgh Festivals. The festivals have been on the receiving finish of a number of gloomy information just lately. There’s the overall story about arts funding, after all, however then there are Edinburgh-specific tales concerning the shortage of lodging and phenomenal prices of it for guests and for performers. As if that wasn’t sufficient, one other bin strike is deliberate for subsequent week, timed to coincide with the town’s busiest interval. Nobody is trying ahead to seeing garbage piled excessive within the streets, and let’s not even take into consideration the scent.

Fortunately, nevertheless, the town felt vibrant and joyful over the festivals’ opening weekend, with a number of guests and the terrific bustle that you just solely get right here in August. And there was loads of bustle, vitality and vibrancy on this opening live performance of the Worldwide Pageant’s Queen’s Corridor sequence, pulling in a big-name singer to do his factor with some trusted collaborators.

It’s uncommon to talk of a Celebrity countertenor, but when there’s one then Jakub Józef OrliÅ„ski is it. His youth and beauty make him eminently marketable however, extra importantly, he’s a correctly expert artist and spending ninety minutes together with his voice is a uncommon pleasure. There’s a cool magnificence to it, luminous on the high with out dropping heft on the backside, and he makes use of it terrifically. There’s agility, flexibility and plenty of energy, however all the time a concentrate on the great thing about tone that’s so necessary to early and Baroque opera.

Moreover, he’s an clever performer, as a result of what he and his group created right here wasn’t a lot a traditional live performance as a bit of immersive theatre. Operating with out interruption in a steady sequence, the succession of arias and instrumental music didn’t precisely inform a narrative, nevertheless it explored an entire sequence of moods, largely revolving across the many vicissitudes of affection. Every gave Orliński an opportunity to reveal a unique side of his voice, from Ottone’s assured return to Rome in Monteverdi’s Poppea, by means of to a number of arias of desolation and disappointment. There was even some comedy in his portrayal of an previous girl in L’Adamiro, one nonetheless burning with ardour for her husband regardless of the ravages of the years.

He was solely half the story, although. His instrumental companions in Il Pomo d’Oro made up at the very least half of the programme’s success. A splash of Italian sunshine appeared to emanate from their sound, with gorgeously vivid violin enjoying and a delightfully saucy cornetto sound. Miguel Rincon’s vibrant theorbo enjoying deserves a particular point out, and he even managed a comedy duet with Orliński whereas he performed the guitar.

This was the identical programme Orliński did on the BBC Proms, and which shaped the premise of his Past album (evaluation right here). As on the Royal Albert Corridor, the Queen’s Corridor auditorium was plunged into darkness and Orliński moved across the corridor to sing, in addition to deploying a number of costume adjustments to embody completely different characters. All of it received just a little a lot on the finish when he appeared so taken with the viewers’s response (‘who, me?!’) that he rolled out no fewer than 4 encores. And sure, there was even some breakdancing. Nevertheless it if all received a bit foolish then it nonetheless made for a massively entertaining morning. The morning Queen’s Corridor sequence usually options the far more rarefied world of string quartets and solo pianos: how on earth will they comPete after a larger-than-life opening like this one?

Simon Thompson

The Edinburgh Worldwide Pageant runs at venues throughout the town till Sunday twenty fifth August. Click on right here for additional particulars.

Monteverdi – ‘E pur io torno qui’ from L’incoronazione di Poppea; ‘Voglio di vita uscir’
Marini – ‘Passacalio’ from Per ogni sorte di strumento musicale Op.22
Caccini – ‘Amarilli, mia bella’ from Le nuove musiche
Frescobaldi – ‘Così mi disprezzate’ from Arie musicali, E book I
Kerll – Sonata for Two Violins in F
Strozzi – Cantate, ariette e duetti, Op.2: L’amante consolato
Cavalli – ‘Incomprensibil nume’ from Pompeo Magno
Pallavicino – Sinfonia from Demetrio
Netti – ‘Misero core’, ‘Si, si, si scioglia si’, ‘Dolcissime catene’ from La Filli
Sartorio – ‘La certezza di tua fede’ from Antonino e Pompeiano
Netti – ‘Quanto più la donna invecchia’ and ‘Son vecchia, patienza’ from L’Adamiro
Jarzębski – ‘Tamburetta’ from Canzoni e concerti
Moratelli – ‘Lungi dai nostri cor’ from La Faretra smarrita