Cast
Jakub Józef Orliński Countertenor
Il Giardino d’Amore
Stefan Plewniak Conductor
Presentation
How do you sweep the public and the music critics off their feet at the age of thirty? By becoming an opera star in two seasons thanks to a countertenor voice and a break-dancer’s physique! This is undoubtedly one of the fastest and most astonishing achievements in classical music, highlighting the baroque repertoire. For this new programme, Jakub Józef Orliński has chosen to work with his Polish compatriots of the Ensemble Il Giardino d’Amore led from the violin by Stefan Plewniak. And the programme is an anthology of works by two 18th-century masters: the Italian Vivaldi, and the German Handel.
Show moreHere are arias from the operas of Handel’s maturity which inflamed London with the voices of the most famous Italian castrati: Tamerlano (1724, Andrea Paccini), Tolomeo (1728, Senesino)…By Vivaldi, here are orchestral pieces to intersperse Handel’s arias, taken from his famous violin concertos that were admired throughout Europe during the composer’s lifetime. But Orlinski also performs an aria from Vivaldi’s opera Giustino: it was first performed at the Carnival in Rome in 1724, but (since women could not sing in Rome) only with male performers, including seven castrati! (Handel used the same libretto for his own Giustino, premiered in London in 1737, with the castrato Gizziello in the title role). There is no doubt that in this display of virtuosity and sensitivity, which were the two exceptional qualities of the castrati, Orlinski is a master!
Programme
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
L’Olimpiade : Sinfonia, Allegro
Georg Friedrich Haendel (1685 – 1759)
Tamerlano : Aria, “A dispetto d’un volto ingrato”
Antonio Vivaldi
Violin concerto : RV 273, Allegro
Show moreGeorg Friedrich Haendel
Arsace : Aria, “Furibondo spira il vento”
Antonio Vivaldi
Violin concerto : RV 273, Largo
Il Giustino : Aria, “Vedro con mio diletto”
Violin concerto : RV 242, Allegro, “Per Pisendel”
Longe mala, umbrae, terrore : Aria
Entracte
Antonio Vivaldi
Violin concerto : RV 208, “Il grosso mogul”, Allegro & Grave Recitativo
Georg Friedrich Haendel
Tolomeo : Aria, “Stille amare”
Antonio Vivaldi
Il Farnace : Sinfonia, Andante
Il Giustino : Aria, “Sento in seno”
Il Giustino : Sinfonia, Allegro
Il Tigrane : Aria, “Fara la mia spada”
Violin concerto : RV 208, “Il grosso mogul”, Allegro
Georg Friedrich Haendel
Rodelinda : Aria, “Dove sei amato bene”