nº64 / JAKUB JÓZEF ORLIŃSKI / RINALDO / LONDON
- Zoltan Alexander
- Mar 1, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 27
Whilst the exhibition Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear opened at the lower level of V&A, mesmerising the visitors, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński returned with conductor Olivier Zeffman to the Raphael Court with Handel’s Rinaldo, a flamboyant drama of love and a lot of fearless furies.
Review by Zoltan Alexander
FLAMBOYANT DRAMA° LOVE AND JAKUB JÓZEF ORLIŃSKI performing RINALDO
Could be Handel’s Rinaldo, gender-fluid menswear, underwear, 18th-century paintings, contemporary art, photography and Tilda Swinton’s Orlando put together under the same roof?
One has to admit that Music & Art cannot be looked at and enjoyed in an isolated manner, nor can they be segregated from other forms of art. There is divine energy when Art & Music juxtapose and interact. The Victoria & Albert Museum in London has mastered that on many occasions. It is one of the rare places where fine art, contemporary art, fashion, and music live creatively together.
PHOTO / "Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear" V&A / Photo © Courtesy of Zoltan Alexander
Whilst the lower level of the museum gave space to the exhibition Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, based on a reflection on gender-fluid creativity in men's fashion, the Raphael Court, on the upper level, provided a perfect frame for a classical concert, for the fearless love affair of Handel’s Rinaldo.
There was an undeniable metamorphosis between the floors and art forms at the V&A, and there will certainly be an undeniable crossover between readers, music lovers reading fashion, and menswear enthusiasts discovering operas maybe for the first time.
“The world always will be with a male or female, the pink, the pearl and the perfection of your sex.” Orlando
PHOTO / The Raphael Court - V&A / Photo © Courtesy of Zoltan Alexander
RAPHAEL X ORLIŃSKI
The Raphael Court currently houses seven full-scale designs painted for the Raphael Cartoons, commissioned in 1515 for the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, where the first set of tapestries was woven from Raphael’s designs. The cartoons are considered one of the greatest treasures of the Renaissance.
This magnificent place gave a perfect frame for the evening. Orliński debuted with Handel and Vivaldi in New York at Carnegie Hall, and another production of Rinaldo served as his UK operatic debut at the Glyndebourne Festival. Following the immense success in 2018 at the Barbican Centre, Orliński returned with Rinaldo to the V&A with internationally renowned conductor Oliver Zeffman for a one-night exceptional concert.
The concert was also the opening of the Music X Museums series, an innovative collaboration involving major London museums. The participating museums, alongside the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Viking, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, seem to share the same vision.
PHOTO / (top) The Raphael Court of the V&A / Photo © Courtesy of Zoltan Alexander
PHOTO / (middle) Jakub Józef Orliński and Oliver Zeffman / Photo © Courtesy Zoltan Alexander
PHOTO / (bottom) Portrait of Jakub Józef Orliński / Photo © Courtesy of Matthew Johnson
Known for his pioneering spirit and inspiring vision with live and digital audiences, Oliver Zeffman directed the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields in a series of concerts including the V&A, the British Library, the Science Museum and the Royal Museums in Greenwich. Music X Museums combines carefully chosen masterpieces of classical and contemporary music inspired by Art and Architecture.
“After more than two years of such precarious cultural activity, it's more important than ever for different art forms and different art institutions to be working together to bring exciting cultural events to the public, in this case pairing great music with great art and architecture” Oliver Zeffman
PHOTO / The Raphael Court - V&A / Photo © Courtesy of Zoltan Alexander
A FLAMBOYANT DRAMA OF LOVE
The repertoire put together by Zeffman for the V&A included excerpts from Handel’s Rinaldo, Partenope, and Riccardo Primo, as well as Cavalli’s La Calisto and Stravinsky’s neoclassical Apollo. Music by Lully, Stravinsky and contemporary composer Caroline Shaw has also been selected to reflect on the exhibition Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear and its core themes: Undressed, Overdressed and Redressed.
I LOVE YOU
I LOATHE YOU
IT’S WITCHCRAFT
It all started in Hamburg when Handel began to compose operas, and towards the end of 1710, he reached London. Rinaldo was the first opera in Italian written specifically for the London stage. He accomplished the work within the space of a fortnight. The opera is considered one of Handel’s finest and was first staged at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket, in 1711. It is a perfect remake, a musical patchwork, as Handel borrowed extensively from his earlier compositions, particularly those from his years in Italy.
The novel Italian singing style with its arias, recitatives and orchestral effects won immediate success. Despite the typical, negative reactions from literary critics, hostile to Italian entertainment in English theatres, the audience loved the theatrical effects, the mermaids, the flying machines and the live sparrows. Rinaldo went on to dominate opera in England for several decades and was the most frequently performed opera during Handel's lifetime. However, after 1731, the opera was not staged for more than 200 years.
PHOTOS / Oliver Zeffman and Jakub Józef Orliński at the Raphael Court / Photo © Courtesy of Matthew Johnson
PHOTO / (bottom) Portrait of Jakub Józef Orliński / Photo © Courtesy of Anima Aeterna-Alicja Lesiak
Handel’s compositions invite singers to show off their flexibility and range at a daring speed. In most concert halls, operas are being performed in strict concert style with no acting, and although at the V&A there were no mermaids nor theatrical effects, in front of a 15th-century golden altarpiece of St George, Orliński gave a hypnotic performance with his unique understanding of opera. He perfectly mastered Cara Sposa with a period-instrument orchestra. His velvet-toned, though razor-sharp voice was mesmerising and, on occasions, hit such heights that Raphael’s gods, angels and warriors of the Acts of the Apostles literally came to life.
Rinaldo is a flamboyant drama of love, witchcraft, and a lot of fearless furies, not to mention the pretty outrageous plot. After several unbelievable turns in the tale, the usual happy ending is delivered. It has a twisted Baroque style, although the opera crowd did not seem to mind it and rather enjoyed all that nonsense.
Zeffman’s direction was splendid, a divine arrangement; Jakub Józef Orliński was a virtuoso!
INDEX
COVER
(left) Disco Ball / Photo © Alec Soth
(right) Portrait of Jakub Józef Orliński / Photo © Courtesy of Honorata Karapuda
Cover design © ZOLTAN+MEDIA Paris
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
“Rinaldo” by Handel
Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński
Conductor Olivier Zeffman
V&A / London (UK)
“Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear”
V&A
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
19 March 2022 - 6 November 2022
PHOTOGRAPHERS
© Zoltan Alexander
© Camilla Greenwell
© Matthew Johnson
© Martin Jelovsek
© Dufaj
© Anima Aeterna-Alicja Lesiak
VISUALS & WEBDESIGN
© Zoltan Alexander ZOLTAN+MEDIA Paris
WEB LINK
JAKUB JÓZEF ORLIŃSKI
WARNER CLASSICS & ERATO
IMG ARTISTS
PREMIERE COMMUNICATION
JAKUB JÓZEF ORLIŃSKI / CONCERT DATES
The Music X Museums series / London
V&A / 1 April 2022
British Library / 22 April 2022
Science Museum / 17 May 2022
Royal Museums Greenwich / 12 July 2022
CONCERT PROGRAMME
1 April 2022 / V&A
Oliver Zeffman conductor
Jakub Józef Orliński countertenor
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Jean-Baptiste Lully: Le bourgeois Gentilhomme - Overture
Francesco Cavalli: Lucidissima Face from La Calisto
George Frideric Handel: Siam Prossimi al Porto from Rinaldo
George Frideric Handel: Furibondo Spira il Vento from PartenopeCaroline Shaw: Entr’acte
George Frideric Handel: Cara Sposa from Rinaldo
George Frideric Handel: Agitato da Fiere Tempeste from Riccardo Primo Igor Stravinsky: Apollo
22 April 2022 / British Library
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
The Bach Choir
Oliver Zeffman conductor
Peter Donohoe piano
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 Pastoral
Ludwig van Beethoven: Choral Fantasy
17 May 2022 / Science Museum
Stephen Hawking: Maths in MusicAcademy of St Martin in the Fields
Oliver Zeffman conductor
George Benjamin: Canon & Fugue from Bach The Art of Fugue
Harrison Birtwistle: Tragoedia
William Marsey: new commission
Per Nørgård: Voyage into the Golden Screen
12 July 2022 / Royal Museums Greenwich - Cutty Sark
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Oliver Zeffman conductor
Dame Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Harvey: Tranquil Abiding
Edward Elgar: Sea Pictures
Thomas Adès: Shanty - Over the Sea
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
