Episode 74: Jakub Jozef Orlinski
Critics be Damned. Sing Your Own Song.
In 2013, Quvenzhane Wallis received a Best Actress Oscar Nomination at nine years old for her role inBeasts of the Southern Wild. She became the youngest actor in history to be nominated in that category. The press and criticisms that soon followed her nomination were the nadir of reporting. The Onion referred to her using a word that I will not write but is a derogatory term referring to the female genitalia and often used pejoratively against women. Chrissy Teigen hate Tweeted against her not once, but twice. And an older, white Academy voter said he wouldn’t vote for her because he couldn’t pronounce her name. She was a nine-year old black child at the time. She was a nine-year old child at the time.
We all have our critics, right? As much as we are perhaps loved, admired, and heralded even by the many, there will always be the vocal few who are our detractors. And for many of us, criticisms can sting and ring in our heads for days or months or lifetimes. Often on ATP we have had guests who talked about how one statement, one person’s critique shifted their view of themselves. Or even changed the trajectory of their lives or careers. Our words, good and/or bad have extreme power. In Psalms 57.4, David says, “My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” It seems that for millennia we have used words recklessly to tear down one another.
Jakub Jozef Orlinski, each night walks onto stages of the top opera houses and theatres around the world and sings Baroque music in his countertenor (a voice that has complicated associations with the castrati of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and is featured in articles today that are written about men who sing like women). It’s a complex voice type that exists at the intersection of our thoughts about gender identity, manhood, sexuality and yes, beauty. It is a beautiful and unusual voice type. And the critics, many of them, have jumped onto Jakub’s rising star in the operatic world, calling him and his voice angelic, sexy, Instagrammable. Words we don’t often associate with sacred music and texts. But with Jakub it is so. And even more improbable because his journey to becoming an internationally acclaimed countertenor began with a lost bet, that opened the door to him singing in the higher reaches of his falsetto voice.
Today, Jakub sells out concerts around the world, and has millions of views of his work on all the social channels. Now he is also able to pragmatically approach the glowing superlatives and the not so nice statements made about his singing that in the beginning made him question if he should continue to be a singer at all. As he says, to drown out the negative critics, you have to be strong. You have to believe in yourself and your journey. You have to be willing to learn who you are. You have to practice, practice, practice until the quality of the art you create surpasses the artifice of looks, charisma and good timing. And can snatch the tongues from the mouths of the hounds at the door who are too often pleased to strike you down.
