Bouncing between Montreal, Warsaw, and Vienna, star countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński is squeezing in his Philly debut
The rockstar-like countertenor will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Handel’s "Messiah."
Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński is mobilized for operatic stardom, and then some.
Microphones love his richly colored falsetto voice, magazine covers like his looks.And behind a dense schedule of multiple trans-Atlantic flights, lies a supportive private life that has him rooted in his native Warsaw with fiancée, family, and Labrador Retriever.
The Kimmel Center performances of Handel’s Messiah, Dec. 12-14, comes as a curious break from solo concerts and high-profile opera productions. Here, Orliński is an equal partner with three high-calibre soloists plus the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
But does he really need to do this?
“‘Tis the season. I love singing Messiah. It’s one of the best things. That’s why I jumped on the opportunity to sing it with Maestro (aka Nézet-Séguin),” said Orliński, (whose friends call him J.J.) in a Zoom interview from the Montreal airport.
“This is the third time [the Philadelphia Orchestra] invited me to do something. Two years ago it was the Bach Mass in B Minor, but I was too busy. Now I have the time.” Sort of.
Within a two-week period, he will bounce between Montreal, Vienna, and Philadelphia. The precedent of a student visa, dating back to his Juilliard School years (2015-2017), makes the immigration process a little easier, saving him from the kind of entry snafus plagueing many Europe-based artists now.
Passport officials, he says, can’t help chatting him up about Juilliard, even though he has gone on to win numerous awards, is regularly seen in European fashion magazines, has two Grammy Award nominations (among his eight recordings most of which are on the Warner/Erato label), and generates much comment for appearing shirtless at seemingly every opportunity. And that included his 2021 Metropolitan Opera debut in Eurydice, playing Orpheus’ alter ego.
Orliński’s physique gets discussed among concert goers and critics, much in the spirit of pianist Yuja Wang’s concert attire. Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, now Opera Philadelphia chief, has also appeared similarly exposed at the Met in years past.
Is this a possible smoke screen for lack of talent? No, because in all their cases, their artistry wins out.
Lingering criticism stings though, Orliński admits. But his legions of social media followers do generate ticket sales. Shirt or no shirt, he would always have mixed reactions among chronically opinionated operagoers.
“It’s okay. I am feeling good with what I’m doing and how I‘m doing it,” he said.
His life resembles that of a rock star life but doesn’t sound like one. Well, maybe a little bit on his 2024 album, #LetsBaRock, which has Monteverdi bathed in modern electronic sound. “In the time of Monteverdi, they would change the instrumentation,” he said, “and that’s exactly what we did.”
He’s good to his word: The vocal tracks could be lifted out of the electronic context and transplanted exactly into a traditional Monteverdi recording. His recordings (so far) stick close to his home ground in the 18th century, often with worthy pieces previously buried by history.
Orliński’s Philadelphia stage debut returns him to the scene of an early-career heartbreak when he was fresh out of Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. “I did audition for the Curtis Institute in 2014,” he said. “Curtis has this incredible focus on the individual because it’s such a small school. Amazing faculty.”
He didn’t get in for lack of a slot for countertenors — a specialized male-falsetto voice type that has only entered U.S. mainstream opera in the past 30 years, partly thanks to the outreach efforts of fellow countertenor Roth Costanzo.
Baroque opera, the usual launching point for countertenors, wasn’t often performed in Philadelphia at that time.
In Juilliard, he studied with the noted soprano Edith Wiens. During his New York years, he sang some of his first Messiah performances in Carnegie Hall. Only a year out of Juilliard, he released his first album Anima Sacra in 2018 with a cover showing him with bare shoulders.
At times, one worries he’ll catch a cold.
Bur not Orliński, whose health regimen helps him keep up a daunting schedule that, in the first two months of 2026, has 15 performances in two Handel operas. Among them is a cross-Europe tour in the titular role in Giulio Cesare in Egitto.
The Philadelphia concerts boast of star soloists like Lucy Crowe, Frédéric Antoun, and Quinn Kelsey. Orliński is fine with being a member of this larger ensemble. Though Handel offers no character portrayals to the individual singers, he sees himself and his colleagues as co-conspirators in telling the central story of the messiah.
“It’s not just re-creating what was written,” he said. “There are places...where you can write your own cadenzas and ornaments.” Like being a rock star from another century.
Philadelphia Orchestra performs Handel’s Messiah. Dec. 12-14, Marian Anderson Hall, 300 S Broad St, Phila. $43-$240. philorch.ensembleartsphilly.org