Polish counter-tenor Jakub Józef Orliński (33) is not your everyday opera star, and he knows it. A champion skateboarder and breakdancer, Orliński’s also a cover model for Vogue, with millions of hits on YouTube and 215k followers on Instagram. Here, Orliński introduces a whole new generation of social media followers to the beauty of Renaissance music, through his powerful tone and expressive performance style.

Here in Orliński’s Proms debut (and the first late-night Prom of 2024), he works with long-time collaborator, programme researcher Yannis François, to produce a sung-through programme with no applause breaks (although the audience can’t resist after the dancing rhythms and vocal runs of Barbara Strozzi’s “L’amante consolato” (1651). As is Orliński’s calling-card, none of the programme has ever been performed at the Proms before (bar one piece by Giulio Caccini), offering an opportunity to hear unknown gems from across the “Seicento” (Italian 17th century).

Orliński bounds around the stage – literally cartwheeling, when the music expresses joy. He ventures out into the audience with a lamp when he is lost. He also bundles himself up in a cape to play a comic old crone, from the opera L’Adamiro (1681) by Giovanni Cesare Netti. All the while, period ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro transport us back in time with a conductor-less, ensemble-led tightness and attention to period accuracy. Their aching instrumental by Biagio Marini, “Passacaglia” (1655), is in fact one of the highlights of the programme.

The Prom ends with a quadruple encore: Orliński literally asks us four times, “Can we do one more?”. While many late-night Prommers leave, anxious to catch the last train, most stay; turning the advertised 75-minute runtime into 100 minutes. It’s testament to Orliński’s boundless energy, but it’s also self-indulgent.

Tickets for all 73 Proms are available from just £8 on the BBC Proms 2024 website.