Toe in the Water

Once a Little Dutch Boy

Once a Little Dutch Boy

I watched a video about an episode in the Netherlands Got Talent show (Nederland Heeft Talent) and they had this guy come on - in his late fifties I’d guess, greying hair, slightly paunchy but not fat, baggy and tired old jeans and a creased shirt. The judges start to ask him the usual questions but in Dutch, of course, so I didn’t understand a thing. Normally I can follow Dutch to a certain extent, thanks to my early education in Afrikaans, but this was high powered stuff, machine gun style.

Anyway the guy answers them in the same fast delivery Dutch and the music begins. It’s Nessun Dorma and so what follows is not entirely unexpected. We’ve seen enough former competitors on these shows to know that nobody tackles that one unless they can make a pretty good showing of it.

But this guy is special. He opens his middle-aged mouth with the irregular and slightly discoloured teeth and out of it comes this unbelievable voice, every note beautifully and professionally projected, a rendering as perfect as Pavarotti’s. The judges are astounded and then sit back just to listen, avid to see whether he can manage the final notes - the true test of any opera singer’s craft. He finishes an absolutely flawless performance and the crowd go wild. They know they’ve witnessed something extraordinary.

As for me, I know, without a doubt, that this guy is even better than the cellphone salesman in Britain who wowed everyone with the same song a few years ago in their version of the show. This Dutch Mr Nobody is easily a professional grade opera singer without any training or instruction. Because he can’t have had any - here are his two daughters rushing on stage to congratulate him, clear evidence that this feller has a family and a job that has enabled him to bring them up to be these proud and loving, mature women. No time in all that for opera singing.

So the guy is a natural and must have known that from an early age. Possession of a voice of that quality does not go unnoticed beyond adolescence. At some time that ordinary man has had to consider whether he wanted to go the whole opera bit with its attendant schooling, hard work and eventual fame and fortune, or to live a quiet and unexceptional life with the lady of his dreams and the family they produce together. And he has chosen the latter.

How many of us would make the same decision? To know that one is gifted with a prodigious talent and yet to opt for a more peaceful and fulfilling life than to try for the stardom so obviously within reach. I suspect that this Dutchman with the golden voice has chosen the wiser path. Those beautiful daughters of his are clearly a preferable legacy to the ephemeral rewards of celebrity.

I have no doubt that the man has achieved all he wanted to in life, his daughters are grown and he has decided, just this once, that he will let loose his voice in public. He is a credit to all the little people who have been satisfied with enough, who have not craved the attention and glory of fame or the big bucks of so-called success. In all probability, there is an element of this in all of us.

The video is embedded below, if you’re interested. There’s a lot of Dutch chitter chatter in the beginning but the guy’s singing is worth it all, I assure you.



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