Jonas Kaufmann
Biography
Jonas Kaufmann is now the world’s most successful tenor. He is internationally acclaimed for his roles in Italian, German and French repertoire and he appears at all the leading international opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opéra and London’s Covent Garden. He also performs regularly at the Salzburg Festival and reaches an audience of millions through his regular cinema and television broadcasts. Last year he was watched by millions worldwide when making his celebrated debut singing at the Last Night of the Proms from London’s Royal Albert Hall and in a special international cinema-cast of his La Scala concert “An Evening with Puccini”. As well as in opera, Jonas Kaufmann also enthralls audiences and critics alike as a lieder recitalist with his accompanist Helmut Deutsch and recently enjoyed great success with his sold-out European concert tours of Puccini arias & Du bist die Welt für mich. Jonas Kaufmann has received numerous awards, most recently the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz), an Opera News Award in New York, and the International Opera Award in London, and was appointed a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. Specialist journals such as Opernwelt, Diapason and Musical America, together with the jury of the ECHO Klassik Awards, have all voted him Singer of the Year. In 2015 his album Nessun dorma – The Puccini Album obtained his best ever general-album chart success in many countries including in Germany, UK, France & Spain. In 2014 he received the German Bambi Award for his album, Du bist die Welt für mich. Both this album and his Verdi Album from 2013 had outstanding success in the German and Austrian general-album charts and were bestsellers in the classical charts – both reaching gold status in Austria. His recording of Schubert’s Winterreise succeeded as the first Lieder album ever to enter the German and Austrian general-album charts.
Current album
Verdi: Otello
Artists Jonas KaufmannRelease Date: 06/12/2020
Sony Classical announces the release of the full studio recording of Verdi’s masterpiece opera Otello with Jonas Kaufmann singing the title role and Antonio Pappano conducting the Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Soprano Federica Lombardi sings her role debut as Desdemona and baritone Carlos Álvarez takes the role of Jago. The recording captures in perfect studio conditions the great tenor role that Kaufmann first performed in the Royal Opera House’s 2017 production, where he sang “an Otello for the Ages” (The New York Times).
Completed under ideal recording conditions in Rome over an extensive two-week period last summer, this recording presents the acclaimed collaboration between Jonas Kaufmann and conductor Antonio Pappano, who conducted Kaufmann’s remarkable Covent Garden Otello debut. The Independent remarked then on the conductor’s “masterful sweep of the whole”. It is the first Roman Otello since the legendary Living Stereo recording of 1960, with Jon Vickers, Leonie Rysanek and Tito Gobbi under the baton of Tullio Serafin.
Otello represents the absolute pinnacle of Italian tenor roles and demands everything of the singer, both vocally and dramatically. Jonas Kaufmann explains, “Those colours, the passion that makes Otello’s suspicions escalate to white heat… It is, to put it simply, from beginning to end a piece that poses huge emotional demands. But as soon as you get your voice and emotions under control, it’s fantastic to sing.”
This recording is a milestone in Kaufmann’s long journey to become today’s key exponent of this legendary role. His fascination with the work was ignited in 2001, when he sang the secondary tenor role of Cassio in Chicago’s Lyric Opera Otello production alongside Ben Heppner, Renée Fleming and Lucio Gallo. After recording two Otello scenes for his outstanding Verdi Album in 2013, Kaufmann admitted he had “tasted blood and after that I wanted nothing more than to sing the entire part.” But not before he had mastered the other great Italian roles: Manrico, Alvaro, Des Grieux, Canio, Turiddu and Andrea Chénier, which he accomplished in the following four years.
Finally in the summer of 2017 he sang his keenly awaited role debut at the Royal Opera House – the Financial Times summing up the anticipation with: “Not since Plácido Domingo essayed the role a generation earlier have expectations been pitched so high.” The response from the press was resounding: “Mr. Kaufmann … calmly, confidently sang it for the ages. His sound inescapably evokes memories of live performances and classic recordings by Vinay, Vickers and other masters; in a single night he joined their company” (The New York Times); “Jonas Kaufmann cements his legacy as one of history’s great Otellos” (Operawire); “Jonas Kaufmann’s triumphant Otello premiere” (Diapason); “Kaufmann thrills in a dark expressionistic staging” (The Guardian).
The live cinema cast of his debut run was subsequently released on DVD & Blu-ray by Sony Classical. Since these landmark performances, Kaufmann has deepened his portrayal of the tragic protagonist, in the Bavarian State Opera’s new production of Otello in 2018.
The new audio recording will be released on March 27, 2020 as a deluxe bound book, and will be available in all digital formats.
