Jonas Kaufmann has taken care in his professional choices not to be pigeonholed and has successfully tackled roles in German, French, and Italian operas ranging from Monteverdi and Mozart to Schoenberg and world premieres, as well as singing lieder and symphonic works. These verismo arias show off Kaufmann's mastery of this repertoire and his ease in bringing an authentically Italianate sensibility to this music. The recital includes a good mix of the familiar, the off-the-beaten-track, and the genuinely obscure. In the ...
Read More
Jonas Kaufmann has taken care in his professional choices not to be pigeonholed and has successfully tackled roles in German, French, and Italian operas ranging from Monteverdi and Mozart to Schoenberg and world premieres, as well as singing lieder and symphonic works. These verismo arias show off Kaufmann's mastery of this repertoire and his ease in bringing an authentically Italianate sensibility to this music. The recital includes a good mix of the familiar, the off-the-beaten-track, and the genuinely obscure. In the last category are some real gems, including arias from Zandonai's Giulietta e Romeo and Ponchielli's I Lituani, both dramatically charged pieces notable for their overt expressiveness and lyricism. All of Kaufmann's performances have a riveting intensity and display his investment in bringing the characters fully to life; he invests all his roles with intelligence and intense feeling. His voice tends to have a baritonal quality that serves him well in some repertoire, but he's in...
Read Less