The Mail on Sunday, 20.1.2008

ANTHONY HOLDEN

Jonas Kaufmann: Romantic Arias

Jonas Kaufmann especially admires Placido Domingo and some of that distinguished veteran's questing intelligence, he played nearly 120 roles on stage and recorded at least 90 of them, can be found in Kaufmann's newly issued debut album Romantic Arias. As well as standard Puccini and Verdi he offers some superb Wagner and Weber, as well as Gounod and Massenet and a particularly fine account of an unusual aria from Berlioz's Damnation Of Faust. And he is already learning that same composer's Les Troyens which most singers of his type would never touch. Nowhere among these 13 items does his reach exceed his grasp; everything is done with eloquence and impeccable taste. There will be pressure on him to major on the German repertory particularly the lighter Wagner roles and given the dearth of competition such stuff could dominate his time to the exclusion of almost everything else. He says he won't let it happen and I hope not. On this evidence he is embarking on a career that could and should embrace anything he chooses from Mozart to Puccini.