This is a wonderful disc, the most exciting and enterprising
operatic recital that I have heard for a very long time. Jonas
Kaufmann widely agreed to be the finest German tenor since Fritz
Wunderlich, explores that part of the Italian repertoire called
verismo, though that word (implying truth to everyday life)
means little here.
Neither Romeo lamenting over the body
of Juliet, nor the legendary Faust, are characters from ordinary
life. Rather verismo refers to a style, one displaying
passionate abandon in which characters feel as much as possible
and prefer not to think at all. Yet Kaufmann and Pappano have
explored and come up with some gems which are surprisingly
restrained, as well as including some of the famous set pieces,
such as “Vesti la giubba!” from I Pagliacci - sung here with an
inward intensity that Italian tenors tend to disdain.
Kaufmann has everything, and at the age of 40 his voice may well
be in its finest shape. He brings a Classical training to these
arias, and yet he doesn't in any degree stint on the passion. He
rations his sobs and gasps, but is far more moving and much less
inclined to provoke giggles than tenors who indulge in them. And
he shows what a range of emotions and idioms there are under the
heading verismo, which we often use so lazily to mean Italian
opera roughly contemporary with Puccini. In the last item, he is
joined by the thrilling Eva-Maria Westbroek for the ride to the
guillotine in Andrea Chénier, and they leave one gasping. I can
only hope that this revitalises a repertoire which we have
allowed to shrink to a few familiar works.
PERFORMANCE
*****
RECORDING *****
