In his latest recital album, tenor Jonas Kaufmann has
temporarily eschewed his Germanic roots to focus on Italian
verismo, with stunning results. Having successfully made the
transition from the lyric tenor roles — his first two
assignments at the Met, both in 2006, were Alfredo in La
Traviata and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte — to the full-voiced
rigors of the dramatic/spinto tenor works associated with the
likes of Bergonzi and Corelli, Kaufmann has ample competition in
the discography but very little on the actual opera stages of
today. It is reassuring to know that there are still singers
capable of doing justice to this larger-than-life repertoire, as
witness Kaufmann's successes onstage as Adriana Lecouvreur's
Maurizio at Covent Garden and Cavaradossi in the Met's 2010
revival of Tosca. Many have commented about the dark, baritonal
quality of Kaufmann's timbre, and it is true that his voice
lacks some of the intrinsic tonal brilliance of the
aforementioned Italian greats. However, Kaufmann possesses a
glamorously robust voice operated with a smooth technique, as
well as the dramatic intensity and musicality necessary to
convey the emotions generated in these pieces. Very occasionally
his sound becomes a bit covered and/or constricted in quiet
passages. At the big climactic moments, however, he always
delivers the goods with rich, heroic tone that thrills the ear.
The fact that he executes these arias with such a natural sense
of style — shaping the vocal line superbly through use of
dynamics, legato, rubato and portamento — is still more
impressive. In fact, it is difficult to identify anything about
Kaufmann's singing that is not pleasing; his achievement is
outstanding.
Most of the non-Puccini/Verdi standards
are to be found on the disc, including arias from Andrea
Chénier, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Gioconda, Mefistofele,
Pagliacci and Adriana Lecouvreur. In addition, there are some
splendid arias from lesser-known operas, including Cilèa's
L'Arlesiana, Leoncavallo's La Bohème,Giordano's Fedora,
Zandonai's Giulietta e Romeo and Ponchielli's I Lituani. The
climactic duet from Andrea Chénier, "Vicino a te," provides the
disc's fireworks finish, with Kaufmann partnered skillfully by
powerful spinto soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek (who recently made
her Met debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre opposite Kaufmann's
Siegmund). Although the relentless intensity of the music
renders it rather overwhelming to listen to the entire album in
one sitting, two reprieves from highly-charged emotion come in
the form of the lighthearted brindisi from Cavalleria Rusticana
and Licinio Refice's gorgeous song "Ombra di nube."
The
Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia,
under the direction of conductor Antonio Pappano (and in
partnership with Alitalia airlines!), plays with superb élan,
and Decca's engineers have captured the gloriously lush
orchestral sound in splendid detail while maintaining an ideal
balance between the singer(s) and instrumentalists.
A
booklet containing full texts and translations, as well as an
essay that highlights some of Kaufmann's thoughts on the
performed repertoire, rounds out what is an exceptional package
by any standard.
