The sad corollary has been a feeling that the more heroic
tenor sound — often called “spinto” — has gone lacking for fresh
talent. Rolando Villazon tried to move from the light roles into
the heavier, and a vocal crisis ensued. And just recently we
lost to a tragic accident Salvatore Licitra, who a few years ago
had seemed poised to attain true stardom in spinto roles.
Now comes Jonas Kaufmann, German by birth, and in his early
40s. His is a strong, masculine sound, as handsome as the man
himself. The vocal colors include deeper hues, as with Placido
Domingo, but his top seems to be more reliable than Domingo’s
often was. So far the greatest acclaim has come to Kaufman in
Wagner, but he is by no means limiting himself to Lohengrin and
Siegmund. His Don José for Covent Garden made it to DVD, and now
Decca has released a Werther from Paris in 2010 and a 2009
Zürich Tosca with Kaufmann’s Cavaradossi. Both DVDs put on
display a confident, poised tenor whose stardom obviously stems
from a lot more than his good looks. For some he may never be a
true spinto in Italian repertory, due to his nationality, but
then those same fans (or their “ancestors”) felt the same about
Jussi Bjorling. His is a different type of voice, larger and
darker, but Kaufmann probably has no qualms in following the
great Swedish tenor’s path.
Film director Benoît
Jacquot’s Werther staging for Paris (although initially
presented at Covent Garden) leaves wide open spaces for Kaufmann
to fill with his stage presence, which the tenor has no problem
doing. The set for the first half vaguely resembles a strand
near a seashore on an overcast day, while the second half is
staged in a vast study, dark and masculine in appearance.
Director Jacquot uses these simple surroundings as platforms for
emotional interaction, rather than symbolic display.
Unfortunately, Jacquot, working with Louise Narboni, indulges in
some odd camera angles as a video director, and he also makes
use of backstage footage in a gambit that proves initially
interesting but ultimately annoying.
Massenet’s opera
respects the Goethe source material almost too much, as two
hours with a dreary emotional wreck amounts to around 119
minutes more than most people would want to spend, even with
such gorgeous music. Kaufmann’s Werther shines in his opening
paean to nature, the character’s only few minutes in the opera
not spent being a moody, lovesick drip. Even more impressive,
though, is Kaufmann’s ability to draw the audience into
Werther’s plight, so that the intolerable self-pity is muted by
a sense of larger social forces oppressing the anti-hero. A big
part of Kaufmann’s success lies with the sheer power and
authority of his voice. There is no resorting to sobs or
ostentatious drooping of the vocal line. Kaufmann lets the
inherent pathos of Massenet’s score fill out the emotional
picture.
As the object of Werther’s passion, Sophie Koch
plays too much to Charlotte’s modest beauty, both in demeanor
and voice — there must be some passion there to make us
understand the depth of Werther’s attraction. Ludovic Tezier, on
the other hand, is almost aggressively bland and prosaic as
Albert, the man Charlotte must marry to fulfill a promise she
had made. The veteran conductor Michel Plasson and the Paris
musicians unfurl gorgeous swaths of color and texture in
Massenet’s score. Decca’s two disc set has no bonus feature,
though the booklet does have more original material than the
usual DVD set booklet offers these days.
Robert Carsen’s
Tosca for Zürich would make the NY audiences that bayed at Luc
Bondy’s production for the Metropolitan howl and foam as if
rabid. Carsen sees Puccini’s take on the Sardou play as
anticipating the glory years of the American film studios, so
the sets and costumes (by Anthony Ward) play upon the libretto’s
settings to create a sort of mock film set, and at times a stage
proscenium. Most of it works quite well, as Tosca and Scarpia
are both inherently theatrical creatures, and Kaufmann’s
Cavaradossi is more in line with the strong, though not so
silent, type of leading man. A couple of bolder touches will not
work well for all viewers — whether it’s having Cavardossi’s
Madonna painting appear in Scarpia’s office during act two or
having Scarpia attack it with a knife. Your reviewer got a big
kick out of Tosca’s fatal leap taking place over the footlights
at the edge of a stage, topped with Emily Magee taking her solo
call in character. Others may not be amused. But the test of any
Tosca is if it can find the emotional truth of the drama while
breaking through the calcified stage directions that make the
drama too clichéd to make any impact, and Carsen does so, with
the invaluable assistance of his excellent leads.
Vocally, Kaufmann takes the prize. His solo pieces are gorgeous,
and he can roar out a “Vittoria” with the best of them. Magee’s
Tosca is best in the dramatic exchanges. Her large voice grows
gritty and unpleasant in extended lines, and though Carsen has
Thomas Hampson’s Scarpia applaud Magee’s “Vissi d’arte,” his
sarcastic look is unfortunately understandable. Hampson’s take
on Scarpia has freshness and edge, but it seems unlikely he will
take on this role at any of the larger American houses. By the
middle of act two, hoarseness scratches at the edge of his
voice. Taken together, though, all three leads are successful
enough to make this a very worthy competitor in the very crowded
field of Tosca on DVD.
An unfamiliar name, conductor
Paolo Carignani treats the score to a fresh approach, with
expansive pacing and an expert selection of orchestral detail.
The Zürich forces follow his lead beautifully. Decca’s single
disc set has a basic essay and synopsis in the booklet and no
on-disc bonus features.
Kaufmann will be in huge demand
for years to come, and US audiences will have to wait their turn
for his appearances here. With two fine DVDs such as these, at
least we have something of the tenor’s to watch while we wait.
For
some years now the opera world has reveled in the appearance of many fine
lyric tenors, with Juan Diego Florez leading the charge.
