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StarTribune, September 15, 2014
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MIKE SILVERMAN , Associated Press |
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Tenor Jonas Kaufmann shows his lighter side in songs from German operetta, film |
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Is
there anything Jonas Kaufmann can't do?
The great German
tenor has long since conquered the worlds of grand opera and
classical recital. Now he turns his talents with equal success
to lighter fare, on an album of German operetta and film songs
from 1925-35.
Those years marked a period of tremendous
cultural creativity until it was brought to a screeching halt by
the ascension of the Nazis, who forced many of the composers and
performers into exile.
The album is a delight from start
to finish — and full of discoveries for the casual listener.
Beyond more familiar works by Franz Lehar, we get to hear songs
by lesser names like Ralph Benatzky, Robert Stolz and Hans May.
A particular treat is the inclusion of two duets from
operettas by Paul Abraham, the bittersweet "Give me your hands
again in parting" from "Viktoria and her Hussar" and the
irresistibly jazzy "Divan Dolly" from "The Flower of Hawaii."
In both of these, Kaufmann is partnered by the excellent
soprano Julia Kleiter, who also joins him for the album's lone
operatic excerpt, the haunting duet from Erich Wolfgang
Korngold's "Die tote Stadt" ("The Dead City").
Kaufmann,
accompanied by Jochen Rieder conducting the Berlin Radio
Symphony Orchestra, lightens his voice wonderfully well when the
numbers call for seductive crooning. But he is equally good at
summoning heroic stamina for such numbers as Eduard Kuenneke's
"The Song of Schrenk's Life," which ends in a ringing high C.
Several of the songs are heard in English translation, a
testament to their onetime international popularity (a separate
all-German version of the CD was recorded for domestic
consumption). Kaufmann's lightly accented English is
ingratiating and easily understood. Still, some of the language
choices seem whimsical: The song that gives the album its title,
written by the tenor Richard Tauber, is heard not in English but
in the original, while Lehar's familiar "Dein ist mein ganzes
Herz" ("You are my heart's delight") is sung twice — in English
and in French, but not in German.
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