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About the House, ROH,
August 2010 |
Heidi Waleson |
Jonas Kaufmann
In demand
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Soon
to be heard as the dashing Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, JONAS KAUFMANN is
the tenor of choice for opera houses from London to New York... which is
where Heidi Waleson catches up with him
ONE NIGHT IN LATE APRIL, AFTER JONAS Kaufmann capped his incendiary
performance as Don José by murdering his Carmen, Kate Aldrich, in a frenzy
of stabs, the Metropolitan Opera audience leaped to its feet to give him a
standing ovation.
He had a similarly magnetic effect on audiences at the Royal Opera House in
2006 when he sang Don José in Francesca Zambello’s new production of Carmen.
‘The dark-eyed Jonas Kaufmann, who’s stepped straight out of a Caravaggio,
brings subtle intelligence and dignity to the role. For once, you believe in
his charms,’ wrote Fiona Maddocks in the London Evening Standard. As for his
Don Carlo for The Royal Opera in 2009: ‘Jonas Kaufmann attempts something I
have never heard before in a Don Carlo, a fundamentally introverted, poetic
soul, capable of heroic heft when needed. His mezza voce in the closing bars
of the final duet were spellbinding,’ said Hugh Canning in the Sunday Times.
It’s no wonder that Kaufmann’s international career has exploded in the last
half-dozen years. He is the whole package: an expressive, powerful voice
with baritonal hues and gleaming top notes, acting skills and stage
presence, and, for a bonus, smouldering good looks. Kaufmann made his Covent
Garden debut opposite Angela Gheorghiu in the 2004 revival of La rondine and
he will once again be Gheorghiu’s leading man here in the new David McVicar
production of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.
At the end of a long day of meetings and autographing in New York, Kaufmann
needed some coffee, but he was affable and unguarded, as lively and
expressive face to face — in excellent English — as he is onstage. The Met’s
Carmen, directed by Richard Eyre, was premiered on New Year’s Eve with other
singers, but Kaufmann and Kate Aldrich brought a different energy and some
new staging ideas to it. After the Seguihilla, for example, Kaufmann’s José
couldn’t keep his hands off Carmen; then there was the stabbing at the end.
‘Richard was very open,’ Kaufmann says. ‘Directors love the idea that
there’s some personality of each singer in the production, because if you
just imitate something that seemed natural to someone else, you will never
achieve reality onstage.“
Kaufmann always searches for deeper roots in his characters. He is looking
forward to Adriana for its ‘gorgeous music — it‘s a verismo opera that’s
elegant,’ and to humanizing Maurizio, the Count of Saxony, and lover of the
actress Adriana. ‘He’s a historical figure, and a heroic guy,’ Kaufmann
says, ‘It’s funny — when he starts describing her, all he can find are
military things to compare her to, like “my flag”, which I don’t think is a
really charming compliment! But OK, it makes him sympathetic and human, and
it’s important to find that quality for heroic characters. Look at Lohengrin
— he’s a superhero type who comes in, fulfils the mission, and runs away.
That’s really boring. You have to find a way to establish that he longs for
a normal, regular life, having a wife, a family. Then the third act is more
tragic.
The tenor has now appeared in numerous opera houses with Angela Gheorghiu
(including a number of Traviatas) and the two have onstage chemistry.
‘Angela is, in a very positive way, spontaneous and unpredictable,’ Kaufmann
says. ‘She likes to surprise you in performance. I like that very much,
because then you really start playing kind of a game on stage, and it
creates this connection. I am always looking for people who are open-minded,
and thinking of things other than just holding the high note.
KAUFMANN GREW UP AND STUDIED IN Munich. After some years in regional German
theatres (including Saarbrucken, where he met his wife, mezzo Margarete
Joswig; they now have three children), he found an artistic home in 2000 at
the Zurich Opera where he was able to try out everything from Monteverdi’s
Nero to Parsifal. Soon major opera houses were inviting him to tackle roles
like Alfredo, Cavaradossi, Werther, Don Carlo, Florestan and Lohengrin, most
often to rapturous reviews. ‘A Lohengrin for the ages,’ enthused Opera News
about his debut in the role at the Bavarian State Opera in July 2009.
‘Kaufmann’s Act III was a lesson in Wagnerian vocalism, his vocal palette
ranging from lyric to dramatic, his top notes thrilling, his youthful
enthusiasm ever-present, his communicative talent spellbinding... Forget the
good old days! Kaufmann can stand comparison with the very best.’ This
summer. he sings Lohengrin for his Bayreuth debut.
Some might worry that this variety of repertory might lead to a loss of
focus, or even vocal damage, but Kaufmann insists not. ‘it keeps my voice
fresh and healthy to mix these all up, because you are forced to control it.
You can never run your voice on auto mode, because it is always something
new and different. And all those different repertories profit from each
other. When you are singing a Wagner part, you are not shouting through the
entire evening, but doing it the way Wagner would have wanted, with
beautiful belcanto phrases and some voix mixte that you have from the French
repertory. Then in the French, you sometimes have these really heroic
outbreaks, and if you have sung Wagner, you know how to turn on the turbo,
and give something extra without hurting yourself.’ He adds, ‘I’ve been told
many times, “why would you start singing something like Siegmund when you
still have a high C?’ I hope I will have a high C for too long to be able to
wait!’ Kaufmann even wants to sing Tristan some day. He is holding off on
Otello, however. ‘For me, it feels like Pandora’s box. Once you open it,
everyone wants you to sing it, and they may forget about all the other
parts!’
‘You should never feel any pressure. You do it for yourself, for your
joy, for your entertainment. That way you are able to do challenging things’
The variety, and the need to learn new roles all the time, Kaufmann says,
keeps him interested, just as playing off a strong onstage partner does. It
also keeps him happy. ‘You should never feel any pressure,’ he says. “You do
it for yourself for your joy, for your entertainment. You go out there, and
know it’s going to be great. That way, you are able to do challenging
things.’ In January, after three days of rehearsal for his first ever
Werther, in Paris, he came down with swine flu and was out for two weeks. He
returned, still with no voice, for the dress rehearsal, so that he could do
a run-through, see the stage, hear the orchestra and work with the conductor
— all for the first time. He sang the opening — albeit with some coughing.
There was a live telecast. In retrospect, he says, ‘This was probably not
the most relaxed way to try out a part you’ve never sung before — a French
opera with an all-French cast, in Paris at the Bastille, with a live
transmission. But it’s fine, as long as you don’t panic. And I don’t.’ Did
he ever? Kaufmann says he learnt to conquer stage terrors back when he was
16, shaking all over while singing solos for his high-school classmates.
Now, he says, ‘since I know how to sing, I’m always relaxed.’
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