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amNew York, 6 October 2006 |
Ted Phillips |
Jonas Kaufmann: more than just eye candy
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Jonas Kaufmann appreciates being called eye
candy, but he really just wants to be heard. "The clock is ticking and you
can't conserve that forever,' the 37-year-old tenor said of his looks with
one of the deep laughs that punctuate his conversation.
Since his acclaimed debut at the Metropolitan Opera earlier this year, the
Munich-born singer has found himself more in the spotlight in both Europe
and in the U.S.
Sitting in an aluminum chair on the sidewalk near the Met last Friday,
Kaufmann sipped a Diet Coke following a rehearsal for "The Magic Flute."
When Kaufmann takes the stage Saturday night as the handsome prince Tamino,
it won't be the first time he's played the role, but Julie Taymor's ("Lion
King") elaborate production has been a new experience.
"This production is based on all this gorgeous show that is going on and the
singers are just part of this," Kaufmann 37, said. "It's another idea than
to start with the characters and then build the rest around."
Kaufmann, a father of three, is a fan of modern productions that help
younger audiences relate to the opera. "If I see that this can actually
happen right now and next to me, it can be more interesting, it can grab me
way more, to touch me emotionally."
Kaufmann made his Met debut earlier this year playing the male lead in "La
Traviata" opposite Angela Gheorghiu's Violetta. The diva was impressed when
they were first paired together in Britain. "I thought he was absolutely
perfect to sing Alfredo and I heard a voice, a little bit baritonal voice
with a lot of temperament," Gheorghiu said in a call from her native
Romania. "We all think Germans they are not so Latin in their way to sing
and act on stage but I was surprised to find an important talent."
Gheorghiu tempered her praise with the suggestion that Kaufmann needs to
sing more French and Italian to build his confidence in those tongues. "He
needs still more and more courage on stage and in his singing," she said.
He was on the verge of quitting two years out of school because he found it
painful to sing. But then a new teacher told him to sing much deeper than he
had been taught, and he found his true voice. "As soon as I sang like I do
now, I was able to sing eight hours a day," Kaufmann said. "It opened up the
whole tenor repertory to me."
The road to success has been long but steady. The Kaufmann household was
filled with the sounds of his grandfather singing along to a Wagner score
and his whole family played piano. Subscriptions to the opera house
introduced him to the lyrical voice. Although he sang in the school choir
from the age of six, it wasn't until being thoroughly bored by a year of
studying mathematics in college that he made a serious go with his voice by
enrolling in a music school.
After graduating, he made his professional debut when he was 24 at an opera
house in Saarsbrücken with 36 performances of the operetta "Eine Nacht in
Venedig" (A Night in Venice). "It was very good training," he said. "At the
beginning you're extremely excited and you're nervous and after 15
performances maybe you get bored and say 'all that crap again.' Then you
discover that you're relaxed and you don't care much about it because you've
done it so many times and you really can work on yourself and try out things
and grow."
Following three performances in the "Magic Flute", he'll keep busy shuttling
about Europe to sing in "Carmen," "Fidelio," "Don Carlo" and "Parsifa"l
before returning to the Met to sing in "La Traviata" in March.
Being in demand is a good problem, but growing success brings new
challenges. "The difficult part now is to stay there, now that everyone's
watching," Kaufmann said.
Jonas Kaufmann performs as Tamino in "Die Zauberflöte" on October 7, 9, 13
at the Metropolitan Opera. |
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