Jonas Kaufmann is the star of international opera houses who has won
acclaim for his voice and interpretation of leading roles.
Critics
hailed the German tenor’s performance in ‘Carmen’, at London’s Covent
Garden saying it was, ‘the darkest, most passionate Don José in decades’.
The 40-year-old, whose professional career began in 1994, believes his
voice is the key to his work and performances.
“This voice is for me the most beautiful instrument in the world
because there is nothing in-between, it goes directly out of your body,
directly out of your feelings, out to the world,” he said.
Today he’s capable of perfecting his own voice. It wasn’t always the
case. When he began, bad advice and inappropriate teaching almost ruined
his career.
“I came to the point after my first year and the first contract that I
completely lost my voice, I wasn’t able to sing anything anymore, even the
lightest, the ‘easiest’ thing. The sensation of being on stage, and
realising with every line you’re singing that the voice is going down and
you probably won’t be able to even talk within the next ten minutes, it’s
extremely frightening.
“People expect very typical sounds from a young German singer. I sang
less and less and less because everybody said ‘oh, be quiet, softly,
softly, don’t touch your voice, don’t do too much’, and I ended up having
no voice at all. Finally I met a teacher who said to me ‘just open your
mouth, just let it out, and sing with your own full voice’,” he recalled.
“What I put into my singing are my real feelings. You reach a point of
total joy, of complete heroism, of complete destruction, and as you are
doing that for the audience, you’re looking into yourself, you see your
soul, and that is something that can frighten because that means all those
things, all those thoughts, all those feelings are inside.
“When I’m leaving the stage, thank God, I’m myself, so I can switch
that off and I can become a Jonas Kaufmann again,” he explained.
A Jonas Kaufmann who is appreciated throughout the opera world with an
established international reputation.