Opera Magazine 2004

von Weber: Der Freischütz, Edinburgh, 17 August 2004

Usher Hall

The cast was mainly strong. As Max, Jonas Kaufmann, now a welcome fixture at the Edinburgh Festival, confirmed that he is the leading German lyric tenor since Fritz Wunderlich. His voice has grown over the past three years, he projects it powerfully, and as a pupil of Hans Hotter he cultivates a legato line within which every expressive inflection is accommodated. He finds it impossible not to act, too, so his interpretation of this difficult role was uncommonly sympathetic. For once Max didn't seem a wimp, and Kaufmann's voice is light and flexible enough to cope with Weber's severely taxing demands