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The Australian, August 12, 2014 |
MURRAY BLACK |
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Konzert, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, 10. August 2014 |
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A ten out of tenor performance from a vocal virtuoso Jonas Kaufmann
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FEW Australian debut appearances were as keenly awaited as that of German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. With his movie-star good looks, slender build and spectacular voice, he’s described as the complete package. |
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It was Kaufmann’s rich, dark-hued timbre that made his voice so distinctive.
Its baritonal quality brought incredible strength, depth, richness and
complexity to his middle and lower registers. Yet he fearlessly soared into
his firm-voiced top register and hit the high notes with ease. It was
remarkable.
Kaufmann’s artistry goes even deeper. Throughout his
concert, he sustained resounding clarity and a focused tonal core. His
dynamic control was extraordinary while his vibrato was so sensitively
deployed it was almost imperceptible until required. He is fluent in four
languages, and his diction was excellent.
At first glance, one might
have considered Kaufmann’s program parsimonious. Each aria was interspersed
with an orchestral interlude. But it quickly became clear why. The arias
he’d chosen were both technically and interpretatively taxing.
Kaufmann is renowned for his intensity and insight. So it proved, resulting
in some of the most outstanding singing and compelling artistry I’ve ever
witnessed.
In both Recondita armonia from Puccini’s Tosca and The
Flower Song from Bizet’s Carmen, for instance, Kaufmann’s periodically
soft-grained voice and spellbinding mezza and sotto voce passages created
touching expressions of love.
By contrast, his explosive reading of
Vesti la giubba from Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci burned with ferocity.
Banishing the darker colours from his timbre, he delivered a brilliant
display of fervent top-register singing in Mamma, quel vino e generoso from
Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana.
The concert’s other three arias
showed the fullest range of Kaufmann’s dramatic and vocal gifts. His shapely
phrasing and flexibility in Pourquoi me reveiller from Massenet’s Werther
realised its twin emotions of sadness and joy. In both Don Alvaro’s Act III
aria from La Forza del destino and Improvviso from Andrea Chenier, his sense
of line and seamless dynamic shifts from unadorned quietude to full-voiced
fortissimo power astutely balanced sensuous lyricism and intensity.
Conductor Jochen Rieder and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
provided sensitive accompaniments. Aside from two Verdi overtures, which
lacked urgency and focus, they created evocatively coloured accounts of
other orchestral excerpts.
But this was Kaufmann’s evening. He
generously responded to the sustained standing ovations with three encores.
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