Jonas Kaufmann (Jonas Kaufmann) |

Jonas Kaufmann

The most sought-after tenor in the world opera, whose schedule is tightly scheduled for the next five years, the winner of the Italian critics’ prize for 2009 and the Classica Awards for 2011 from record companies. An artist whose name on the poster guarantees a full house for almost any title in the best European and American opera houses. To this we can add the irresistible stage appearance and the presence of the notorious charisma, ascertained by everyone … An example for the younger generation, an object of black and white envy for fellow rivals – all this is he, Jonas Kaufman.

Noisy success hit him not so long ago, in 2006, after a super-successful debut at the Metropolitan. It seemed to many that the handsome tenor emerged from nowhere, and some still consider him just a darling of fate. However, Kaufman’s biography is the very case when harmonious progressive development, a wisely built career and the artist’s genuine passion for his profession have borne fruit. “I have never been able to understand why the opera is not very popular,” says Kaufman. “It’s so much fun!”

Overture

His love for opera and music began at an early age, although his East German parents who settled in Munich in the early 60s were not musicians. His father worked as an insurance agent, his mother is a professional teacher, after the birth of her second child (Jonas’s sister is five years older than him), she devoted herself entirely to the family and raising children. A floor above lived grandfather, a passionate admirer of Wagner, who often went down to his grandchildren’s apartment and performed his favorite operas at the piano. “He did it just for his own pleasure,” recalls Jonas, “he himself sang in tenor, sang the female parts in falsetto, but he put so much passion into this performance that for us children it was much more exciting and ultimately more educational than listen to the disc on first-class equipment. The father put records of symphonic music for the children, among them there were Shostakovich symphonies and Rachmaninoff concertos, and the general reverence for the classics was so great that for a long time the children were not allowed to turn the records over so as not to inadvertently damage them.

At the age of five, the boy was taken to an opera performance, it was not at all a children’s Madama Butterfly. That first impression, as bright as a blow, the singer still likes to remember.

But after that music school did not follow, and endless vigils for the keys or with the bow (although from the age of eight Jonas began to study the piano). Clever parents sent their son to a strict classical gymnasium, where, in addition to the usual subjects, they taught Latin and ancient Greek, and there were not even girls until the 8th grade. But on the other hand, there was a choir led by an enthusiastic young teacher, and singing there until the graduation class was a joy, a reward. Even the usual age-related mutation passed smoothly and imperceptibly, without interrupting classes for a day. At the same time, the first paid performances took place – participation in church and city holidays, in the last class, even serving as a chorister in the Prince Regent Theater.

Cheerful Yoni grew up as an ordinary guy: he played football, played a little mischief in the lessons, was interested in the latest technology and even soldered a radio. But at the same time, there was also a family subscription to the Bavarian Opera, where the world’s best singers and conductors performed in the 80s, and annual summer trips to various historical and cultural places in Italy. My father was a passionate Italian lover, already in adulthood he himself learned the Italian language. Later, to a journalist’s question: “Would you like, Mr. Kaufman, when preparing for the role of Cavaradossi, to go to Rome, look at the Castel Sant’Angelo, etc.?” Jonas will simply answer: “Why go on purpose, I saw it all as a child.”

However, at the end of school, it was decided at the family council that the man should receive a reliable technical specialty. And he entered the mathematical faculty of the University of Munich. He lasted two semesters, but the craving for singing overpowered. He rushed into the unknown, left the university and became a student at the Higher School of Music in Munich.

Not too cheerful

Kaufman does not like to remember his conservatory vocal teachers. According to him, “they believed that the German tenors should all sing like Peter Schreyer, that is, with a light, light sound. My voice was like Mickey Mouse. Yes, and what you can really teach in two lessons of 45 minutes a week! Higher school is all about solfeggio, fencing and ballet.” Fencing and ballet, however, will still serve Kaufman in good stead: his Sigmund, Lohengrin and Faust, Don Carlos and Jose are convincing not only vocally, but also plastically, including with weapons in their hands.

Professor of the chamber class Helmut Deutsch recalls Kaufman the student as a very frivolous young man, to whom everything was easy, but he himself did not get too hung up on his studies, he enjoyed special authority among fellow students for his knowledge of all the latest pop and rock music and the ability to quickly and it’s good to fix any tape recorder or player. However, Jonas graduated from the Higher School in 1994 with honors in two specialties at once – as an opera and chamber singer. It is Helmut Deutsch who will become his constant partner in chamber programs and recordings in more than ten years.

But in his native, beloved Munich, no one needed a handsome excellent student with a light, but quite trivial tenor. Even for episodic roles. A permanent contract was found only in Saarbrücken, in a not very first-rate theater in the “extreme West” of Germany. Two seasons, in our language, in “walruses” or beautifully, in a European way, in compromises, tiny roles, but often, sometimes every day. Initially, the wrong staging of the voice made itself felt. It became more and more difficult to sing, thoughts about returning to the exact sciences already appeared. The last straw was the appearance in the role of one of the Armigers in Wagner’s Parsifal, when at the dress rehearsal the conductor said in front of everyone: “You can’t be heard” – and there was no voice at all, it even hurts to speak.

A colleague, an elderly bass, took pity, gave the phone number of a teacher-savior who lived in Trier. His name – Michael Rhodes – after Kaufman is now remembered with gratitude by thousands of his fans.

Greek by birth, baritone Michael Rhodes sang for many years at various opera houses in the United States. He did not make an outstanding career, but he helped many find their own, real voice. By the time of the meeting with Jonas, Maestro Rhodes was over 70, so communication with him also became a rare historical school, dating back to the traditions of the early twentieth century. Rhodes himself studied with Giuseppe di Luca (1876-1950), one of the most remarkable baritones and vocal teachers of the 22th century. From him, Rhodes adopted the technique of expanding the larynx, allowing the voice to sound free, without tension. An example of such singing can be heard on the surviving recordings of di Luca, among which there are duets with Enrico Caruso. And if we take into account the fact that di Luca sang the main parts for 1947 seasons in a row at the Metropolitan, but even at his farewell concert in 73 (when the singer was XNUMX years old) his voice sounded full, then we can conclude that this technique is not only gives a perfect vocal technique, but also prolongs the singer’s creative life.

Maestro Rhodes explained to the young German that freedom and the ability to distribute one’s forces are the main secrets of the old Italian school. “So that after the performance it seems – you can sing the whole opera again!” He took out his true, dark matte baritone timbre, put bright top notes, “golden” for tenors. Already a few months after the start of classes, Rhodes confidently predicted to the student: “You will be my Lohengrin.”

At some point, it turned out to be impossible to combine studies in Trier with permanent work in Saarbrücken, and the young singer, who finally felt like a professional, decided to go into “free swimming”. From his first permanent theater, to whose troupe he retained the most friendly feelings, he took away not only experience, but also the leading mezzo-soprano Margaret Joswig, who soon became his wife. The first major parties appeared in Heidelberg (Z. Romberg’s operetta The Prince Student), Würzburg (Tamino in The Magic Flute), Stuttgart (Almaviva in The Barber of Seville).

Accelerating

The years 1997-98 brought Kaufman the most important works and a fundamentally different approach to existence in the opera. Truly fateful was the meeting in 1997 with the legendary Giorgio Strehler, who chose Jonas from hundreds of applicants for the role of Ferrando for a new production of Così fan tutte. Work with the master of the European theater, although short in time and not brought to the final by the master (Streler died of a heart attack a month before the premiere), Kaufman recalls with constant delight in front of a genius who managed to give young artists a powerful impetus to dramatic improvement with his full youthful fire rehearsals, to the knowledge of the actor’s truth of existence in the conventions of the opera house. The performance with a team of young talented singers (Kaufman’s partner was the Georgian soprano Eteri Gvazava) was recorded by Italian television and was a success on tour in Japan. But there was no surge in popularity, an abundance of offers from the first European theaters to the tenor, who possesses the entire sum of the qualities desired for a young hero-lover, did not follow. Very gradually, slowly, without caring about promotion, advertising, he prepared new parties.

The Stuttgart Opera, which became Kaufmann’s “basic theater” at the time, was the bastion of the most advanced thought in musical theatre: Hans Neuenfels, Ruth Berghaus, Johannes Schaaf, Peter Moussbach and Martin Kusche staged there. Working with Kushey on “Fidelio” in 1998 (Jacquino), according to Kaufman’s memoirs, was the first powerful experience of existence in the director’s theater, where every breath, every intonation of the performer is due to musical dramaturgy and the director’s will at the same time. For the role of Edrisi in “King Roger” by K. Szymanowski, the German magazine “Opernwelt” called the young tenor “the discovery of the year.”

In parallel with performances in Stuttgart, Kaufman appears in La Scala (Jacquino, 1999), in Salzburg (Belmont in Abduction from the Seraglio), debuts at La Monnaie (Belmont) and the Zurich Opera (Tamino), in 2001 he sings for the first time in Chicago, without risking, however, starting immediately with the main role in Verdi’s Othello, and limiting himself to playing the role of Cassio (he will do the same with his Parisian debut in 2004). In those years, according to Jonas’s own words, he did not even dream of the position of the first tenor on the stages of the Met or Covent Garden: “I was like the moon before them!”

Poco a poco

Since 2002, Jonas Kaufmann has been a full-time soloist of the Zurich Opera, at the same time, the geography and repertoire of his performances in the cities of Germany and Austria is expanding. In concert and semi-stage versions, he performed Beethoven’s Fidelio and Verdi’s The Robbers, tenor parts in the 9th symphony, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives and Beethoven’s Solemn Mass, Haydn’s Creation and the Mass in E-flat major Schubert, Berlioz’s Requiem and Liszt’s Faust Symphony; Schubert’s chamber cycles…

In 2002, the first meeting took place with Antonio Pappano, under whose direction at La Monnaie Jonas took part in an infrequent production of Berlioz’s stage oratorio The Damnation of Faust. Surprisingly, Kaufmann’s brilliant performance in the most difficult title part, partnered with the wonderful bass Jose Van Damme (Mephistopheles), did not receive a wide response in the press. However, the press did not indulge Kaufman then with excessive attention, but fortunately, many of his works of those years were captured on audio and video.

The Zurich Opera, led in those years by Alexander Pereira, provided Kaufman with a diverse repertoire and the opportunity to improve vocally and on stage, combining the lyrical repertoire with a strong dramatic one. Lindor in Paisiello’s Nina, where Cecilia Bartoli played the title role, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Emperor Titus in his own Titus’ Mercy, Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio, which later became the singer’s hallmark, the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto, F. Schubert’s “Fierrabras” revived from oblivion – each image, vocally and acting, is full of mature skill, worthy of remaining in the history of opera. Curious productions, a powerful ensemble (next to Kaufman on stage are Laszlo Polgar, Vesselina Kazarova, Cecilia Bartoli, Michael Folle, Thomas Hampson, at the podium are Nikolaus Arnoncourt, Franz Welser-Möst, Nello Santi…)

But as before, Kaufman remains “widely known in narrow circles” of regulars in German-language theaters. Nothing changes even his debut at London’s Covent Garden in September 2004, when he replaced the suddenly retired Roberto Alagna in G. Puccini’s The Swallow. It was then that the acquaintance with the prima donna Angela Georgiou, who managed to appreciate the outstanding data and partner reliability of the young German, took place.

At full voice

“The hour has struck” in January 2006. As some still say with malice, it’s all a matter of coincidence: the then tenor of the Met, Rolando Villazon, interrupted performances for a long time due to serious problems with his voice, Alfred was urgently needed in La Traviata, Georgiou, capricious in choosing partners, remembered and suggested Kaufman.

The applause after the 3rd act to the new Alfred was so deafening that, as Jonas recalls, his legs almost gave way, he involuntarily thought: “Did I really do this?” Fragments of that performance today can be found on You Tube. A strange feeling: bright vocals, temperamentally played. But why was it the banal Alfred, and not his deep, unsung previous roles, that laid the foundation for Kaufman’s stellar popularity? Essentially a partner party, where there is a lot of beautiful music, but nothing fundamental can be introduced into the image by the force of the author’s will, because this opera is about her, about Violetta. But perhaps it is precisely this effect of an unexpected shock from a very fresh performance of a seemingly thoroughly studied part, and brought such a resounding success.

It was with “La Traviata” that the surge in the star popularity of the artist began. To say that he “woke up famous” would probably be a stretch: opera popularity is far from being famous for movie and TV stars. But starting in 2006, the best opera houses began to hunt for the 36-year-old singer, far from being young by today’s standards, tempting him with vying with tempting contracts.

In the same 2006, he sings at the Vienna State Opera (The Magic Flute), makes his debut as Jose in Covent Garden (Carmen with Anna Caterina Antonacci, is a resounding success, as is the released CD with the performance, and the role of Jose for many years will become another not only iconic, but also beloved); in 2007 he sings Alfred at the Paris Opera and La Scala, releases his first solo disc Romantic Arias…

The next year, 2008, adds to the list of conquered “first scenes” Berlin with La bohème and the Lyric Opera in Chicago, where Kaufman performed with Natalie Dessay in Massenet’s Manon.

In December 2008, his only concert in Moscow so far took place: Dmitry Hvorostovsky invited Jonas to his annual concert program in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses “Hvorostovsky and Friends”.

In 2009, Kaufman was recognized by gourmets at the Vienna Opera as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca (his debut in this iconic role took place a year earlier in London). In the same 2009, they returned to their native Munich, figuratively speaking, not on a white horse, but with a white swan – “Lohengrin”, broadcast live on huge screens on Max-Josef Platz in front of the Bavarian Opera, gathered thousands of enthusiastic countrymen , with tears in their eyes listening to the penetrating «In fernem Land». The romantic knight was even recognized in a T-shirt and sneakers imposed on him by the director.

And, finally, the opening of the season at La Scala, December 7, 2009. The new Don Jose at Carmen is a controversial performance, but an unconditional triumph for the Bavarian tenor. The beginning of 2010 – a victory over the Parisians on their field, “Werther” at the Bastille Opera, flawless French recognized by critics, a complete fusion with the image of J. W. Goethe and with the romantic style of Massenet.

With all soul

I would like to note that whenever the libretto is based on the German classics, Kaufman shows special reverence. Whether it’s Verdi’s Don Carlos in London or recently at the Bavarian Opera, he recalls nuances from Schiller, the same Werther or, especially, Faust, which invariably evoke Goethe’s characters. The image of the Doctor who sold his soul has been inseparable from the singer for many years. We can also recall his participation in F. Busoni’s Doctor Faust in the episodic role of the Student, and the already mentioned Berlioz’s Condemnation of Faust, F. Liszt’s Faust Symphony, and arias from A. Boito’s Mephistopheles included in the solo CD “Arias of Verism”. His first appeal to the Faust of Ch. Gounod in 2005 in Zurich can only be judged by a working video recording from the theater available on the Web. But two very different performances this season – at the Met, which was broadcast live in cinemas around the world, and a more modest one at the Vienna Opera, give an idea of ​​​​the ongoing work on the inexhaustible image of world classics. At the same time, the singer himself admits that for him the ideal embodiment of the image of Faust is in Goethe’s poem, and for its adequate transfer to the opera stage, the volume of Wagner’s tetralogy would be needed.

In general, he reads a lot of serious literature, follows the latest in elite cinema. Jonas Kaufmann’s interview, not only in his native German, but also in English, Italian, French, is invariably fascinating reading: the artist does not get away with general phrases, but talks about his characters and about musical theater as a whole in a balanced and deep way.

Widening

It is impossible not to mention another facet of his work – chamber performance and participation in symphony concerts. Every year he is not too lazy to make a new program from his family Lieder in tandem with a former professor, and now a friend and sensitive partner Helmut Deutsch. The intimacy, frankness of the statement did not prevent the fall of 2011 from gathering a full 4000 thousandth hall of the Metropolitan at such a chamber evening, which has not been here for 17 years, since the solo concert of Luciano Pavarotti. A special “weakness” of Kaufmann is the chamber works of Gustav Mahler. With this mystical author, he feels a special kinship, which he has repeatedly expressed. Most of the romances have already been sung, “The Song of the Earth”. Most recently, especially for Jonas, the young director of the Birmingham Orchestra, a Riga resident Andris Nelsons, found a never-performed version of Mahler’s Songs about Dead Children to the words of F. Rückert in tenor key (a minor third higher than the original). Penetration and getting into the figurative structure of the work by Kaufman is amazing, his interpretation is on a par with the classic recording by D. Fischer-Dieskau.

The artist’s schedule is tightly scheduled until 2017, everyone wants him and seduces him with various offers. The singer complains that this both disciplines and fetters at the same time. “Try asking an artist what paints he will use and what he wants to draw in five years? And we have to sign contracts so early!” Others reproach him for being “omnivorous”, for too boldly alternating Sigmund in “Valkyrie” with Rudolf in “La Boheme”, and Cavaradossi with Lohengrin. But Jonas replies to this that he sees the guarantee of vocal health and longevity in the alternation of musical styles. In this, he is an example of his elder friend Placido Domingo, who sang a record number of various parties.

The new totontenore, as the Italians called it (“all-singing tenor”), is considered by some to be too German in the Italian repertoire, and too Italianized in Wagner’s operas. And for Faust or Werther, connoisseurs of the French style prefer more traditional light and bright voices. Well, one can argue about vocal tastes for a long time and to no avail, the perception of a live human voice is akin to the perception of smells, just as individually.

One thing is certain. Jonas Kaufman is an original artist on the modern opera Olympus, endowed with a rare complex of all natural gifts. Frequent comparisons with the brightest German tenor, Fritz Wunderlich, who died untimely at the age of 36, or with the brilliant “Prince of the Opera” Franco Corelli, who also had not only a stunning dark voice, but also a Hollywood appearance, and also with Nikolai Gedda, the same Domingo, etc. .d. seem unfounded. Despite the fact that Kaufman himself perceives comparisons with great colleagues of the past as a compliment, with gratitude (which is far from always the case among singers!), he is a phenomenon in itself. His acting interpretations of sometimes stilted characters are original and convincing, and his vocals at the best moments amazes with perfect phrasing, amazing piano, impeccable diction and perfect bow sound-guiding. Yes, the natural timbre itself, perhaps, seems to someone to be devoid of a unique recognizable coloring, instrumental. But this “instrument” is comparable to the best violas or cellos, and its owner is truly inspired.

Jonas Kaufman takes care of his health, regularly practices yoga exercises, auto-training. He loves to swim, loves hiking and cycling, especially in his native Bavarian mountains, on the shores of Lake Starnberg, where his home is now. He is very kind to the family, the growing daughter and two sons. He worries that his wife’s opera career has been sacrificed to him and his children, and rejoices in rare joint concert performances with Margaret Josvig. She strives to spend every short “vacation” between projects with her family, energizing herself for a new job.

He is pragmatic in German, he promises to sing Verdi’s Othello no earlier than he “passes” through Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera and The Force of Fate, but he does not specifically think about the part of Tristan, jokingly recalling that the first Tristan died after the third performance at the age of 29, and he wants to live long and sing to 60.

For his few Russian fans so far, Kaufman’s words about his interest in Herman in The Queen of Spades are of particular interest: “I really want to play this crazy and at the same time rational German who has wormed his way into Russia.” But one of the obstacles is that he fundamentally does not sing in a language that he does not speak. Well, let’s hope that either the linguistically capable Jonas will soon overcome our “great and mighty”, or for the sake of the ingenious opera of Tchaikovsky, he will give up his principle and learn the crown part of the dramatic tenor of Russian opera from the interlinear, like everyone else. There is no doubt that he will succeed. The main thing is to have enough strength, time and health for everything. It is believed that tenor Kaufman is just entering his creative zenith!

Tatyana Belova, Tatyana Yelagina

Discography:

Solo albums

• Richard Strauss. lieder. Harmonia mundi, 2006 (with Helmut Deutsch)
• Romantic Arias. Decca, 2007 (dir. Marco Armigliato)
• Schubert. Die Schöne Müllerin. Decca, 2009 (with Helmut Deutsch)
• Sehnsucht. Decca, 2009 (dir. Claudio Abbado)
• Verismo Arias. Decca, 2010 (dir. Antonio Pappano)

Opera

CD

• marchers The Vampire. Capriccio (DELTA MUSIC), 1999 (d. Froschauer)
• Weber. Oberon. Philips (Universal), 2005 (dir. John-Eliot Gardiner)
• Humperdinck. Die Konigskinder. Accord, 2005 (recording from the Montpellier Festival, dir. Philip Jordan)
• Puccini. Madame Butterfly. EMI, 2009 (dir. Antonio Pappano)
• Beethoven. Fidelio. Decca, 2011 (dir. Claudio Abbado)

DVD

• Paisiello. Nina, or be crazy for love. Arthaus Musik. Opernhaus Zürich, 2002
• Monteverdi. The return of Ulysses to his homeland. Arthaus. Opernhaus Zürich, 2002
• Beethoven. Fidelio. Art house music. Zurich Opera House, 2004
• Mozart. The mercy of Tito. EMI classics. Opernhaus Zürich, 2005
• Schubert. Fierrabras. EMI classics. Zurich Opera House, 2007
• Bizet. Carmen. Dec. To Royal Opera House, 2007
• Ostrich. The Rosenkavalier. Decca. Baden-Baden, 2009
• Wagner. Lohengrin. Decca. Bavarian State Opera, 2009
• Massenet. Wether. Deca. Paris, Opera Bastille, 2010
• Puccini. tosca Decca. Zurich Opera House, 2009
• Cilea. Adriana Lecouveur. Dec. To Royal Opera House, 2011

Note:

The biography of Jonas Kaufmann in the form of a detailed interview with comments from colleagues and world opera stars was published in the form of a book: Thomas Voigt. Jonas Kaufmann: “Meinen die wirklich mich?” (Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2010).