Deutsche treat
All the usual suspects are included: a little Lohengrin, Parsifal, Walküre, Fidelio, Zauberflöte. Also included are two rarely heard Schubert arias from his operas Fierrabras and Alfonso und Estrella. Let me get right to the point: Kaufmann is on his home turf vocally and it shows: he sings this repertoire spectacularly. The German is flawless; the voice rich, dark and powerful. He phrases with due consideration for the musical line and text. Top notes spread slightly here and there, but it’s so minor that mentioning it is mere quibbling. At times, the voice is so dark that it reminded me of Fischer-Dieskau, but it’s the Wagner arias that gave me chills: at times, Kaufmann’s sound approaches Vickers territory.
The disk opens with two little ditties from Lohengrin: “In fernem Land” and “Mein lieber Schwan!” Both are impressively sung, but the opening phrases of the latter show Kaufmann’s true potential for handling the demands of Wagner. After some lovely and carefully phrased pianissimo singing in the first few lines, his voice really opens up during the mid part of the aria. True, this is a studio recording, but if his voice can cut through Wagner’s orchestra in a live production, Kaufmann should have a long career as a heldentenor.
Kaufmann then moves on to “Dies Bildnis” and “Die Weisheitslehre dieser Knaben….” and is ably assisted by Michael Volle as the Speaker in the second. His singing here demonstrates the care with which he must be managing his career: he has no problems handling the more exposed vocal lines of Mozart. (There’s no hiding behind a Wagner orchestra here.)
The two Schubert arias are charming, with the second, “Schon, wenn es beginnt zu tagen” from Alfonso und Estrella written more like a lied than an aria but for the orchestration. These make a nice change of pace and I confess to a complete unfamiliarity with Schubert’s operas. These two pieces place no heavy demands on Kaufmann, and he sings both beautifully. The opening crescendo of “Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!” from Fidelio is a study in vocal control, and the final three arias: “Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond” from Die Walküre and two from Parsifal. “Nur eine Waffe taugt,” is as well sung as anything on the recording, but on hearing the opening phrases of “Amfortas! – Die Wunde,” I couldn’t help but think Tristan is in Kaufmann’s future. (Margarete Joswig chimes in as Kundry.)
Claudio Abbado conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with all the skill and sensitivity you would expect. Again, it’s a studio recording, so the orchestra and voice are perfectly balanced. I’d love to hear Kaufmann doing the Wagner arias live and see if the sound is as full and powerful in the concert hall as it is on this recording.
can’t believe none of you ladies & germs watched Jonas in the Paris Opera’s streamed Werther a few weeks back. talk about MEZZmerizing. This is a world-class singing actor of a type we haven’t had in a long while – and so pretty and tall, too! Who, by the way, is looking forward to pretty and tall and good-singer stuff from James Valenti opposite Signora Gheorghiu shortly at il Met?
JG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUHtuqS8YSo&feature=related
I think some of the Werther links have been removed like Charlotte’s aria or the second act finale.
Here is another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHF9qSLUtfE&feature=related
In the future Klaus Florian Vogt will be an answer to an Opera trivia quiz…….Kaufmann will be remembered forever.
Betsy: Thanks for your elucidation on the G&S. Us yokels are slow on the uptake and not as knowledgable as you. I’ll send a spoon so you can feed us more slowly and carefully.
BAB is short for Betsy (A-B,) not the BAB ballads. BIB was short for the other person’s name as well. No connection really and no reason for your to have known her, but when I thought of just using BAB to save the time of typing out the full moniker, her nickname popped in my head as a close match. So much for saving time.
I wish that some posters here would keep their narrow selections of who sings well, who looks good and who might or might not sing an E flat sometime in the future (as if they truly knew) to themselves and just stick to the facts.
My take on this scene is that your knowledge and your wit are two of the things that keep me coming back. As for certain others, I wish they’d just overdose.
I thought that Nebtrenko looked spectacular in that interview, better than I’ve seen her for a while. While she may not be an Einstein, she seemed logical, motherly and a dedicated professional. If you recall, in her between the acts Hoffman interview, she said she liked the Antonia role because it was short. I truly believe that she just likes to be a bit flippant and that she does take pride in her work and does the best she can. That best is quite good enough for me, just as is Garanca’s and Peterson’s and Gheorghiu’s. I can understand why Gheorghiu would not wish to appear with her estranged husband. I’ve been there and, in fact, am still there (in reverse) myself.
BAB- As a final thought on this thread, when it comes to your insight and wit, my advice to others is: “Bow, bow ye multitudes and masses”!
BAB- Accept, of course, “Do ye ken John Peel”?
I’m bored. And restless. My personal life is in the toilet. We need a blood bath. We nearly had one a day or so ago, but it ended up coitus interruptus.
It’s not like I want to set homesteading at Ground Zero, but a little danger would remind me of how good things are. Like NYCOQ (the Rhode Island Red?) wrote once, I get up in the morning and check into Parterre first thing to see what good stuff has been posted while I was asleep. The trouble is I like EVERYBODY, and there isn’t one soul whose opinion I don’t value and respect. We need a good old-fashioned sanctimonious stuffed-shirt son-of-a-bitch to get the blood boiling. To send the lesser mammals scurrying under rocks.
For crying out loud, ninety per cent of us are queens ! There should be enough self-loathing here to populate a major nation. But we’re all N-I-C-E ! I tried to pick a fight with Cruz and ended up apologizing instead. I’ve run out of Jungle Red. I’ve got all these really cool insults thought up and there’s nobody to use them on.
Fuck it. I’m going back to bed.
You go back to bed at all hours. I now imagine you a la Norma Desmond, in glorious black & white.
Listen, Pool Boy, what I do in my bed is none of your fuckin’ business. You sit there wearing Liane’s buttcheeks like earphones, humming along tunelessly, which is oddly enough perfectly synchronized with what’s coming out of AG’s Rumanian orifice.
(Oh, this feels much better. Thank you.)