KAUFMANN JONAS: PUCCINI: LOVE AFFAIRS 1CD

“What really appealed to me was recording these very different duets with different partners,” says Kaufmann. “With almost all of them I’ve experienced unforgettable moments on stage.”

Manon Lescaut is sung by Anna Netrebko, with whom he has appeared many times over the course of his career. This year alone audiences have heard them together in two productions of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.  Tosca is sung by Sonya Yoncheva, who recently partnered with him at the Arena di Verona. The part of Butterfly is sung by Maria Agresta, who will be touring with Kaufmann this October to mark the Puccini centenary and performing some of the repertoire on this album. In the wake of their stunning success in the new Vienna production of Turandot in December 2023, Asmik Grigorian and Jonas Kaufmann now portray the tragic lovers in Il Tabarro. And as in the performances of the opera at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Malin Byström is here once again his partner in La Fanciulla del West. The album also has a debut, with Jonas Kaufmann and Pretty Yende heard together for the first time, in the famous love duet from La Bohème.

Asher Fisch, the album’s conductor, is a regular collaborator of Kaufmann’s: “We’ve known each other for many years. This is also now our second album, after Dolce Vita, which we recorded in Palermo in 2016. This time we went to Bologna, and the brilliant orchestra of the Teatro Comunale, whom I gave a concert with a few years ago.”

The new album also features two of Puccini’s tenor hits that didn’t appear on the first album in 2015: “Che gelida manina” from La Bohème and “E lucevan le stelle” from Tosca.

For Jonas Kaufmann, Puccini’s music is and remains a unique phenomenon: “The buttons he pushes with his music still work, a hundred years after his death – and do so in a modern society that is completely jaded from an endless flood of bad news and experiences. Much has been written about Puccini, but as I see it, no one has ever yet been able to explain how he managed to evoke such unbelievably powerful emotions with just a few notes. That is a mystery that probably no AI in the world can comprehend.” 

Track Listings

1 La Bohème, Act I: "O soave fanciulla" - Jonas Kaufmann / Pretty Yende

2 Manon Lescaut, Act II: "Tu, tu, amore? Tu?" - Jonas Kaufmann / Anna Netrebko

3 Tosca, Act I: "Mario!" - "Son qui!" - Jonas Kaufmann / Sonya Yoncheva

4 Tosca, Act I: "Ah, quegli occhi!" - "Qual occhio al mondo" - Jonas Kaufmann / Sonya Yoncheva

5 La Fanciulla del West, Act I: "Mister Johnson, siete rimasto indietro" - Jonas Kaufmann / Malin Byström

6 La Fanciulla del West, Act I: "Quello che tacete" - Jonas Kaufmann / Malin Byström

7 Il Tabarro, Act I: "O Luigi! Luigi!" - Jonas Kaufmann / Asmik Grigorian

8 Madama Butterfly, Act I: "Viene la sera" - Jonas Kaufmann / Maria Agresta

9 Madama Butterfly, Act I: "Bimba dagli occhi" - Jonas Kaufmann / Maria Agresta

10 Madama Butterfly, Act I: "Vogliatemi bene" - Jonas Kaufmann / Maria Agresta

11 La Bohème, Act I:"Che gelida manina" - Jonas Kaufmann

12 Tosca, Act III: "E lucevan le stelle" - Jonas Kaufmann