It’s tempting to call this Jonas Kaufmann’s love affairs: he is very much the main protagonist here (along of course its Puccini himself). This follows on from his first Puccini album in 2015 – Nessun Dorma. Part of the celebrations for the composer’s 2024 anniversary year, he explains his rationale for the programming below:
What really appealed to me was recording these very different duets with different partners. With almost all of them I’ve experienced unforgettable moments on stage.
The promotional material from Sony neatly tracks the connections between Kaufmann and his leading ladies:
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. 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.
… and here’s Kaufmann on Puccini:
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.”
We start with La bohème and “O soave fanciulla” (translated in the booklet as “O pretty maid”) with Pretty Yende. Yende has impressed previously at Covent Garden as a heart-stopping Violetta Traviata (review). She is the perfect Mimì to Kaufmann’s ardent Rodolfo, . Conductor Asher Fisch is a fine collaborator, and the Orchestra del Teatro Communale de Bologna are in superb form. Before we proceed to the music example, two points: the Bologna theatre orchestra is a magnificent ensemble; so why are they not mentioned AT ALL on the disc cover? The web of melody coming form th orchestra is so much a part of Puccini …
. and here’s a live performance with Netrebko …
The other Bohème excerpt is heard late in the programme: “Che gelida manina” (usually translated as “Your tiny hand is frozen”. This is a solo aria, of course,, and this is certainly not Kaufmann’s first crack of the nut in the recording studio. But this performance has particular power in its characterisation, especially when he modulates his voice for the questions and answers:
Talking of Anna Netrebko, it is she who partners Kaufmann for the excerpt from one of Puccini’s greatest operas, Manon Lescaut. Both Netrebko and Kaufmann are big voices, and how it shows here in “Tu, tu, amore, tu?”. Perhaps Netrebko is just a touch too heavy these days – Kaufmann is more accurate and sure; Netrebko is best in her quite moments were she shows a most beautiful one (specifically woads the end often excerpt):
Soprano Sonya Yoncheva is a singe who has grown on me over the years. I praised Yoncheva’s role debut as Floria Tosca at Covent Garden to the skies in July last year, and she is equally convincing, and perfect of voice, here (her intervals are so exact!), Kaufmann is a strong Cavaradossi, but in the first excerpt, it is Yoncheva who takes the lioness’ share:
The second Tosca excerpt, “Ah, quegli occhi,” is no less powerful. Later in the recital (those two are paired) we hear “È lucevan le stelle” from the final act with a superb but unnamed clarinettist.
Puccini’s La fanciulla del West (The Golden Girl of the West) is unaccountably neglected to this day. Puccini seems moe experimental in this score, creating a unique web of orchestral sound in teh first excerpt, “Mister Johnson, site rinasto indietro”. Byström has a laser soprano, too: I covered her Tosca on Classical Explorer here; she was also a leading light in the 2019 incarnation of Don Giovanni at Covent Garden. She is just fantastic here, and Kaufmann is in fine fettle:
.. and Puccini’s harmonies achieve near-mystic status in “Quello che tacete”:
Asmik Grigorian is a global superstar in her own high these days, and rightly so. Her interpretations have a knife-edge, visceral quality about them. Here she appears in Il tabarro (part, usually, of Il trittico). Her voice partners Kaufmann’s warm, baritone tenor perfectly. For me, this is the track of the album; the climax is simply shattering, Kaufmann at full pelt:
It is Maria Agosta hat joins Kaufmann for the Madama Butterfly excerpts, three of them. She is in fine voice – Agosta is the only.one of the ladies here the I have not heard live and on this showing very much hope to. Kaufmann is sweet-toned, too, for his “Bimba deli occhi piece di lamia”:
Agosta is mesmerising in “Vogliatemi bene,” too:
Puccini: Love Affairs was released internationally on September 13, 2024 as limited-edition deluxe CD and on all digital platforms. The hard-cover booklet includes essays, many, many well-chosen photos and full texts and translations. Puccini: Love Affairs is available at Amazon via this link. Steaming links below.
