The superstar tenor criticises his former label for deceptively undermining his new Puccini album on Sony.

The star German tenor Jonas Kaufmann has launched a scathing attack on his former record label Decca for releasing a compilation in his name without any consultation. “Please don’t let yourselves be deceived,” he writes on his Facebook page, “this was done without my knowledge and approval.”

Further more, the new release – Jonas Kaufmann – the Age of Puccini – could easily be seen as a deliberate ploy to steal thunder from his forthcoming Puccini album due out on Sony mid-September. However, as Kaufmann points out, the new Decca album is a compilation and “contains only three Puccini arias,” and apart from these three tracks are “essentially my old recording Verismo Arias from 2010.”

Decca are doubtless the contractual owners of the recordings that Kaufmann made for them between the Romantic Arias disc in 2008 and the award winning Wagner Album in 2013. However, the new Age of Puccini disc will be the third compilation that his former label have released under his name in the two years since he moved to Sony.

Kaufmann’s full post is as follows:

Dear Friends,
Please don’t let yourselves...