Listening 16 years later to tenor Jonas Kaufmann’s 2009 debut album of German operatic excerpts reminds me what the fuss was about. Here was a heroic Wagner tenor with all the right attributes: a strong, baritonal timbre capable of opening out at the top excitingly but perfectly placed in its Fach (register) for Wagner, much of whose music for tenor is written in the lower and mid-range.

The cover art for Jonas Kaufmann’s Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven & Wagner album, Sehnsucht, released in 2009.

Kaufmann had the strength to project over a large orchestra, and a clear dramatic sense. Perhaps equally important these days, he looked like a hero! This was the real thing, unlike lighter German tenors of an older generation such as René Kollo (good as he was at his height). That early recital disc also reveals what kind of tenor Kaufmann was not: a Mozartian, as the excerpts from The Magic Flute clearly demonstrate. The voice does not flow effortlessly, nor does it take easily to coloratura. A degree of effort is always present.

Right from his early days, you could hear Kaufmann working. His second vocal recital, Verismo, the...