In Sydney for Parsifal, Kaufmann talks about Wagner, upcoming roles, and his withdrawal from The Met’s Tosca. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Musical standards aid Kaufmann's debut, if production raises questions.

The soprano brings her Mimì to the London stage, while Aussies fill out the ranks of the Covent Garden season. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Bored with the idea of seeing yet another Butterfly performance? Think again. You will be in for a treat.

Giordano’s 1896 French Revolution opera is not as popular as it was. A star vehicle for a great tenor, it’s lumped in the verismo basket, though it bears more resemblance to the historical romances of Verdi. The score balances period pastiche with more urgent fin de siècle passions, and in the right hands it can soar. That’s certainly the case under the baton of Antonio Pappano in this, Covent Garden’s first new staging in 30 years. David McVicar’s meticulously researched, dramatically detailed production gives this sprawling beast its best chance to bite – you can smell the foul breath of the mob. Robert Jones’ grand sets and Jenny Tiramani’s authentic costumes provide a backdrop against which McVicar can deploy his quick intelligence, ensuring credibility and motivational insight. On the other hand, there’s little can be done about the awkward dramaturgy. Crucial changes of fortune happen off stage, and the five year gap between acts one and two is a problem for an audience unversed in the political ups and downs from the Estates-General to the Jacobin Terror. Nevertheless, you couldn’t ask for a finer Chénier than Jonas Kaufmann. Firm-toned and ardent, he’s well matched by Eva-Maria Westbroek as an intense,…

Renowned conductor Antonio Pappano is best known as music director of the Royal Opera House, but he is also a very fine pianist. Songs on texts by William Shakespeare finds Pappano accompanying the equally renowned English historian and tenor Ian Bostridge on an expansive collection featuring composers across five centuries who have set Shakespeare’s texts and musical dramatic devices, very few of which are stand-alone songs, to music. Not surprisingly, English composers are a strong presence: these include Morley, Byrd and their contemporary John Wilson, whose Take, o take those lips away is a highlight. Quilter’s Come away, death is mysterious and affecting, greatly impressing and influencing  Warlock, who is also featured here, along with Britten and Tippett. Bostridge is commanding throughout, and justly famous for his attention to detail and extraordinarily nuanced delivery. The recording is glorious: rich, spacious and resonant. The final track on this collection, When that I was and a little tiny boy (Anon.), sung a cappella by Bostridge, is nothing short of extraordinary, from both performance and recording perspectives. The sumptuous packaging contains meticulously researched and detailed liner notes by Christopher Wilson, and includes all song texts. This is an excellent and beautifully… Continue reading…

Antonio Pappano talks about Bellini’s Norma, and tackling the post-Netrebko pinnacle of the bel canto with Sonya Yoncheva. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

One of the star attractions of the 2016/17 season, the superstar soprano has withdrawn from Bellini debut at ROH.

The image on the back cover of the CD depicting Jansen arm-wrestling with Antonio Pappano feels noticeably apt. Not since Herbert von Karajan unleashed the Berlin Philharmonic, issuing a challenge to Anne-Sophie Mutter to bite back in their 1981 recording of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, has a conductor pumped Brahms’ orchestral introduction with such dramatic theatre and pizzazz. This is an opera that just happens to be scored for violin and orchestra, Pappano seems to be telling us, but the high-intelligence of Jansen’s musicality, not to mention her good taste, leads her to pursue a more expressively and colouristically nuanced pathway than this might imply. The genuinely startling feature of this new performance is witnessing Jansen scoop detail out from Pappano’s broad sonic wash. Like two swinging pendulums gradually locking into alignment, the bump-and-grind rootsy grit that Jansen brings to the folksy Finale meets Pappano head on; but otherwise the gossamer delicacy of the Adagio, and the uncountable rhythmic suppleness with which Jansen navigates Brahms’ airborne lines during the opening movement, moves largely by stealth. Bartók’s First Violin Concerto, a promising pairing on paper, proves less adaptable to this good cop/bad cop approach. The unwinding chromatics of the… Continue reading Get…

The singer’s return to Covent Garden is about to hit Australian cinema screens – this time minus the prosthetic boobs. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Editor’s Choice, Opera – October 2015 Jonas Kaufmann was 21 when the Three Tenors made Nessun Dorma into the most popular aria of them all by featuring it in their 1990 concert on the eve of the FIFA World Cup Final. It’s taken 25 years for the star German tenor to put it on record, saying that for a long time he hardly dared sing it because of Pavarotti and Co’s legacy. “Even today, when I hear and sing this aria, I still get goosebumps,” he says in the liner notes to his new all-Puccini album. Well, the wait has been worth it as it makes the perfect finale to this five-star feast of the finest moments from “the people’s composer”. When Kaufmann hits the high B at the climax it’s as thrilling as anything produced by any of the other great tenors, and if you purchase the deluxe version with the bonus DVD you’ll see how happy he is when he nails it. But the stellar aria is only three minutes of what is a 16-track, hour-long roller coaster of emotion, all majestically delivered in that special timbre with its baritone shading. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from…

A seasonal opera with temporal jiggery-pokery makes a wonderful find for the end of any year. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in