MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Jonas Kaufmann - Verismo Arias

"The accompaniments are special..[Pappano] is hugely alert to detail, weighting and what's happening on the imaginary stage around the singer...Kaufmann has entered this world most completely. His Italian is good, as are his desire and ability to project clearly differentiated characters. He is never afraid to sing softly...and there is plenty of power when needed."
Gramophone Award WINNER 2011 - Recital

"Italian repertoire now, is it? Given the prodigious gifts of the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann we shouldn't be too surprised. But there's still considerable novelty as that darkly lustrous voice plunges headlong into anguish...Fluent in Italian, Kaufmann is equally at ease navigating the arias' vocal and emotional tempests." The Times, 8th October 2010

"This is a wonderful disc, the most exciting and enterprising operatic recital I have heard for a very long time...Kaufmann has everything, and at the age of 40 his voice may well be in its finest shape. He brings a Classical training to these arias, and yet he doesn't in any degree stint on the passion."
(BBC Music Award Finalist 2011 - Vocal)

Jonas Kaufmann returns to the Italian verismo tradition to sing arias that define opera's most passionate and vulnerable leading men.

Kaufmann's international reputation is soaring as, going from strength to strength, he delivers consistently thrilling performances.

The onyx-dark beauty of his tone and the refinement and unexpected insights of his delivery mark Jonas Kaufmann a poet of tenors.

Timed for release when he makes his anticipated role debut as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur at Covent Garden opposite Angela Gheorghiu, this disc includes excerpts from the Cilea work that helped put Caruso on the map.

This album also entices with rarities from Zandonai's dramatic Giulietta e Romeo and Puccini's Le Villi.

Supporting Jonas Kaufmann is Italy's leading symphonic orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, under its dynamic music director Antonio Pappano. Both maestro and orchestra are utterly at home in this repertoire.