metropolitan opera house seating reviews

The eagerly awaited new production, masterfully conducted by James Levine, and transmitted world-wide on radio and in HD to cinemas, allowed audiences to hear the special quality of Kaufmann’s Wagner interpretations in detail: The blend of »German« expressive power and Italian vocal finesse. This was the case at his role début as Siegmund in ✽ie Walküre« at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the spring of 2011. Besides his vocal and musical qualities, it is his total identification with his roles that has been received with such enthusiasm by press and public. Kaufmann loves portraying shattered characters, immersing himself in their world and making their thoughts and emotions strikingly believable. His intensive characterizations of Don José in Bizet’s ✼armen« and Werther in Massenet’s opera took opera fans throughout the world by storm. He has sung Massenet’s Werther in Paris and Vienna, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s »Tosca« in London, at the Met and La Scala. Kaufmann is just as much in demand internationally in the Italian and French repertoires as he is in German opera. In 2010 he made his début at the Bayreuth Festival as Lohengrin in a spectacular staging by Hans Neuenfels. Appearances at the Salzburg Festival and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Paris Opéra and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, La Scala Milan, the Deutsche Oper and the State Opera in Berlin, the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan in New York. From there he began his international career. After engagements in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Milan - in Giorgio Strehler’s production of ✼osì fan tutte« and ✿idelio« with Riccardo Muti on the podium - Kaufmann moved on to the Zurich Opera in 2001.

During his first years on stage at the State Theatre in Saarbrücken he continued his training with Michael Rhodes in Trier. He completed his vocal studies there at the local Music Academy, in addition to which he attended master classes with Hans Hotter, James King and Josef Metternich. Insiders praise him as the most important German tenor since Fritz Wunderlich. The international press has singled him out as the »new king of tenors«. Since his sensational début at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in a performance of »La traviata« in 2006, Jonas Kaufmann has numbered among the top stars on the operatic horizon.

Metropolitan opera house seating reviews