Tenor Kaufmann has range
Opera singer enjoys both dramatic and lyrical roles
“I ’m afraid that Regietheater is too wide a field to discuss in interviews properly,” Jonas Kaufmann was saying — or writing, this being an email exchange — from somewhere over the pond. The subject I had proposed was the way-outthere opera productions common in Europe and, increasingly, elsewhere.
“We all know those productions that seem to be the operatic version of ADD or ADHD: attracting the attention of public and press at all costs. On the other end there are, if seldom, those productions that really deserve to be called innovative: everything is different, but seems quite logical and convincing to a degree that you wonder why nobody has put it this way before.
“Between those poles there is a big range of every sort of quality. If you are lucky, you have a director who respects the music and does justice to the work.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I do not vote for ‘traditional’ productions. In fact, I prefer the unconventional ones, but on the basis of RESPECTING (Kaufmann’s capitals) the music and using its energy instead of wasting it on creating a ‘scandal.’ ”
Probably the top German-speaking tenor in the world — not that he confines himself to his mother tongue — Kaufmann will be heard in a program of opera arias Sunday at 2 in Salle Wilfrid Pelletier with the Orchestre Métropolitain under conductor Jochen Rieder.
There will selections by Bizet, Mascagni, Massenet, Ponchielli, Puccini and Wagner. But no laboratory rats committing suicide en masse — as there were in a Bayreuth production of Wagner’s Lohengrin starring Kaufmann in 2010 — or photos from the Baghdad prison known as Abu Ghraib, which loom large in a production of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino (with Kaufmann as Alvaro) that closed three weeks ago in the tenor’s hometown of Munich.
Kaufmann cordially declined an invitation to criticize either production.
“I don’t think that the Abu Ghraib pictures (the Austrian director) Martin Kusej showed in his Forza production are anti-American (this being the interpretation of many observers),” he commented. “They are a symbol for the horrors of the abuse of power, and that’s part of the story in Verdi’s opera.”
If the tenor’s position on the subject seems nuanced, it might be characteristic of a singer who works not in black and white but with light and shade. Montrealers will recall Kaufmann’s moving treatment of Schubert’s song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin last January in the Maison symphonique. He makes Lieder part of every season and refers to art song as “the royal class of singing.”
Yet he reaches his greatest public with opera. Kaufmann takes the title role in a run of Massenet’s Werther at the Metropolitan Opera in March. The Verdi Album was a major release on Sony last year. It included two selections from Otello, an opera whose title role is usually classed in the heavyweight heroic category rather than the lightheavyweight division that Kaufmann dominates.
“I consider myself as a tenor who is capable to sing lyrical roles as well as dramatic ones,” he says, I mean writes, with finality. “I feel at home at those roles which require both qualities, like Don José and Werther, Siegmund and Parsifal, Don Carlo and Alvaro. Otello will come in about two years. I can’t wait.
“Siegfried? Well, we’ll see.”
A stunning turnout of stars on Sunday.
The biggest talents in music, cheered by their industry allies. Yes, the Opus Awards ceremony took place in Bourgie Hall and all the world was watching.
Perhaps I should ease up on the irony. The remarkable fact is that concert music in Quebec is robust enough to support this annual event organized by the Conseil québécois de la musique and supply a credible list of nominees in 28 categories without digging too deep.
And forgive me if I also hold the opinion that the players of the Molinari Quartet — winners of the Opus for concert of the year in Montreal for their survey last March of music of Second Viennese School — put more work into what they do than Daft Punk, and with better results. Or that soprano Karina Gauvin, winner of recording of the year in the classical-or-earlier category, is just as likely to give pleasure as Taylor Swift.
Handel’s Theodora as presented by Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy won the Opus for concert of the year in Quebec City — quite plausibly, given the excellence of the repeat in Montreal. Wagner’s Lohengrin (the Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézét-Séguin) at the Lanaudière Festival was inevit- able as the romantic-post romanticim pressionist concert of the year.
Création de l’année honours went to André Hamel’s 21 courtes pièces sur des textes d’Étienne Lalonde as performed by the Ensemble Allogène for SMCQ’s Festival Montréal Nouvelle Musique. Hmmm. I really must get out more often.
Kent Nagano and the OSM made it into the winner’s circle with Mahler’s orchestral songs as recorded by Christian Gerhaher for Analekta. (Gauvin’s Prima Donna album was for ATMA, so our two big labels were duly represented.) The OSM also won for special presentation of the year for its Cool Classical Journey marathon in August.
The Opéra de Montréal took the Opus for event of the year: Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Man Walking. “Event” is not a bad designation for this surprise popular success, which still seems surprising 10 months later.
The Opus Awards also embrace jazz. Veteran double bassist Michel Donato received the Prix Hommage (which might be equated with the lifetime achievement award at that other music ceremony happening in Los Angeles). For a complete list of winners go to www.cqm.qc.ca.
The Montreal International Musical Competition,
devoted this year to the piano, has introduced a $5,000 award to its list of honours: the Richard Lupien Improvisation Prize. Part of the inspiration clearly is the presence on the jury of Gabriela Montero, one of the most formidable ad-libbers on the classical scene (as anyone who heard her riff on Happy Birthday five years ago in Knowlton will attest).
The improv contest will place on May 20 in Tanna Schulich Hall of McGill University as a prelude to the MIMC, which runs from May 26 to June 6. Admission is free. The judges will be Montero, the French composer Bruno Fontaine and the Montreal composer/broadcaster François Dompierre (Canada).
Montero will play a recital that evening at 8 in Pollack Hall. Fontaine gives a free master class on classical piano improvisation on May 21 in Tanna Schulich Hall. Go to www.concoursmontreal.ca.