Sony Classical Announces Jonas Kaufmann Puccini: Love Affairs
He has selected for the new recording six great duets and scenes with six outstanding sopranos – legendary love scenes, emotionally-charged Love Affairs.
By: A.A. Cristi Jul. 19, 2024
Following on from his phenomenally successful GRAMMY-nominated first Puccini album in 2015, Nessun Dorma, Jonas Kaufmann is releasing a new album of Puccini highlights to mark the composer's 2024 anniversary year. He has selected for the new recording six great duets and scenes with six outstanding sopranos – legendary love scenes, emotionally-charged Love Affairs. Pre-order is available now.
“What really appealed to me was recording these very different duets with different partners,” says Kaufmann. “With almost all of them I've experienced unforgettable moments on stage.”
Manon Lescaut is sung by Anna Netrebko, with whom he has appeared many times over the course of his career. This year alone audiences have heard them together in two productions of Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Tosca is sung by Sonya Yoncheva, who recently partnered with him at the Arena di Verona. The part of Butterfly is sung by Maria Agresta, who will be touring with Kaufmann this October to mark the Puccini centenary and performing some of the repertoire on this album. In the wake of their stunning success in the new Vienna production of Turandot in December 2023, Asmik Grigorian and Jonas Kaufmann now portray the tragic lovers in Il Tabarro. And as in the performances of the opera at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Malin Byström is here once again his partner in La Fanciulla del West. The album also has a debut, with Jonas Kaufmann and Pretty Yende heard together for the first time, in the famous love duet from La Bohème.
Asher Fisch, the album's conductor, is a regular collaborator of Kaufmann's: “We've known each other for many years. This is also now our second album, after Dolce Vita, which we recorded in Palermo in 2016. This time we went to Bologna, and the brilliant orchestra of the Teatro Comunale, whom I gave a concert with a few years ago.”
The new album also features two of Puccini's tenor hits that didn't appear on the first album in 2015: “Che gelida manina” from La Bohème and “E lucevan le stelle” from Tosca.
For Jonas Kaufmann, Puccini's music is and remains a unique phenomenon: “The buttons he pushes with his music still work, a hundred years after his death – and do so in a modern society that is completely jaded from an endless flood of bad news and experiences. Much has been written about Puccini, but as I see it, no one has ever yet been able to explain how he managed to evoke such unbelievably powerful emotions with just a few notes. That is a mystery that probably no AI in the world can comprehend.”
Puccini: Love Affairs will be released internationally on September 13, 2024 via Sony Classical as a limited-edition deluxe CD and on all digital platforms.
Tracklist:
Giacomo Puccini 1858–1924
LA BOHÈME (Act I, Rodolfo & Mimì)
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica
1 “O soave fanciulla”
with Pretty Yende
MANON LESCAUT (Act II, Manon & Des Grieux)
Libretto: Domenico Oliva, Giulio Ricordi, Luigi Illica & Marco Praga
2 “Tu, tu, amore? Tu?”
with Anna Netrebko
TOSCA (Act I, Tosca & Cavaradossi)
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica
3 “Mario!” – “Son qui!”
4 “Ah, quegli occhi!” – “Qual occhio al mondo”
with Sonya Yoncheva
LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST (Act I, Minnie, Johnson, Nick)
Libretto: Guelfo Civinini & Carlo Zangarini
5 “Mister Johnson, siete rimasto indietro”
6 “Quello che tacete”
with Malin Byström
IL TABARRO (Giorgetta & Luigi)
Libretto: Giuseppe Adami
7 “O Luigi! Luigi! … Dimmi: perché gli hai chiesto”
with Asmik Grigorian
MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Act I, Pinkerton & Butterfly)
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica
8 “Viene la sera”
9 “Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia”
10 “Vogliatemi bene”
with Maria Agresta
LA BOHÈME (Act I, Rodolfo)
11 “Che gelida manina!”
TOSCA (Act III, Cavaradossi)
12 “E lucevan le stelle”
Jonas Kaufmann tenor
Pretty Yende · Anna Netrebko · Sonya Yoncheva
Malin Byström · Asmik Grigorian · Maria Agresta sopranos
Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Asher Fisch conductor
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