Puccini: Love Affairs

Puccini has long been an important composer in the career of the great German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, but his main place on the opera scene has been in the heldentenor repertoire, which most famously features tenor roles in Wagner operas, but also includes such grandiose parts as Otello, in Verdi’s late masterpiece of the same name. This deeply satisfying all-Puccini album finds him an interesting place in his vocal development. Kaufmann’s timbre has always been especially warm, even a bit dark, and here a pleasing huskiness has crept in, lending his voice something of the expressiveness of another storied heldentenor of a previous generation, Jon Vickers (who chose not to sing Puccini). The album features a clever but artistically valid format, in which Kaufmann partners with six different sopranos in each of the well-known arias. Thus, for example, we have Pretty Yende’s sweet toned and vulnerable Mimi in La Boheme, or the appropriately fiery Sonya Yoncheva as Tosca, in the title role of that opera. This is a studio recording with full orchestra, and the voices are vivid and nicely spaced. Puccini lovers will snap up this gooey, voluptuous musical treat, but it also a perfect introduction to the artform for the opera curious.