Customer Rating:
Summary: Review
Comment: Gramophone


Don't judge this album from the first aria - the Puccini arias are the weakest here. The French repertoire finds Kaufmann on excellent form. The most encouraging thing about him is his musical intelligence - a genuine soft high note to crown his Carmen Flower Song - and elsewhere he strives to serve the music. The voice can't quite do all he asks yet, but it's full of brooding, Vinay-like darkness.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Over ambitious?
Comment: Yes, it's a stupendous voice, and Kaufmann is one of the great singers currently before the public, but some of these arias just don't suit him. Where is Rodolfo's good humour, Alfredo's youthful ebullience? The "Traviata" aria must be one of the least buoyant ever recorded. He floats a lovely voix mixte top C at the end of "Salut, demeure", but where is the sense of rapture and wonder? It's all a bit frowny and charmless, and all these varied characters sound more or less like the same person. He's at his considerable best in the dramatic arias, the Don Carlo, Werther, Max in "Freischutz", Don Jose, the anguished introverts; these tracks are magnificent, but anything which requires him to SMILE is beyond him. A pity, because in the right repertoire he's a world-beater, he's just overstretched himself here.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Comment: THIS IS A VERY FINE VOICE OF SPECTACULAR QUALITY AND DRAMATIC ABILITY .kAUFFMANS VOICE REMINDS ME veryMUCH OF GIUSSEPPI giacominni.It is wonderfull to hear of a new tenor with such an incredible instrument instead of the usual trend that universal seem to indulge in of picking a performer for good looks and youth with substandard vocal abilities no names mentioned!!The A and R personel should look closer under their noses to find diamonds like Kaufmann believe me there are plenty of them all over the globe and bring back quality , and stop short changing the public. Jonas Kaufmann we will surely be seeing and hearing more of this fine exponent of his art congratulations!!! more of the same quality please universal!!

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