Jonas Kaufmann exclusive: My #Metoo memories
mainThe Spectator has just published my interview with the German tenor.
Among other revelations:
America’s sexual harassment hysteria has left him confused. I ask if he was ever targeted by predators. His response is swift and confessional. ‘When I was a student,’ he relates, ‘there was a promoter who offered me a concert in his series, which would have been fantastic for me. But the obvious exchange, and he was very specific, was for me to go with him to a sauna club, rent a cabin and give a full body massage…’
Read on here.
“He fears the pendulum has swung too far the other way. In Santa Monica recently he was about to sing a popular Richard Tauber encore, ‘Girls are Made to Love and Kiss’, when he wondered if this was still safe. ‘If I have to ask myself whether these tiny little erotic hints that composers gave in the 1920s are inappropriate, half of our operatic repertoire can’t be played any more. And it’s hard.”
Nice interview. Very nice indeed. Thanks Norman!
Kaufmann comes rarely )read± actually never’ to Amsterdam. But in June 2017 it was so far….
This review is in English±
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2017/06/08/jonas-kaufmann-eva-maria-westbroek-holland-festival-2017/
As for “Hab’ ein blaues Himmelbett” (better known as the Serenade from “Frasquita”), don’t even go there. Lehar (or his librettist) was one saucy chap …
One early translation went:
Shall I be blamed if God has made me gay? Does it pay? Who can say? I’m a man and kiss her when I can
Massage with a happy ending?
I suspect that would be a step too far but it’s worth clarifying.