Just in: Jonas Kaufmann takes his Otello back home
mainBavarian State Opera is in the throes of announcing its 2018/19 season.
Hometown boy Jonas Kaufmann will open the season as Otello, opposite Anja Harteros as Desdemona and Gerald Finley as Iago. New production by Amelie Niermeyer will be conducted by Kirill Petrenko.
Kaufmann sang his first Verdi Otello at Covent Garden last summer. In a recent interview he told me that Antonio Pappano and Kirill Petrenko were his preferred conductors for new work.
The peacock-Intendant Nikolaus Bachler keeps hiring dumb, salad-green stage directors and then, after their work results in productions nobody wants to see twice, REHIRES them: Antú Romero Nunes, Árpád Schilling, Amélie Niermeyer, etc.
… Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, another joke, also rehired for next season.
Dear, dear. We are embittered, aren’t we. Didn’t get the job?
No. Just believe Bachler has a duty of quality control that he is not doing.
+1
Clarification: My +1 is support for Sebastian Petit
Jonas Kaufman has a nice rich tone but he is vastly overrated.
He has to strain always, his voice is not effortless..
Not overrated at all. Gorgeous unusual voice that grips you emotionally. Beautiful man too and pleasant and nice person. Wonderful live. What more could you want?
You are so right! Never in history we had a German singing Italian répertoire so wonderful. Imagine native Bartoli when singing Norma p. e. – a disaster and only the Austrian German cried (except Vienna as they know music) especially in Salzburg like that and a few critics who don’t know anything
An effortless Otello? In what planet?
An effortless Otello? In what planet?
Otello is NOT a role with NO effort.
Precisely!
Clearly to day is St Snidey’s feast day…
They must have just returned from Sunday services at the Parish of SS Snidey & Snarky …
So far so good. Let’s make it a Trinity, by adding Beckmesser:-)
Kathleen is correct. His voice does not seem easily produced. In the areas of his voice that are easily projected his expressiveness is effective. Where he encounters difficulty the expressiveness dries up.
I would love to see him in Otello.
Seeing him as Otello is fine, but I’d hope hearing him as Otello will exceed the seeing….
Opera is Theatre. All the elements have to come together. Otherwise we stay home and listen to CDs.