Jonas Kaufmann bids farewell to Vienna’s ancien regime

Jonas Kaufmann bids farewell to Vienna’s ancien regime

main

norman lebrecht

December 30, 2019

The tenor will make a cameo appearance tomorrow night in Fledermaus, in tribute to the outgoing Vienna Opera director Dominique Meyer.

After which, le déluge?

No, Kaufmann gets on well with the incoming chief Bogdan Roscic.

 

Comments

  • Dominique Meyer diserves a tribute. After Vienna he goes to la Scala and he evoids to be in Paris at the wrong moment… But I hope that there will be no problem with Chailly during this age d’or of le Scala we have seen during the last years. But I think that the intelligence of the two men will help to have big success.

    • Olassus says:

      It will probably work out with Chailly, but La Scala is still taking a tumble downwards in the switch from Pereira to Meyer!

      • La Scala could be a place dangerous but for an Italian it’s the graal. Impossible to forget what happened to Muti 15 years ago. But it’s clever to take a foreigner to managed it like they do in the past with Lisner. But I konw that if Chailly don’t feel good at one moment he will leave. And after the triomph of Tosca in TV and with the quality of la Filarmonica della Scala, Meyer will not change everything. La Scala is today the pride of Italy

        • Tristan says:

          Tosca was poorly conducted, such a bore and Netrebko not great either – happy that totally overrated Pereira is leaving – it wasn’t great at all – Barenboim isn’t missed either but of course Muti and Abbado

          • I rispect what you think. The fact is that La Scala has received some very big success during the last years. The concert plaza del duomo is very popular also and excellent. I don’t know if you have seen in concert la Filarmonica it’s fantastic. Muti left the opera in some horrible conditions and Abbado was not some much popular in the 80’s in italy when he refused to play any Puccini brano…

  • Nik says:

    Why would he announce this beforehand? There are no tickets left to sell, and surely a surprise cameo would have been more fun for all involved.

    • Larry L. Lash / Vienna says:

      The performance is part of Staatsoper’s Livestream series, so with the announcement of Kaufmann they will likely get more viewers at somewhere around €16 a pop from his fanatic fans.

      As for Meyer, he has done wonderful things for the young ensemble members and building a better relationship with the Philharmoniker, but his choice of Regisseurs has been so consistently dreadful that I almost long for the days of Ioan Holender! At least Theater an der Wien has a far better track record, and I am looking forward to the Intendance of Stefan Herheim starting in 2022.

      • Sue Sonata Form says:

        I’ve always found the offerings at Theater an der Wien quite disappointing – or they have gone that way since I was living there several years ago.

  • Edward Seymour says:

    Hope he keeps performing in other venues…

  • Ghosts of Tenors Past says:

    From the title, I thought he wasn’t going to sing in Vienna anymore. Too bad.

    He should really take some time off, find a teacher who can actually sing opera, and fix his voice…

    • waltraud says:

      Kaufmann was not hired by Meyer as often….. Meyer more liked young Russian Sopranos 😉 The next chief of WSO is a very good friend of Kaufmann and both confirmed a close coworking in the following years!!!

  • Nicholas Ennos says:

    The opera world seems to be incredibly incestuous, impervious to outside criticism, and not subject to the scrutiny of the taxpayers who pay for it. It even has tame critics in the newspapers.

  • MOST READ TODAY: