A Nuanced Portrait of the Soul

"He is an artist whose passion, talent, and dedication have enriched cultural life. His con­tribu­tion to music will re­main in­delible, and his performances will continue to move and inspire audiences worldwide.” With these words, the Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień—who has since moved into management—paid tribute to histenorcolleague Jonas Kaufmann on the occasion of the recent conferral of an honorary doctorate by the Krakow Academy of Music. A ceremony to which Kaufmann has almost become accustomed: He received his first honorary doctorate back in 2020, at that time from the Royal College of Music in London.

Which of the numerous honors he has received over the past few decades is probably the most important to Kaufmann? Perhaps the invitation from German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to accompany him on his state visit to Austria last year on the occasion of the opening of the new German Embassy in Vienna. After all, the singer, who was born in Munich in 1969, not only now resides in Salzburg, but has also obtained Austrian citizenship in addition to his German citizenship. So it was only natural that the world-famous star would perform songs by Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss (who, as is well known, are referred to as “Strauss”) for this occasion. Naturally, he was accompanied on the piano by his Austrian accompanist Helmut Deutsch, whom he has known since his vocal studies in Munich, at the piano.

Since September 2024, he has also served as artistic director of the Tyrolean Festival Erl. Kaufmann has so far demonstrated such skill in this role that he has repeatedly been brought into the fold for even greater responsibilities. This does not bother him, as can be gathered from his numerous interviews.

His upcoming opera engagements for the current season include the role of Dick Johnson in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West at the Zurich Opera House, Parsifal in Erl, Tannhäuser in Munich, and, in late October and early November, the role of Otello in Verdi’s opera of the same name at the State Opera.

If, like this “Tenorissimo,” one looks back on a career that has now spanned more than thirty years —Kaufmann made his stage debut in 1993 as Caramello in a performance of Johann Strauß operetta Eine Nacht in Venedig at the Theater in Regensburg— —when one engages so intently with the art of song, it inevitably influences the interpretation of operatic roles. Even if one possesses heroic brilliance, the vocal resources are usually employed more thoughtfully, more sparingly, and with a greater sense of the various nuances. At times, such an approach runs counter to previously familiar listening experiences. But this style of performance also reveals just how much chamber-music-like flair can be hidden within an opera.

Above all, such an approach benefits the intimate, lyrical moments of an opera score. And that plays no small role in Verdi’s penultimate opera. After all, one—if not the—highlight of this four-act opera is the love duet between Otello and Desdemona that concludes the first act. “It reveals their highly distinct personalities in a happy balance. It expresses the bliss that the newlywed couple is experiencing,” writes Verdi biographer John Rosselli. He also sees in it Verdi’s response to the duet between Tristan and Isolde in the second act of Wagner’s opera. Did Verdi, as the British author speculates in this context, even demonstrate that a particular emotional state, as expressed in these two duets, can also be musically realized “in less than a third of the time”? It is, after all, an original approach that invites reflection. Incidentally, Verdi explicitly described his four-act opera as a “Dramma lirico.”

In this context, it is also revealing to consider what the like-minded librettist Arrigo Boito envisioned for the character of Otello: “He is the great victim of the tragedy, the great victim of a Iago. If the personification of an abstract idea in theater were not a sober, false, foolish, and outdated artistic device, one could argue that Otello is jealousy and Iago is envy.”

From this diversity of perspectives—and with the corresponding nuance—Jonas Kaufmann —as can be read in reviews—also shaped his first Viennese “Otello” in October 2023. Rachel Willis-Sørensen will appear as Desdemona and Ludovic Tézier as Iago. Alexander Soddy will conduct. Bertrand de Billy will be at the podium for the upcoming Otello series. Nicole Car is cast as Desdemona, and Luca Salsi as Iago.

They are performing in Adrian Noble’s production, which has been staged 22 times to date. It premiered on June 20, 2019. It was the eleventh new production of this Verdi opera, which has been performed 486 times to date at the Haus am Ring.

Otello was first performed here on March 14, 1888—at that time still in Max Kalbeck’s German translation—with Hermann Winkelmann as Otello, Antonie Schläger as Desdemona, and Theodor Reichmann as Iago. Verdi’s penultimate opera was performed in Italian for the first time at the Ring on October 22, 1909. The reason for this was not, as one might think, the wish of a director, a conductor, or a stage director, but rather that of a singer: none other than Leo Slezak. He had studied the title role exclusively in the original Italian for an engagement in the United Statesand wanted to show it off at his Vienna “Otello” debut as well. Thus, there was no choice but to perform the entire production in Italian. The conductor of this mem­o­r­a­ble per­for­mance was Felix von Weingartner. So it was not always, as is often claimed, Herbert von Karajan who insisted that operas at the State Opera be presented in their original languages. A small but telling piece of Viennese opera history.