It is very nice that the start of Jonas Kaufmann’s opera aria tour with the German State Philharmonic Rhineland-Palatinate through six German cities is not just a collection of the most famous opera hits. No, Kaufmann and the orchestra under the direction of Jochen Rieder demonstrate in the Isarphilharmonie the claim to contextualize the selected arias (which in turn are below the “Nessun dorma” level of awareness) at least to a moderate extent – through interspersed orchestral passages and the respective preceding opera scene : such as Sinfonia and “Oh! fede negar potessi … Quando le sere al placido” from Verdi’s “Luisa Miller”. Other work excerpts come from “Aida”, “Maskenball”, “Otello”, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci”, Umberto Giordano’s “Fedora”, Francesco Cilea’s “L’Arlesiana” and Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana”.
The instrumental performances also give Kaufmann important moments of relaxation: As the evening progresses, his hidden throat clearing becomes more frequent – and the other tour stations are still to come. This always resonating fragility is definitely formative for the concert evening. In a few moments it is actually difficult to decide whether Kaufmann’s characteristic way of singing, placing some soft tones with a dull timbre deep in the throat, is still an expressive design or whether it is already a skilful rescue effort.
At other moments, however, the effect of precisely these tones is enchantingly beautiful, and when Kaufmann contrasts them with tenor power, it sounds simply magnificent. In particular, he forms the Otello monologue “Dio! mi potevi scagliar tutti i mali” through the breadth of the vocal registers available to him into a narrative that is also captivating in a concert setting.
Ultimately, it is not clear how conductor Jochen Rieder positions himself on Kaufmann’s creative will. The two make little eye contact. Rieder conducts with quite complex and detailed gestures. Nevertheless, the instrumental expressiveness is sometimes rather restrained or seems to arise more from the orchestra’s routine than from the conductor’s specifications.
For the encore part – culminating in the sound film song “Non ti scordar di me” – Kaufmann then switches to the flowery three-tenor mode. That is dignified and right and lets the audience cheer as it should on such an evening with a great singer.