Review: Jonas Kaufmann, Back at the Met, Is Good, Not Great
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After four and a half years, the tenor Jonas Kaufmann has returned to the Metropolitan Opera in Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West.”CreditCreditKen Howard/Metropolitan Opera
La Fanciulla del West
NYT Critic's Pick
By Anthony Tommasini
Oct. 18, 2018
You could feel trepidation at the Metropolitan Opera on Wednesday as the audience took its seats for Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West.” The superstar tenor Jonas Kaufmann was finally returning after an absence of four and a half years, including withdrawals from two new productions conceived with him in mind. Would he actually show?
[Read our interview with Mr. Kaufmann about his return to the Met.]
He did, for the first of four performances through Oct. 27. He came, he sang, he — well, if he didn’t entirely conquer, Mr. Kaufmann certainly reminded us why he’s been missed. “Fanciulla,” a tale of hardscrabble miners during the California Gold Rush, is, I’m more convinced at each encounter, one of Puccini’s finest operas. But you need persuasive singers to plumb the depths of the music and the subtleties of the characters.
returned earlier this month.)
testing the waters of Wagner’s Tristan — his singing seemed a little underpowered. He summoned some full-voiced, exciting high notes during the opera’s only real aria, when Johnson, who thinks he’s about to be hanged, begs the men to tell Minnie that he has been set free to lead a better life. Yet at times his voice seemed curiously restrained.
For a while, Mr. Kaufmann was hands down the most exciting tenor in opera. Now he has some younger competition, including at the Met, where the thrilling tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who stepped in when Mr. Kaufmann withdrew from a new production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” has become a house favorite.
It is, however, without a doubt great to have the compelling Mr. Kaufmann back with the company.
La Fanciulla del West
Continues through Oct.