Watch: Jonas Kaufmann brings a new Otello to Naples

Watch: Jonas Kaufmann brings a new Otello to Naples

News

norman lebrecht

November 23, 2021

The German tenor opens a new production at San Carlo before heading off on his annual Christmas songs tour.

The director is Mario Martone with Maria Agresta as Desdemona, Igor Golovatenko as Iago, Michele Mariotti conducting.

Watch RAI’s first-night report here.

 

 

Comments

  • bet says:

    No one sings in Naples without the assent of the Godfather…Muti.

    • Mauro says:

      Calling Muti a godfather is stupid and insulting. If it was meant to be dirt, it’s not even funny. Moreover, Muti has rarely directed at the San Carlo and is not on good terms with the current superintendent Lissner.

  • Jack says:

    The world’s greatest dramatic tenor in Verdi’s greatest late opera in the world’s greatest opera house. Wish I was there.

  • Bloom says:

    This one must be memorable for the guerilla fighter Desdemona .

  • Bloom says:

    Or Desdemona with a gun fetish. Or il pistoletto instead of il fazzoletto.

  • Ms.Melody says:

    It is a sad commentary on the state of the art when there is no Italian tenor to sing the great dramatic part in the great Italian opera. If memory serves, there has not been an Italian Othello for quite some time

  • David Murphy says:

    I have been underwhelmed by Herr Kauffman’s vocals. There is that forced out constricted throat, the lack of a real top and heavy baritonal quality to his voice which makes him clumsy and lacking in style in German and an inability to float notes in Italian. Hideous. Will never match a Jess Thomas in the former or Jon Vickers in the latter. I realise he has his following however. But really, football matches – at this stage in his “career”?

  • guest says:

    The world’s greatest dramatic fake in Verdi’s greatest late opera in Europe’s oldest opera house in yet another weird production. Wish I was there. Not. Wish come true.

  • Sefan Sachse says:

    Jonas Kaufmann ist einer der besten Tenöre der Welt schade nur das Anna Netrebko nicht die Desdemona singt zu Mal ja ihr Ehemann Yusif Eyvazov als Zweitbesetzung mit da bei ist

    • Becker Waltraud says:

      Das würde das Ganze nur verderben, was man schon an der Forza in London beobachten konnte. N und K singen und spielen in völlig unterschiedlichen Stilen, die nicht zusammen passen. N sollte-wenn schon- mit ihrem Mann singen…..

  • Helen says:

    I see the Kaufmann trolls are out in force again. Perhaps it would be better for those who don’t like him to not to listen and just shut up. How hard could that be?

  • David G says:

    I am taking a tour of several Italian opera houses this summer: La Scala, Verona, La Fenice. Gioconda, Nabucco, and…….Peter Grimes. Yes, I know….it’s a great opera, but I don’t need to go to Italy for it. I wish I could see Kaufmann as Otello. I’ve seen all his performances in New York.

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