Lohengrin

Recently I have been rediscovering the jewel that is Wagner's Lohengrin.  It's quite a work, full of blazing drama contrasted by very quiet, melodic moments that tear at the heart.  He is quite a sympathetic, sensitive hero, and no-one else at the moment captures that as well as Jonas Kaufmann.  This clip is from his role premiere at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich in 2009, it is one of the most beautiful moments in the entire opera.

He is often criticised as having too baritonal a vocal colour, but to me it suits this reportoire perfectly.  If you listen to his recital disc of German tenor arias from Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and rarities from Schumann, you will understand what I mean.  He almost has a Jon Vickers quality to his voice which is quite lovely in the Wagnerian pieces, his Parsifal is gorgeous, but lightens up nicely for the Mozart and Beethoven showing that his voice has a lot of agility.

I plan a purchase of this DVD soon, the production looks like quite an interesting concept.  I am also hoping the the Bayreuth Lohengrin with Kaufmann will be released soon, the publicity stills are gorgeous.