page_title: Jonas Kaufmann
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Jonas Kaufmann / Career
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Salzburger Festspiele 2012 – Jonas Kaufmann und Emily Magee in Ariadne auf Naxos
context_page_description: Jonas Kaufmann is a German operatic tenor. He is best known for his performances in spinto roles such as Don José in Carmen, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, and the title role in Don Carlos. He has also sung leading tenor roles in the operas of Richard Wagner in Germany and abroad, most notably at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He is also an accomplished Lieder singer. In 2014 The New York Times described Kaufmann as "a box-office draw, and... the most important, versatile tenor of his generation."
context_section_description: He began his professional career at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken in 1994 and was soon invited to make debuts in German theaters such as the Stuttgart Opera and Hamburg State Opera, as well as international debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and La Scala. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 1999 in a new production of Busoni's Doktor Faust and returned there in 2003 as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and for concerts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic.
  He performed the role of Don José in Bizet's Carmen, to critical acclaim, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2006/7. He made his debut as Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata at the Metropolitan Opera alongside Angela Gheorghiu in 2006, also to critical acclaim, and also sang the role at the Met  in 2007 and 2008, and at the Royal Opera House in 2008. In May 2008, he played Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca at Covent Garden, yet again to critical acclaim.
  In 2008/9, he performed in Massenet's Manon in Chicago opposite Natalie Dessay and in the title role of a new production of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera. He also sang Lohengrin on the opening night of the Bayreuth Festival in 2010, in a production staged by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by Andris Nelsons.
  His debut recording with Decca, Romantic Arias, was released in January 2008. He has also recorded a Schubert song cycle on the same label and the role of Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly for EMI.
  In January 2010, he took the title role in Massenet's Werther at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. The performance was recorded and released on DVD in November 2010.
  In April 2011, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Siegmund in Robert Lepage's new production of Wagner's Die Walküre. In September 2011, he underwent surgery to remove a lymph node from his chest. In December, he was back, performing the title role in Gounod's Faust.
  On 15 February 2013, Kaufmann made his first appearance in the title role of Wagner's Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera. His performance received rave reviews from critics. In July of that year he was named a Kammersänger of the Bavarian State Opera by the Bavarian Ministry of Arts. In December he sang the role of Don Alvaro in Verdi's La forza del destino with the company.
  In February 2014, Kaufmann sang the title role in Massenet's Werther at the Met. He followed this by touring with Schubert's song cycle Winterreise with Helmut Deutsch. In June 2014, he made his debut in the role of Des Grieux in Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Royal Opera House in London. That November he sang the same role in another production of Manon Lescaut at the Bavarian State Opera.
  On 12 September 2015, Kaufmann became the first German singer to perform the British national anthem "Rule, Britannia!" at the Last Night of The Proms.
  On 23 February 2016, the documentary Jonas Kaufmann: An Evening with Puccini was released in selected theaters in the United States. The film centered around Kaufmann's 2015 performance at La Scala in Milan and featured rare archive footage.
  In 2018, Kaufmann made his debut as Tristan in concert performances of the second act of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
caption: Emily Magee as Ariadne and Kaufmann as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, at the Salzburg Festival of 2012
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