Jonas goes straight

Here, with thanks to reader James, it is possible to answer an question that has no doubt pressed many a mind - what does Jonas Kaufmann look like with straight hair? Mozart fans may wish to turn the sound down.

Comments

[waltraud becker]

See also Carmen from ROH first act or Parsifal from Met third act. A friend of mine realized:Anyway he is beautiful!

[SJT]

This whole shebang came to the RFH at the time, and Kaufmann even wore the same suit. Even if his coloratura was a tad more accurate and he had some vestige of a trill, he, like all the cast, were hard put to it to make any effect, up against the dread Doctor Miller's decision to recast an Italian opera seria as a Singspiel by the bizarre expedient of dumping Sussmayr's perfectly adequate recitatives in favour of spoken dialogue, thereby producing a historically impossible hybrid that died right there on the RFH platform (and of course keeps the whole thing from being commercially released on DVD as well).

And the rather interesting-looking character doing all the chin-stroking reacting is Gunther Groissbock, the Publio, similarly destined for great things in Wagner.

[Pusillanimous Pussyfooter]

Jonas also donned non-curly hair for the first two acts of the 2007 Paris 'La Traviata'.

[manou]

There are also several excerpts from the Strehler Così on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEjZqYhgQQ

[John]

I've owned this DVD for years - Zurich opera seemed to release a lot of recordings at the same time a few years back. Miller's production isn't just weird, it's also totally uninformed and re-hashes the cliche that opera seria was a dead genre at the time of Tito's composition. The result is a bizarre mishmash that leaves the cast looking seriously uncomfortable during all the recitative.

[Jon]

The best thing about that performance at the RFH (indeed the only good thing about it) was Susan Graham's portrayal of Sesto. Graham was a merciful substitute for the dread Kasarova and brought the house down with her performance of parto, parto.

[Diane]

He also appears to be sans curls here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZofkzG8uk

[Zoe]

Wow. I never thought I'd find a piece a music I didn't enjoy hearing Jonas sing! Coloratura is not his thing evidently...

[Liane]

In the Zuerich Carmen he also had his hair back in the first act. However, you can still see that his hair is curly. I find he looks just as good with his hair back from the forehead. How ever you look at him he is gorgeous and I also think that his singing on this DVD which I have had for a long time for ME is beautiful, however I am not such a great conoisseur and merciless critic as some of these bloggers seem to be.

[FloriaT.]

He looks good any way. You should have seen the Vienna Parsifal mullet but my friend, a woman not known for her weak knees was like "he's so pretty, I can barely hear him but he's so pretty!" all the time....

[May]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVtUax8q_Y
straight hair there too as Cassio steals the show!

[Ulisse]

JK has canceled the 1st June recital (Dichterliebe, Wesendonck-LIeder, Liszt, Strauss) at the Scala.

U