{"product_id":"puccini-love-affairs-cd-digipack","title":"Puccini: Love Affairs CD Digipack","description":"\u003cp\u003eRelease September 13, 2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCD Digipack Edition\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(Berlin, July 19) Following the phenomenal success of his first Puccini album, 2015 Grammy-nominated \"Nessun Dorma\", Jonas Kaufmann now presents a new album of Puccini highlights on the occasion of the composer's 2024 anniversary. For the new recording, he has selected six great duets and scenes with six outstanding sopranos: legendary love scenes, emotionally charged Love Affairs.\u003cbr\u003e\"What really appealed to me was to record these very different duets with different partners,\" says Kaufmann. \"With almost all of them, I've had unforgettable moments on stage.\"\u003cbr\u003eManon Lescaut is sung by Anna Netrebko, with whom he has performed many times throughout his career. This year, audiences have heard them together in two productions of Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Tosca is sung by Sonya Yoncheva, who recently partnered with him at the Arena di Verona. The role of Butterfly is sung by Maria Agresta, who will be touring with Kaufmann next October for Puccini's centenary and will perform some of the repertoire from this album. Following their astonishing success in the new Vienna production of Turandot in December 2023, Asmik Grigorian and Jonas Kaufmann now embody the tragic lovers in Il Tabarro. And as in the opera performances at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Malin Byström is once again his partner here in La Fanciulla del West. The album also features a debut, that of Jonas Kaufmann and Pretty Yende, who are heard together for the first time in the famous love duet from La Bohème. \u003cbr\u003eAsher Fisch, the album's conductor, is a frequent collaborator with Kaufmann: \"We've known each other for many years. This is also our second album, after Dolce Vita, which we recorded in Palermo in 2016. This time we went to Bologna, and to the brilliant Orchestra del Teatro Comunale, with whom I gave a concert a few years ago.\"\u003cbr\u003eThe new album also includes two of Puccini's tenor hits that did not appear on the first album in 2015: \"Che gelida manina\" from La Bohème and \"E lucevan le stelle\" from Tosca. \u003cbr\u003eFor Jonas Kaufmann, Puccini's music is and remains a unique phenomenon: \"The buttons he presses with his music still work, a hundred years after his death, and they do so in a modern society completely jaded by an endless deluge of bad news and experiences. Much has been written about Puccini, but, in my opinion, no one has been able to explain how he managed to evoke such incredibly powerful emotions with hardly any notes. That's a mystery that probably no AI in the world can understand.\"  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jonas Kaufmann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49045880963409,"sku":"19802806712","price":19.9,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0581\/0559\/4006\/files\/876778.jpg?v=1721380268","url":"https:\/\/store.sonymusic.es\/en\/products\/puccini-love-affairs-cd-digipack","provider":"Sony Music Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}