Opera Gala with Jonas Kaufmann
Part of the annual Puccini Festival which takes place in the charming coastal town of Torre del Lago, located in the Lucca province of Tuscany, Opera Gala with Jonas Kaufmann celebrates Puccini’s best-loved music and operatic themes. The Gran Teatro all’aperto Giacomo Puccini, situated on the banks of the nearby Lago di Massaciuccoli in Torre del Lago, is the venue for the festival, including this gala extravaganza. Providing a wonderful setting for a unique evening of opera music, the theatre is close to Villa Puccini, the composer's former home which is now open to the public as a museum. Alongside Jonas Kaufmann, the illustrious tenor singer, the soprano star Maria Agresta performs in a gala that salutes the greatness of Puccini in a place that preserves his memory.
As a tribute to Puccini's music, these two stars of the international opera scene, Kaufmann and Agresta, focus on some of the composer's most famous and beloved arias. The maestro lived and worked in the town from 1899, composing several of his later operatic masterpieces there, including Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904) and La fanciulla del West (1910), among others. The German conductor Jochen Rieder serves as the gala's musical director, conducting the esteemed Puccini Festival Orchestra, as the singers explore the lyrical depth of some of the best-known arias and duets in all of Italian opera.
One of the world's most acclaimed tenor singers, Jonas Kaufmann was born in Munich. He underwent vocal training at the University of Music and Performing Arts in his home city, subsequently taking on supporting roles at the Bavarian State Opera. Kaufmann's professional operatic career began in 1994 at the Staatstheater in Saarbrücken and soon the young tenor was in demand for productions all over Germany and Europe. In 2008, he played Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, where his performance in a Puccini opera won him considerable critical acclaim. Kaufmann returned to Covent Garden for the dramatic and demanding part of Des Grieux in Puccini's Manon Lescaut in 2014. The following year, he released an album, The Age of Puccini.
Maria Agresta made her official professional debut in 2007. A winner of numerous singing accolades, including the Italian Music Critics' Award in 2014, the soprano has performed in many Italian opera productions over the years. Notably, she received enormous praise for her 2012 role in La Bohème at Milan's La Scala. Agresta memorably played the part of Liù in a 2017 production of Turandot, also at La Scala, a production recording of which was later released on the Decca label.
Opera Gala with Jonas Kaufmann represents a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the music of Puccini in a location, Torre del Lago, that will be forever associated with the great maestro.