| September 8, 2015
| September 8, 2015
Jonas Kaufmann, tenor
Kristine Opolais, soprano
Antonio Pappano, conductor
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
*Nominated for 2016 GRAMMY Award: Best Classical Solo Album and listed as one of The New York Times’ Best Classical Albums in 2015
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“Three other selections from this opera drive home this impression, especially the electrifying “Oh, sarò la più bella!”, the duet in which Kaufmann’s Des Grieux falls in love with the temptress Manon Lescaut (here sung glowingly by Kristine Opolais). Indeed, Kaufmann states in the liner notes that the electricity he felt among the orchestra, conductor, and Opolais was so strong that they “had the feeling from the opening bar: only one take needed!
. . . “O Soave Fanciulla” from La Bohème —another successful duet with Opolais, whose voice searingly overlaps and intertwines with Kaufmann’s—flickers with the incandescent hope and warmth of Mimì’s candle.”
Rebecca S. Lentjes – Opera Today
“Manon and des Grieux’s Act II love duet finds soprano Kristine Opolais partnering Kaufmann (as she did in London performances last year) with sensitivity and voluptuous sound . . . La Bohème’s Act I finale, “O soave fanciulla,” again with Opolais, is seductive in its intensity and restraint, with invitingly caressed phrases.”
Judith Malafronte – Opera News
“Ms. Opolais seemed to live with it, growing in stature as the evening went on and radiating the kind of aura – one that demands you watch her, and sympathize with her – that defines a star… She is a performer with a tremendous future ahead of her. New York will be lucky to have her.”
New York Observer