Jonas Kaufmann stands up to his Liceu audience. The German tenor has canceled his expected participation in Adriana Lecouvreur next June and, without even waiting for the Gran Teatre to find a replacement at his level, he has recorded on his website that that same June 16, 2024, when The premiere of Francisco Cilèa’s opera has been announced in Barcelona. He will participate in a lied concert in Vienna Park. What’s more, for July he has scheduled a Tosca at the Bavarian Opera.
As a closing of the circle, the Liceu announces in his place the return of the prodigal Roberto Alagna, who also stood up to the public at the Rambla coliseum when, claiming not to feel comfortable with the production of Tosca that Rafael R. Villalobos signed last season , preferred to cancel so he could sing a musical in Paris.
The French tenor of proven solvency and vocal beauty will replace Kaufmann in the role of Maurizio, which he already played at the Liceu in the 2011-12 season, in a production by David McVicar. But it will not be on the 16th, 19th and 22nd that the German tenor had contracted. The British Freddie de Tommaso, who was announced for the second cast at the Gran Teatre, goes on to lead the first alongside the soprano Sonya Yoncheva in the title role. So Alagna will sing with his wife, Aleksandra Kurzak, who at that time will be performing Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Real in Madrid. The Polish soprano will thus join the cast of Adriana Lecouvreur on the 17th and 20th, given the absence of Elena Buratto. The performance on the 29th will be sung by Alagna with Valeria Sepe.
Gone could be the high school love affair with Kaufmann, so generously received in his opera debut staged at the Rambla theater, with that renowned Andrea Chénier, along with Sondra Radvanovsky and Carlos Álvarez. That incontestable trio that delighted opera fans will be remembered but, judging by the reasons given by the German tenor, high school students could interpret a certain lack of respect. The Liceu limits itself to talking about “reasons unrelated to the theater”, but, as La Vanguardia has learned, Kaufmann’s representative alleged vocal impairments… after which, without giving further explanations, he unilaterally canceled his June 2024 performance. , and then appear advertised in another square.