Album: Jonas Kaufmann, The Best of Jonas Kaufmann (Decca)

Though now acknowledged as a modern master of Wagnerian interpretation, Jonas Kaufmann first made his reputation playing a range of French and German operatic heroes for conductors such as Abbado, Pappano and Gardiner.

This compilation follows his progress from Verdi and Puccini to Strauss and Wagner, and the full range of his characterisation is well represented: in “Vesti la giubba”, he’s a distraught Pagliacci staring into the mirror of his soul; in “Che gelida manina”, the tenderest of spirited seducers. But perhaps the most impressive example of his ability to inhabit a role is in “Io l’ho perduta!”, where his beautiful fading “Ahime!” in the closing line conveys all the wretched despair of Don Carlo’s betrayal.

Download: Io l’ho perduta!; Vesti la giubba; Che gelida manina