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Jonas Kaufmann interview with BBC Radio 3: Music Matters

This edition of Music Matters is given to an extended interview with Jonas Kaufmann, recently acclaimed by the New York Times as "currently the most in-demand, versatile and exciting tenor in opera". Tom Service met Kaufmann in London, after a day's rehearsals for Jonathan Kent's new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Royal Opera House.

Since his last interview on Music Matters (2010), Kaufmann has released albums dedicated to two of the most prominent composers in his current operatic career, Verdi and Wagner, as well as a recent recording of Schubert's song-cycle Winterreise with pianist Helmut Deutsch, his former professor at the Munich Academy – music with which he recently transfixed an audience at Covent Garden. Kaufmann also talks openly about his early experiences in music, and explains the technique which gives his voice its recognisable depth and burnished quality. He discusses his future plans for the big roles in the operas of Verdi and Wagner and he and Tom debate the essential purpose of opera - how great operas connect with audiences, and the role of new productions in keeping the art form alive. LISTEN TO THE BBC Radio: Music Matters INTERVIEW.