Jonas Kaufmann & Ludovic Tézier - Insieme - Opera Duets (LP)

""Insieme" ("Together") is the name of the first duet album by Jonas Kaufmann and his friend, the French star baritone Ludovic Tézier. The famous duets from operas by Verdi, Puccini and Ponchielli were recorded with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the excellent direction of Antonio Pappano. "Insieme" will be released on October 7th by Sony Classical on CD and digitally, and on November 11th also as a double vinyl. They are often rivals on stage, but in real life Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier are close friends. After numerous acclaimed live performances together, the first duet album by the two exceptional singers is now being released: “Insieme”, the title is Italian for “together”. With the excellent Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano, they present duets that they have sung together on stage and pieces that they have rehearsed especially for this album. Since their joint performance of “Werther” in Paris in 2010, they have been stage partners in various productions; and, as with their duet album, Verdi's works play a central role. When they first played the rivals in “La forza del destino” at the Bavarian State Opera in 2013, it was immediately clear that two people had found each other and were cheering each other on. In 2017, they appeared on stage in Paris in the original French version of Verdi's “Don Carlos”; so it is only logical that the famous duet between Carlos and Rodrigue should be heard in this version on their duet album. Here, for once, they are not eternal adversaries, but real allies in one of the most beautiful male friendships in opera. This is also the first time that the two can be heard together in "Otello". At Kaufmann's debut as Otello in 2017 at the Royal Opera House in London, Tézier was actually supposed to debut alongside him as Iago, but unfortunately he had to cancel. And so it happened that the recording sessions during the 2021 lockdown became the two's first joint "Otello", even before Tézier "caught up" on his first stage Iago at the Vienna State Opera. The fact that Antonio Pappano, one of the most distinguished opera conductors of our time, is on board with his excellent orchestra at the helm of his Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is another stroke of luck for this recording. Both singers can be heard here for the first time in the great duets from Verdi's "Les vêpres siciliennes", in the rarely performed French version. The duet from Ponchielli's verismo masterpiece "La Gioconda" is also a real double debut, which will soon be followed by a joint performance of the entire opera. Both have already sung Puccini's "La bohème" on stage, but not together; here they can be heard together for the first time with the duet from the 4th scene."