Jonas Kaufmann - You Mean the World to Me

"After a fairly long period of relative obscurity, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann experienced a sharp rise in popularity once he hit his forties in 2009. Each of his albums outsold (or at least out-reached) the previous one, and he seems to have been deemed ready for the crossover treatment. Showing typical gravitas, Kaufmann avoided contemporary pop and even Broadway, reaching back to the world of German-language operetta between the world wars, and even including a few weighty serious opera numbers. The new audience hook consists of the album's dual release in German and English versions. The difference is partly a question of the title: the You Mean the World to Me version, including the title track, is still more than half in German. But, to answer the question that will be on everyone's mind, yes, Kaufmann can handle the English language, and he still sounds gorgeous. There is a consciousness that it is not his own, but no more than that, and it can be forgotten it at times. In fact, part of what makes the English version work is not any particular amount of woodshedding on Kaufmann's part, but the intelligence of the program, which reflects a music balanced between the Germanic and American worlds. He does Franz Lehár's Girls Were Made to Love and Kiss not simply because he wants to cross over to Anglophone popular audiences, but because understanding that work requires addressing the fact that it became very popular indeed with its English text. Figures like Richard Tauber were household names for some, and it may be that Kaufmann's fine release will be seen as a forerunner of this extravagantly romantic tradition." (AllMusic)

'It's been a while since a major tenor recorded operetta repertoire, and Jonas Kaufmann does not disappoint. His choices focus on the period 1925-35, and take in films written for films starring such notables as Joseph Schmidt, as well as arias from Lehár's operettas made popular by Richard Tauber.' (BBC Music Vocal Pick of the Month Christmas 2014)