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Artist: Jonathan Tetelman
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Puccini - Tosca

The 2024-25 season-opening concert version of Tosca given by the Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is to be issued as an audio album by Deutsche Grammophon. Commemorating both the 125th anniversary of the opera’s premiere at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi on 14 January 1900 and the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death, the release also marks a number of significant firsts. The performance is conducted by the new Santa Cecilia Music Director, Daniel Harding, while the exceptional cast is headed by Italian soprano Eleonora Buratto as Tosca, Chilean-American tenor and DG artist Jonathan Tetelman as Cavaradossi, and French baritone Ludovic Tézier as Scarpia. 

Two excerpts were released late last year for streaming/download – Cavaradossi and Tosca’s third-act duet, “O dolci mani … Amaro sol per te m’era il morire”, and “Il bacio di Tosca”, the instrumental epilogue to Act Two. Both were issued on 29 November 2024, exactly 100 years after Puccini’s death. The filmed version of the full concert performance can be viewed now on STAGE+. Set for release digitally and on 2 CDs on today, the album is the first fruit of an exciting new partnership between DG and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

The October 2024 concert staging of Tosca was the first live performance ever given of the opera by the Santa Cecilia orchestra and chorus, although there are no fewer than three 20th-century recordings by earlier incarnations of the ensembles. It was not only Daniel Harding’s debut in his new role as Music Director, but his first time conducting Tosca. The work was, however, the perfect choice for these musicians when it came to commemorating the Puccini centenary, given that it is, in Harding’s words, “the Roman opera par excellence”. Set entirely in Napoleonic-era Rome, the opera was also premiered at the city’s Teatro Costanzi, in January 1900.

The firsts continue – this was Eleonora Buratto’s second Tosca, but her Italian debut – her interpretation led to her being hailed as “the Tosca of our dreams” (Giornale della musica). It was also Jonathan Tetelman’s debut with the orchestra and his first time working with Harding, in what has become a signature role. “All I ever wanted to do was sing Cavaradossi, here in Rome, with this wonderful orchestra,” says the tenor, whose critically acclaimed second DG album, The Great Puccini, presents extracts from nine operas, including “E lucevan le stelle” from Tosca (“His Cavaradossi is as languid and heroic as you could wish for” – BBC Music Magazine). “Santa Cecilia is in very capable hands with Daniel Harding,” adds Tetelman. “He’s very collaborative and it’s nice to have a conductor who’s interested in learning alongside the singers.” Buratto and Tetelman were joined by the pre-eminent Scarpia of our time, Ludovic Tézier (“His Scarpia is still a bully, but there’s sinister charm and ironic humour here too” – Bachtrack).
 

Jonathan Tetelman:

The Great Puccini

Jonathan Tetelman’s debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, Arias, was met with rave reviews on its release last summer, and won the singer a 2023 “Young Talent of the Year” Opus Klassik award. The Chilean-American tenor has now chosen to follow this success with a tribute to Puccini, the centenary of whose death falls in 2024. The Great Puccini presents extracts from nine operas, including such well-known arias as “Nessun dorma”, “Che gelida manina” and “E lucevan le stelle”, as well as numbers from less familiar operas such as Le villi and La rondine. The album was recorded earlier this year in Prague with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, and features notable guest appearances from sopranos Vida Mikneviciute (Giorgetta in Il tabarro) and Federica Lombardi (Mimì in La bohème). The Great Puccini will be issued in all formats on 29 September 2023. 

Jonathan Tetelman has established himself on the world operatic stage in a wide range of roles, but a recent focus on Puccini has seen him triumph as Rodolfo, Cavaradossi and Pinkerton, all of whom feature on his new album. His love of the composer dates back to the moment when, as a child, he heard Pavarotti sing “Nessun dorma”. He trained as a baritone but then took some time away from the classical world and worked as a DJ on the New York club scene. On returning to his vocal studies he transformed himself into a tenor and, at 26, sang his first Puccini role (Rodolfo), since when he has never looked back.  
The Great Puccini also takes in works that are on Tetelman’s future schedule. “There are a few new roles on my immediate horizon,” he notes. “Luigi in Il tabarro, Ruggero in La rondine, Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut and Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West. Further down the road lies Calaf from Turandot, and hopefully one day Roberto in Le villi…” 

Jonathan Tetelman:

ARIAS

Chilean-American tenor Jonathan Tetelman has already earned a reputation in the opera world as a dedicated, distinctive and versatile artist. Having signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon last autumn, he has now recorded his debut DG album, Arias, set for release on 12 August 2022.

“Singing lets me become who I am,” says Tetelman. Both a means of expression and a source of strength, it has always been part of his life. As a pupil at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, he discovered the joy of performing classical music both at home and on tour across the US and further afield. This later led him to the Manhattan School of Music, from which he graduated – as a baritone – at the age of 22. There followed a period of self-discovery. Unable to see a future for himself as a singer, and lacking direction and perspective, Tetelman changed tack and spent three years working as a DJ on the New York club scene. “I felt completely lost,” he recalls. “It was like a piece of me was missing.” As soon as he realised that the missing piece was classical music, he immersed himself in his studies again and, with immense discipline, transformed himself into a tenor. “Since then,” he says, “I’ve known that if I want to achieve something, I can do it, but I need a good reason.”