Jonas Kaufmann returns to the Italian verismo tradition to sing arias that define opera’s most passionate and vulnerable leading men.

Kaufmann’s international reputation is soaring as, going from strength to strength, he delivers consistently thrilling performances. The onyx-dark beauty of his tone and the refinement and unexpected insights of his delivery mark Jonas Kaufmann a poet of tenors.

This disc includes excerpts from the Cilea work that helped put Caruso on the map, but also entices with rarities from Zandonai’s dramatic Giulietta e Romeo and Puccini’s Le Villi.

Supporting Jonas Kaufmann is Italy’s leading symphonic orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, under its dynamic music director Antonio Pappano. Both maestro and orchestra are utterly at home in this repertoire.