Last season, Kaufmann has appeared at the Bavarian State Opera (Peter Grimes and La Fanciulla del West), the Vienna State Opera (Andrea Chenier and Aida), Zurich Opera (Tosca), La Scala Milan (Andrea Chenier), Teatro San Carlo in Naples (Die Walküre) and the Royal Opera House in London (Werther), among others. He also made his long-awaited role debut as Tannhäuser at the Salzburg Easter Festival. To mark the festival’s centenary, Kaufmann gave a concert in the Arena di Verona, together with Sonya Yoncheva and Ludovic Tézier.
At the beginning of the new season he presented a special project with Helmut Deutsch and director Claus Guth at the Park Avenue Armory in New York: Doppelgänger, a staged interpretation of Schubert’s Schwanengesang. Following a series of Otello and a new production of Turandot at the Vienna State Opera Kaufmann performed the first act of Die Walküre in the End-of-the-year concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko, a series of concerts (The Sound of Movies) in Baden-Baden, Prague, Naples and Wiesbaden, new productions of La Gioconda at the Salzburg Easter Festival and at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, performances of Aida and Tosca at the Bavarian State Opera and Andrea Chenier at the Royal Opera House. Planned performances until the end of the season include concerts of Act 2 of Tristan and Isolde in Gstaad and Baden-Baden.
A voice which excels in a large variety of repertoire, Kaufmann has received recognition for his performance of French, German, and Italian roles, as well as his performance in recital. Standout roles include Don José, Werther, Don Carlo, Otello, Andrea Chenier, Maurizio, Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Florestan, which he has performed at houses such as Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra national de Paris, and the Wiener Staatsoper. He has released multiple recordings, also encompassing diverse repertoire, including operatic repertoire, Lieder, operetta, and more.
A native of Munich, Germany, Jonas Kaufmann completed his vocal studies there at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, in addition to which he attended master classes with Hans Hotter, James King and Josef Metternich. During his first years on stage at the State Theatre in Saarbrücken he continued his training with Michael Rhodes in Trier.