VIVA PUCCINI! – JONATHAN TETELMAN SHARES A NEW SINGLE IN THE COMPOSER’S CENTENARY YEAR
The tenor’s latest single is out today – listen to “Addio fiorito asil”
The DG release coincides with the singer’s house debut
in La Rondine at the Metropolitan Opera next week
“Jonathan Tetelman is the next big thing for all lovers of Romantic opera”
-Süddeutsche Zeitung
“He has a golden tone, with liquid phrasing, tenderness and ardour in equal measure”
-Gramophone, reviewing The Great Puccini
22 MARCH 2024 (TORONTO, ON) - “This is the music I want to build my voice with, this is the music I want to discover my voice with … Puccini was my self-discovery composer.” As Jonathan Tetelman explained in a recent interview for the New York Times, immersing himself in the operas of Puccini has helped him perfect his tenor sound and technique. From his chart-topping album The Great Puccini to his impending debut at the Met in La Rondine, and from a flashmob performance of “Nessun dorma” in Berlin to performances worldwide as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Tetelman is honouring Puccini in style as he and the rest of the music world mark the centenary of the composer’s death.
As part of the ongoing celebrations, Deutsche Grammophon is today releasing a new digital single from the Chilean-American tenor: Pinkerton’s aria “Addio fiorito asil”. This is the third and final track in a series that began with “Nessun dorma” last November and continued with “Ch’ella mi creda” (La fanciulla del West), released on Puccini’s birthday, 22 December. All three are arranged for tenor and guitar by French guitarist Frédéric Zigante, who also accompanies Tetelman in the recordings. The singer included an orchestral version of “Addio fiorito asil” on his DG debut album, Arias, saying, “It’s the first piece that I ever sang as a tenor and in which I felt for the first time vocally at home.”
Tetelman has just played Pinkerton at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo and will soon reprise the role at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (26 April-11 May). Before that, however, he makes his much-anticipated house debut at the Met in one of the composer’s less well-known operas, La Rondine (The Swallow). Tetelman stars as Ruggero opposite Angel Blue as Magda in the Met’s Art Deco-inspired production. He returns to Madama Butterfly in the 24-25 season, singing Pinkerton at Los Angeles Opera this autumn and at Baden Baden, with the Berliner Philharmoniker, in April 2025.
Meanwhile, The Great Puccini continues to go from strength to strength. Released to glowing reviews in November 2023, the album spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums in the US as well as reaching No. 1 in the UK Specialist Classical Album Chart and the German Classical Chart. NPR chose it as one their 10 best classical albums of 2023 (“Few tenors have as much pure Italian sunshine in their voice as Tetelman does”) and it was also a Gramophone Editor’s Choice “The Great Puccini from, it’s quickly clear, a great Puccinian”).
Tetelman’s popularity is mirrored by his ever-growing social media following, which has tripled since last summer to reach a figure of almost 180k across the various platforms. Viral videos such as that of his surprise rendition of “Nessun dorma” with the Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie at the Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus store in Berlin last December are helping increase those numbers month by month. Tetelman has not yet sung Turandot on stage, despite receiving invitations to do so. Speaking to ClassiqueNews earlier this year, he said, “It’s no secret that it’s my dream to sing Calaf, a role I’m slightly addicted to! … I sing ‘Nessun dorma’ whenever I get the chance. But I think I’ll wait a little longer to plan my debut in the role – there’s no rush!”
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