Jonas Kaufmann (born 1969) is a lirico spinto tenor born in Munich, Germany. Kaufmann completed his musical studies in his native Munich and also participated in master classes with James King, Hans Hotter, and Josef Metternich. He began his professional career at Staatstheater Saarbrücken in 1994 and was soon invited to make debuts in important German theaters, such as the Stuttgart Opera and Hamburg State Opera, as well as international debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and La Scala. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 1999 in a new production of Busoni's Doktor Faust and returned there in 2003 as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and for concerts of the Beethoven's Ninth with the Berlin Philharmonic. He has performed in Covent Garden in 2006/2007 in the role of Don José in Bizet's Carmen to critical acclaim, and also sang Alfredo in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera and in Covent Garden in 2008. In May 2008, Kaufmann made his role debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca in Covent Garden, again to critical acclaim. In 2008/2009 he performed Manon in Chicago opposite Natalie Dessay, and will also return to the Bavarian State Opera in the title role of a new production of Lohengrin. He sang Lohengrin in August 2010 in Bayreuth. His debut recording with Decca, Romantic Arias, was released in January 2008. He has also recorded a Schubert song-cycle with the same label and the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for EMI. On September 17th, 2010 he released: Verismo Arias with compositions of R. Leoncavallo, K. Giordano and P. Mascagni. One month later in ECHO Klassik 2010 he was named Sänger des Jahres. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.