Jonas Kaufmann: ‘Opera can’t stand still. We are not bearers of a museum piece. It has to be alive’

The greatest tenor of his generation talks cancel culture, booing fans, and problematic roles

I don't want a lot for Christmas," whispers Jonas Kaufmann into my ears. Make my wish come true / All I want for Christmas is you." I don't know whether to laugh or hit shuffle. It's three hours before my interview with the world's most celebrated singer, a man with a voice as golden as Pavarotti's but with Hollywood looks, and I'm preparing by listening to a Kaufmann mixtape.

The 52-year-old's peerless voice still in my ears, I stroll through Naples towards Teatro di San Carlo - the world's oldest continuously active opera house, and where last night he sang Verdi's Otello. His is a voice built for Italian opera: I have a German passport," he once said, but an Italian voice." The New Yorker critic Alex Ross described it as having a baritonal strength in the lower register, cleanly struck high notes (including a top C in Otello), a tenderly shimmering mid-range - all laced together in a luxurious legato.