“He was kind of like my self-discovery composer,” Tetelman said. When he began learning Puccini roles, he said, he felt that “this is the music I want to build my voice with, this is the music I want to discover my voice with.
“I think Puccini gives you a lot of opportunity to fail,” he added, “to reinvent and to change who you are, because Puccini is verismo,” referring to the earthy and emotional late-Romantic style that Puccini wrote in. “It’s never the same from one performance to the next.”
When we spoke, Tetelman had just returned from Palermo, Sicily, where he sang the third of five Pinkertons that he is booked for this season and next.
“You love to hate the guy. It’s great!” Tetelman said of the character, an American naval officer who marries and abandons a young geisha. He points to how Puccini vividly conjures Pinkerton’s sarcasm, arrogance and manipulative behavior while keeping his role so lushly beautiful as “a perfect characterization.” After the Met, he is scheduled to sing it at L.A. Opera in the fall and then in April 2025 at Baden-Baden with the Berlin Philharmonic. After that, he plans to “put the role away for a little while.”
While Puccini is a perennial mainstay at opera houses worldwide, Tetelman has picked up a lot of work this year, which is the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death. (Tetelman also pays him homage on his most recently released album, “The Great Puccini.”) There is, however, one part that Tetelman says he won’t tackle quite yet: Calaf, the mysterious prince in Puccini’s unfinished final opera, “Turandot.” It’s a heroic, punishing role that requires incredible stamina. It also features “Nessun Dorma,” which is quite possibly the most famous tenor aria out there.
“I really want to just be at the tip top of shape and ability to really pull it off,” he explained, adding that he had received, and turned down, offers to sing it.