Here’s the most exciting tenor discovery to come my way since the appearance of Jonas Kaufmann on the big international operatic stages. Jonathan Tetelman slipped on to a few radars in the UK with appearances in revivals of La bohème and La traviata. I saw his lovely Rodolfo in Jonathan Miller’s ENO production in 2018 but it was a couple of more recent performances that really made me sit up and take notice.

About his Paolo in Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, streamed during lockdown from the Deutsche Oper and subsequently issued on DVD (Naxos, 5/22), Tim Ashley wrote: ‘Tetelman makes an … outstanding Paolo, glorious and effortless in his upper registers.’ It was certainly a gripping performance of an opera that is vastly underappreciated. Then, earlier this year, I caught the opening night of Martin Kušej’s highly controversial but gripping new Tosca at the Theater an der Wien, set in a dystopian wasteland under six feet of snow. Opposite Kristıne Opolais’s Tosca, the Chilean-American tenor sang a superb Cavaradossi, his chiselled good looks and excellent stage presence allied to some truly thrilling singing. Soon afterwards, Tetelman signed for DG and his first recording has now landed.

As a calling card, it is astutely programmed, with a mixture of repertoire he’s already performed – including an extended duet from Francesca da Rimini – and roles yet to come, such as Andrea Chénier and Manrico in Il trovatore. It’s a voice with plenty of power and he excels in the big verismo stuff. Listening carefully, it’s interesting to spot the possible influences. The very opening of the first track, ‘Cielo e mar!’ from La Gioconda, immediately brings to mind a young Joseph Calleja with its warm vibrato. In ‘Amor ti vieta’ from Fedora, there’s a bronzed, baritonal timbre, not unlike Plácido Domingo – both started out as baritones – and when one hears the sculpted phrasing of the long recitative from La forza del destino, followed by the hushed head voice with which he opens Don Alvaro’s ‘O tu che in seno agli angeli’, then yes, it reminds me of Kaufmann.

There are some lovely things to note: the way Tetelman’s voice blooms as phrases grow; the slight sob in the voice; beautiful mezza-voce. His tenor has a real Italianate ring and he brings drama to Jacopo’s ‘Non maledirmi, o prode’ from Verdi’s I due Foscari, another role he has performed on stage recently at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Tetelman attacks the high B flat at the end of Don José’s Flower Song from Carmen a little loudly but then diminuendos quite wonderfully. There are two poets here: Andrea Chénier’s ‘Come un bel dì di maggio’ is gorgeously sung with plenty of glamour to the top notes, while Werther’s ‘Pourquoi me réveiller’ is ardent, with some exquisite floated head notes. Pinkerton’s ‘Addio, fiorito asil’ confirms Tetelman’s Puccinian credentials – alas there is no room for his Rodolfo or Cavaradossi here, though I hope that Vienna Tosca will make it to DVD soon.

He closes with Trovatore’s Manrico. ‘Ah! Sì, ben mio, coll’essere’ is one of Verdi’s toughest tenor arias to sing well but Tetelman has the requisite sense of line, aided by conductor Karel Mark Chichon setting a flowing tempo. It is followed by a steely ‘Di quella pira’, top notes gleaming, the final C held thrillingly to the very end of the cabaletta (and the disc).

No stinting from DG on the supporting cast: Turiddu’s anguished farewell to his mum in Cavalleria rusticana has a brief phrase for Mamma Lucia (Magdalena Łukawska) and the Trovatore excerpts include a Ruiz (José Simerilla Romero), a Leonora (Vida Miknevičiūtė) and a chorus (Capella Cracoviensis). Miknevičiūtė is more gainfully employed in a long scene from Act 3 of Francesca da Rimini, where she and Tetelman are gripping as Dante’s doomed lovers. What ardent music this is, Paolo declaring his love as Francesca reads him the tale of Guinevere and Lancelot, leading to the moment when they finally kiss. Miknevičiūtė is very fine (it was Sara Jakubiak who sang the role at the Deutsche Oper) and Tetelman is completely inside the role of Paolo, as viewers of Naxos’s DVD will already know.

Caveats? The Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria is not the subtlest backing band – the tutti at the end of Flotow’s ‘M’appari’ is a bit foursquare – although there is some fine clarinet-playing in the Forza excerpt that made me regret that the prelude was excised. And although DG has included aria texts, you won’t find any translations or even synopses here. But as for the tenor, this is a fabulous debut disc. I hope you share my excitement, because Tetelman is the real deal.