The amazing tenor Jonathan Tetelman and the mystery of genes
A controversy erupted in the United States these days over a jeans advertisement. Like everything in that country, the issue turned political. It turns out that the jeans brand American Eagle released an ad featuring actress and model Sydney Sweeney , in which, while looking sexy and languid at the camera, she recites: “ Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue. ”
Obviously, he's playing on the fact that in English, jeans and genes sound the same. And that he's looking at us with eyes as blue as the jeans he's promoting.
The argument immediately began: the brand was accused of promoting eugenics, a theory rejected by science that postulates that some genes are “better” than others. Obviously, in America’s history of racism and slavery, blue-eyed blondes had better genes and deserved their privileges, which were passed down from parents to children along with those “ great genes .” The fight heated up when the media discovered that Sweeney was affiliated with Donald Trump ’s Republican Party.
On U.S. Public Radio's All Things Considered, journalist Manuela López Restrepo said that "the public campaign that played with this idea of genetics at a time when President Trump's White House is pushing to eliminate diversity efforts in the federal government and attacking immigrants is already causing alarm among some in the public."
I thought about this controversy in connection with something that apparently has absolutely nothing to do with it: the performance at the Teatro Colón – tomorrow – and in Chile and Peru by the tenor Jonathan Tetelman.
This opera figure, who is becoming the most sought-after young singer of lyrical roles such as Rodolfo, the protagonist of La Boheme , or heroic roles such as Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca , will perform for the first time in the Southern Cone, where he was born.
Tetelman was born in Castro, the capital of the island of Chiloé, in the deep south of Chile, in 1988. As he told Cecilia Scalisi in an interview published in this newspaper, he has not been able to find out who his biological parents are due to a clause in his adoption . He was adopted at seven months old by the couple of a lawyer and an architect from New Jersey. From a young age he showed talent and a disposition for music, entered the Princeton boys' choir and through hard work, a prodigious voice and a heartthrob appearance, he took on as his own the great roles sung by Domingo , Pavarotti , Carreras and, most recently, Jonas Kaufman . The most prestigious classical record label, Deutsche Grammophone, signed him to a contract with which he has already recorded two successful albums of arias.
The reviews from the specialized media of his performances in London, Paris, Barcelona, New York, and San Francisco are tremendously complimentary: they highlight his powerful, martial voice, capable of descending into a sweet and technically prodigious pianissimo . His star presence, his acting talents, his refined yet intuitive musicality make him the heir to the great voices of the past and a unique artist at the same time .
Where does this gift come from? In an interview with Princeton University Magazine, the singer explains that his (adoptive) parents have no connection to music, but they encouraged his career from a young age. He mentions them whenever he can, even though he's already started his own family: he lives in Berlin with his Romanian wife and two young daughters, with whom he's come on this tour to South America.
Growing up in a home and society where he could develop his great talent and dedicate himself diligently to his vocation undoubtedly had great value. Since the time of Plato and especially Jacques Rousseau in the 17th century, a strong philosophical and educational school has emphasized the importance of the conditions in which a person grows up, while another emphasizes their genetic heritage.
In our country, the topic came to light in 2014 with the story of Olavarría-born pianist and composer Ignacio Montoya . When he underwent genetic testing at the age of 36 and discovered he was the son of disappeared parents and the grandson of Estela de Carlotto, the founder of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, he told the press that for years he hadn't understood the reason for his musical calling.
Where did it come from, if those he thought were his parents were country folk? Then he learned his biological father was the deceased musician Walmir Montoya . This apparently explained the inexplicable. His musical passion runs in his genes, even though he never met his father.
Jonathan Tetelman's story is much less tragic, although you'll probably never know about his early childhood. When asked what connects him to his most celebrated role, the Italian painter and revolutionary Mario Cavaradossi, in the opera Tosca, tortured and murdered by police chief Scarpia, he says he identifies with the passion for living, loving, and creating, even though he hasn't experienced anything quite as dramatic.
Are you sure? Perhaps he's thinking about what he remembers from his arrival in the United States in early childhood. Because of that clause in his adoption, his adoptive parents don't know who conceived him or how he spent his first months.
When we see and admire the superb bearing, the star-like figure, when we hear the delicate silk and burnished metal tone of her voice, the formidable expressive capacity to breathe life into scores from a hundred years ago, filling with her presence the stage of the Colón or the Municipal de Santiago in her native Chile, could it be that this art and this stellar presence come from the privileged environment in which she developed, from her iron will to achieve excellence, from her unknown genes, or from a mixture of all of these?
Is Tetelman the great operatic tenor of the new generation despite being born into poverty in southern Chile, or is it thanks to that and some connection his biological family has with music and artistic expression? His "case" will continue to raise questions, but his formidable performances also allow us to put aside doctrines and enjoy the great artist he has become, standing on the stage confident in knowing who he is and where he stands today.
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