Yes he is. Saw him sing the role of Dick Johnson (now there's name!) in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at The Met in NYC last fall. Let's just say Kaufmann's not yet ready to graduate to a John Ford-style Western.
Dick Johnson is proper, you have to be a stud to sing opera.
Kaufmann made his name as an helgentenor, his Sigmund stands as one of the best ever. The German knows how to play the game, his documentary is called My Italy. It's been in circulation since it came out six years ago.
Nothing new, Italy swells with Germans in the summer.
It wasn't an empty gesture by Kaufmann. I believe that he's the first German to attempt this traditional Italian folk song. He didn't fuck it up, his German diction worked for him.