LONDON — The peak of the mountain of tenor roles in Italian opera is the title character in Verdi’s “Otello,” driven by manufactured jealousy to murder his wife. It demands trumpeting high notes and snarled depths, civic dignity and lashes of madness, public pronouncements and private grief.

Singers who can merely get through it are few and far between — and those who fully master it come around perhaps once in a generation. The 1980s and ’90s were dominated by Plácido Domingo’s Otello; there have since been some contenders, but none have really claimed the mantle.

So, naturally, people have been asking for years if and when the star tenor Jonas Kaufmann would attempt it. And, once he did it, would he own it? His voice’s dark, burnished mahogany color, its dusky, hooded quality, have long recalled great Otellos like Ramón Vinay and Jon Vickers. Mr. Kaufmann has had triumphs in Wagnerian roles like Lohengrin, Parsifal and Siegmund that ask for Otello-like weight and endurance.

That long-awaited moment finally arrived on Wednesday: In front of a sold-out Royal Opera House here, Mr. Kaufmann made his debut in the part, and he calmly, confidently sang it for the ages. His sound inescapably evokes memories of live performances and classic recordings by Vinay, Vickers and other masters; in a single night, he joined their company. (He sings five more performances, through July 10.)