José Cura’s Enthralling Otello Performances in
the Hungarian State Opera
Budapest
8th
and 11th February 2015
Report
by Zsuzsanna Suba
The flagship of the 2014/15 season of the Hungarian State Opera
was José Cura’s two Otello performances on 8th and 11th
February. Following the Cavaradossi he sang last year, this
occasion was his second appearance here in a full opera, this
time in his emblematic role, Otello. Preceding his two “regular”
performances, José Cura took part in an organized “open general
rehearsal” on 6th February, which was a kind of
charity event with notably reduced price addressed to the
targeted audience of pensioners, large families and students.
José generously showed his best resources here as he didn’t
spare with his energies and vocal richness, despite of the fact
that he suffered from a tough pain in his back. It was a
pleasure to see how he helped his partners on the stage to
improve some “awkward” situations in order to achieve more
reliable ones in the opening performance two days later. In my
opinion he took too much risk but this extra performance was a
memorable gift for the public who could witness the novel
details and whole essence of his Otello interpretation. Both of
his two “regular” Otello performances on 8th and 11th
February harvested enormous success and thunderous applause. The
second Otello event was the best on 11th February and
we rewarded the protagonists with our unstoppable,
characteristically rhythmic, frenetic applause for more than 8
minutes at the end. Our celebration was always amplified by
Jose’s appearance at the curtain calls and coupled with screams
of bravo as well.
The production was a little dusty, old one (premiered in 1994)
and represented a traditional approach without having any
serious directorial concept. The set centered on a massive,
turntable bastion of the fort of Cyprus and it gave the right
historical atmosphere for the play. It also allowed some nice
variations for the plots, for example when it was opened to give
place for the rejoicing, Desdemona’s garden or the dialogues.
The beautifully colored, attractive and comfortable costumes
made the stage really pretty for the eyes and the singers had
great opportunity to move around freely and utilize their acting
skills.
The orchestra and choir of the Hungarian State
Opera became one of the main protagonists of the performances
indeed led by our young, guest conductor, Marco Comin
very effectively. They managed to show the brilliancy of the
Verdi’s score in the little details and in the great arches of
the music too. With Marco Comin’s firm hands and refined musical
imagination we could see and listen to this drama in a rare
circumstance when the importance and harmony of the score and
singers received and enjoyed distinctive privilege during the
cooperation of the orchestral pit and stage.
José Cura sang with Hungarian partners who represented different
generations and artistic paths. Polina Pasztircsák - who
played Desdemona and debuted in the role last year - is a young
soprano of the House. She possesses an already promising career
on the international level. She carried on her musical studies
in Italy as a pupil of Mirella Freni for years and she won the
famous Geneva International Music Competition in 2009 though she
had many prizes since then too. She was a good choice and great
discovery for us in this role especially for being a brave and
authentic partner of José Cura. The whole opera was enriched
from their committed and complex relationship. Her clear and
ringing soprano voice and elegant singing style carried a
natural beauty in projection and resonance together with her
youthful charm, gentleness and fragility. Beside José Cura’s
Otello, her Desdemona contributed significantly to the
exceptional beauty of the love duet and all her solos were
memorable, too. She also could play with the volume and
sensitivity of her voice. Her acting was surprisingly natural
and honest to the situations. Beside her unconditional love
towards Otello, we could see Desdemona’s other qualities, the
stamina, pride and moral strength of the character in the
hardest situations. In one of the tensest moments of the quarrel
of Otello and Desdemona she suddenly slapped him in the face and
refused his behavior. Despite of her suffering, she remained
loyal to Otello. The two long and wonderful solos of Desdemona
in the last act forced the audience to share even deeper
attention and sympathy for her without breaking the grandeur of
the moments with applause. Polina Pasztircsák was also greatly
celebrated at the many curtain calls and she always received it
with modest, happy smiling and gratitude towards her partners.
Anatolij Fokanov
played Jago and he represented the older generation of singers.
He is a veteran and honored member of the House gaining great
awards during his long career. He owned and dominated this role
in the past 10-20 years. Mostly I liked the unique, resonant
and mellow baritone timbre and sizeable volume of his voice when
he used it. However it tended to dry up and showed the signs of
fatigue as the opera progressed, so I felt a kind of uncertainty
in his performance. Unfortunately his interpretation was overly
one-dimensional for my taste operating with the same clichés of
Jago’s character. He showed an exaggerated, pretended love and
sarcastic hate towards his General. In his acting, Jago was
demoted to be the shadow of Otello and he tried to behave with a
playful, manipulative way with him. While doing this, he also
supported and accompanied his vocal performance with many
old-fashioned gestures. Nevertheless Anatolij Fokanov sang the
role with committed honesty and enthusiasm and his
interpretation improved greatly by the second performance. We
were also thankful for his fulfilment in this difficult role at
the curtain calls. Zoltán Nyári’s Cassio attracted our
attention with his big voice and good stage presence lending a
vivid, strong character to Cassio. All the other singers in the
minor roles did their best too.
Enjoying José Cura’s Otello interpretation on the stage
of our Opera was a feast for our ears, eyes and souls in his
unique, operatic theatre. On 11th February with
Otello’s dashing entrance of “Esultate!” that swelled
with pride and power, José proved that he mobilized another
dozen of energies and dimensions of his vocal and acting
resources as we could have been imagined just few days before.
He presented us with an unpredictable and richly colored journey
of Otello – who was neither a hero and nor a noble - showing
the touching nuances and also the outburst and vulgar extremes
of his various emotions and state of minds during his passionate
and multifaceted, completely convincing vocal and acting
performance. It carried enthralling richness and quality on the
stage and you were nailed to your seat whenever Otello was on
the stage. Starting from his initial, overwhelmingly happy,
infinite love and faith for Desdemona, through his suffering and
inner struggles he finally arrived at the lethal consequence of
his jealous insecurity and he concluded it in double murder and
devastation. All these features were reflected in the delicate
usage of his voice which was always placed in the service of the
role. We were delighted in his tenor when he applied lighter
tones filled with gentleness and vitality or a much heavier,
darker and steelier vocalism, not counting the beauty of his
burnished voice and warm timbre. His high notes were
beautifully rendered and integrated in the great climaxes of the
solos and duets so we just took pleasure in the many features of
his own Otello interpretation.
Fortunately his Otello didn’t have to bear a heavy dark makeup,
so you could see and discover every thought and emotion which
flitted through his face or was caught in his mind forever. In
contrast to the youth of Desdemona, Cura’ Otello reached a
determining older age and he also indicated that he was not
entirely healthy when he returned from the battle. His vocal
acting was very impulsive and open-hearted but it could show the
darkest sides of the Moor as well. This time I had a new,
strongest impression how much he was afraid of losing his
Desdemona for many possible reasons. Preserving their eternal
love was his greatest motivation in his actions. Cura’s Otello
showed this in the heart-breaking beauty of the love duet which
was the best I’ve seen recently from him. He held his woman in
his arms very gently. Their duet was colored with thousand
shades until they reached the highpoint with a deep, long kiss.
As they walked out from the scene you could see a much lusher
and impatient embrace from Otello in the dark.
When he saw Desdemona in the garden he was totally disarmed and
convinced that his lover couldn’t be guilty at all. Yet the
beautifully rendered quartet of the second act proved that this
Otello already mourned over his broken heart and future. For me
the highlights of the performance were Cura’s fluctuations
between doubt and certainty or his uncontrolled outbursts for
Jago’s machinations and Desdemona’s gentle requests during their
dialogues. Just imagine the madness, power and fury of Otello’s
explosion when he heard Jago’s words about seeing Desdemona’s
handkerchief in the hands of Cassio and the amount of madness
with which he carried out the duet of vengeance at the end of
the second act! But this was nothing comparing it to the
intensifying, almost unbearable tension and violence of the
Otello-Desdemona duet at the beginning of the third act. This
was true drama and theatre summarizing Otello’s real, traitor
character and behavior he revealed in this pulsing, cruel and
vulgarly brutal dialogue in order to get the proof. And then you
saw and heard Cura’s disarmingly bare, honest breakdown and
confession in his memorable and exceptional solo “Dio! mi
potevi scagliar ..” He sang it collapsing unmoved in his
throne in a meditative mood showing increasing vulnerability,
despair and dynamic in his vision as he acted with his thoughts
and voice from phrase to phrase until he rejoiced with an
enormous “Gioia!” by Cassio’s appearance. This and the
ensuing exciting scene when he brilliantly spied and commented
the dialogue of Jágo and Cassio brought his total confidence in
Jago. Then we enjoyed the grandeur of the scene with the
ambassadors of Venice. How many faces of Otello were portrayed
by Cura in both voice and acting during this high-voltage,
totally credible and dreadful scene again showing the
irreversible fault and downfall of Otello!
José Cura also dominated the last scene of Otello and Desdemona
and he moved us to tears with his final, suicide action. We were
frightened by the dark music of Otello’s theme and the
unbelievable sequence of his strange, but well established
ritual with the candles and his sabre, and then he kissed
Desdemona really gently in her bed. This was just the
introduction of his pre-planned, lethal game as he carried out
Desdemona’s murder with strong, quick hands and cold head indeed
during their exciting and wonderfully projected dialogue. After
more fight and drama, he realized Jago’s betrayal and the
consequence of his guilty action and he said farewell to her and
his life in his final touching solo “Niun mi tema”. His
soft and ringing phrases and balmy timbre were filled with
tears, pain and self-accusation while it magnificently talked
about his never ending love towards Desdemona again.
The audience was so immersed into these actions that the
orchestra managed to play the closing notes of the score without
any interruption. Only after we produced our uncontrollably
exploding, huge celebration greeting the protagonists,
orchestra, choir, musicians and conductor for long minute
tirelessly. José Cura’s Otello and Polina Pasztircsák’s
Desdemona received our emphasized love during their many bows
and they always passed it nicely to the musicians of the
orchestra and their conductor, Marco Comin. Everybody was happy
with the success and ovations. We were very fortunate to meet
José at backstage and we could share the happiness of the
performance with each other for some honored minutes. We hope
that José Cura’s operatic schedule will return to Budapest and
the Hungarian State Opera very soon in the future.
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