José Cura:  "I sing with the pride of those who never bend"

Twenty years later José Cura returns to the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago. The famous Argentine tenor will star in Tosca tonight and on 11 and 18 August (a different cast will perform on 24 August), with partner Maria Guleghina and under the direction of a great conductor, Dmitri Jurowski.

In 1995, Cura debuted the role of Cavaradossi in Torre del Lago.  Not on the same stage; he knows the old theater, pointing to the point where now stands a magnetic sculpture by Igor Mitoraj. Now he hasn’t come on the wave of Puccini, but overwhelmed by fans of Jovanotti who prevented him from arriving home until late at night. Nevertheless, he is responsive and helpful. "Cavaradossi is the Puccini male character with whom I identify most: one who does not give in, one whose honor and dignity are not for sale and one who dies to defend his ideals."

He has many roles in his repertoire.  “A curious and restless artist like me can hardly choose a single role among the many I have had the privilege of interpreting.  However, even if it is obvious that I have loved and still love Otello, Samson, Canio, Cavaradossi, Johnson, I have recently been able to perform Britten’s Peter Grimes and I have since then been very taken by it.”

As a good, restless soul, Cura is a tenor, conductor, director and producer, so much so that someone has compared his eclecticism to that of Leonardo. "In the film industry nobody asks what the actor prefers to do if he is also a director, screenwriter or producer, Look at Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford, to name two very well-known ones. In classical music, on the other hand, tackling the craft in an eclectic way always triggers the obligatory question. I am an artist who has chosen not to hide any of the gifts received, even at the risk of being criticized for this. To be a reference artist, it is not enough to express oneself in a "beautiful" way--after all, beauty is a point of view--but to have the courage to defend one's convictions. I'm doing my best! I hope one day we can say that my transit for this marvelous job has served something or someone, especially future generations.”

Meanwhile, in order not to contradict himself, after Tosca in Torre del Lago he leaves for Muscat on 28 August where her will perform with the Teatro Colón from Buenos Aires in Carmen and then conduct Beethoven's Ninth. Then, he’s off for a concert in China and in November, "I will be in Budapest to record my Ecce Homo oratory with the orchestra and the choir of the Hungarian Radio. Also with the Hungarian ensemble, of which I am the main guest artist, in January I will make the world premiere of my opera Montezuma and the Red Priest.”