And love, whether spoken or not, defines the opera.  Puccini wrote:  “These two beings, who stand...outside the world, are transformed through love, and this love must take possession of everybody on the stage...”  In the end, the entire play can be reduced to two troubled individuals finding their way to love and bringing the audience along with them.

There is every indication in the notes he left behind that the great composer wanted his final opera to be a paean to love even if he didn't live long enough to pen the music to prove it. It would seem contrary to Puccini's stated plans (and out of character based on his previous heroes) to have a malignant Calaf.

The music is not enough.  There must be magic

José Cura: What's the Fourth Tenor? "There is a way to understand with the audience that the opera singer is not a pathetic potato who is standing on the stage and yelling loudly

Magyar Hirlap

Zováthi Domokos

6 June 2019

José Cura star in Giacomo Puccini's last and most well-known work, Turandot, on the Margaret Island stage on 7 and 9 June. The Argentinean says it takes at least twenty years of experience to be a good artist - but also be noted that some roles cannot be played by an older singer. Also in the exclusive interview given to our magazine, the star said that the Academy of Music is a "magical place," and Budapest is one of the centers of classical music.

- You return to Budapest as the unknown prince, Calaf, in Turandot. Who is he?

José Cura:  Calaf is a humanly ungrateful character, you can't say he's a nice guy. He is extremely cynical, someone supremely confident. He is willing to sacrifice the lives of others - be it his father or Liu, the slave girl - to gain power. If someone reads the text carefully, you can see that he never uses the word "love". Whether you're talking to Turandot or anything else, he always talks about the desire. He never says "ye amo" but "ye voglio", which is a very different thing: "I love you" or "I want". And Calaf feels the latter. He wants Turandot, he needs to recover his power, his lost kingdom, his luck, his mission. It doesn't matter what and who he sacrifices to achieve his goals.

- If you can't identify with a character, how do you sing the role?

JC:  If you don't know what a particular piece is about, or if you think that the tenor sings nice music, then you're sure the character is a nice person. I could use the example of Pinkerton from Puccini's Madam Butterfly. He has beautiful arias, but if we think about it, he’s a pedophile. I'm not exaggerating: he wants to pay for the act from a fifteen-year-old girl. I do not want to mention sex tourism, but it still exists, it is still going on in poorer countries. Here, too, it reveals the contradictions of the opera: despite the fact that Pinkerton sings very nicely, it does not mean that he is a lovable person.

- Do you always prefer roles with a strong presence?

JC: Of course it is more interesting to hide within the skin of such a character than in one of an idiot in love. It is more colorful, more interesting, more challenging.

- Cavaradossi from Tosca, Alfredo from La traviata, Canio from Pagliacci, Otello, Samson—we could list others. Do you have a favorite?

JC: They were all different and I liked them all. Recently, I was in the character of Peter Grimes which I also enjoyed as an interesting challenge. But I have to accept that I am too old for some of my great roles. I can't play the young boy.

-  But you see that happening many times on stage everywhere in the world.

JC:  Yes, this is one of the contradictions of the opera. This is not a good thing, though.  Of course, the voice is most important, but the role should also be appropriate. Naturally, if someone is fourteen years old, he can't sing as the opera requires but conversely once you are over fifty years, you can't sing like a twenty-year-old. Even if one has a divine voice, in the twenty-first century it is more pathetic than interesting to pretend to be a teenager at sixty years of age. Fortunately, however, there are many roles that don't matter: Otello, Canio, Grimes, all great.  You don’t always have to be Alfredo or Rodolfo--there will be young bohemians later.

- Your profession was originally a conductor and composer. You became famous as an opera singer.

JC: Can I ask when you were born?

- In 1987.

JC: Then it will not be easy to explain this to you. In Argentina, around 1981-82, at the end of the military dictatorship, we started building a very young democracy. It was difficult at that time for any artist to be a conductor or composer. At that time, older, more powerful people sat in these positions. Luckily it turned out that my voice was good, so it was my fate to become a successful tenor. And I'm very grateful. Now I come to you all here in Budapest because I sing nicely, not because I'm a famous conductor.

- When you were younger, you were refused by several managers and smaller theaters.

JC: That is quite normal in this profession. It is not easy to see the opportunity, the vision of the young artist. Because I've been in the profession so long, it's easier to recognize a truly talented over a moderately talented person. But this is not my wisdom but because the older one is, the more experience he has.

- You are often referred to as the fourth tenor. On a video, I saw that you aren’t very happy to be introduced that way.

JC:  It's a journalistic cliché, and unfortunately it doesn't mean anything.  Sadly, Pavarotti has passed away. Carreras is technically no longer a tenor but a singer, who, I add, is first-class but he represents something else. And Domingo is singing baritone.  So my question is, who is the fourth tenor? Fortunately, there are a number, for example, the great Jonas Kaufmann, though I add, he is not the future but the present. The profession is no longer the same as it used to be. It used be that a singer had to spend much more time and effort to get into the show. Nowadays, fame is coming much sooner and faster, thanks to the Internet.

- Thinking about social media?

JC:  Yes, social media urges people, but if we are impatient, there is no time to build the cellar upon  which to build on solid foundations. Our profession is particularly strange, as you need at least twenty years of experience to be a good artist. At the beginning you are only talented, but slowly, but with many experiences you can move up and up. Now, if someone runs into social media at a young age, there is simply no time for them to develop properly.

- Do we have other times now?

JC:  I'm not saying that I'm better or worse, I'm not old enough for that. Let's see what's going to happen in twenty years, but I'm sure other winds are blowing.

- As a positive thing, you might mention video sharing sites?

JC: That's good, and bad, because it's useful but not real. If someone says they have a very intense sexual life because they are watching a lot of  adult content on the internet, they are not experiencing the real thing, aren't they? I do not want to moralize, but the situation is the same as when someone goes to the opera and lives in person personally, or gets a small percentage of these impulses before a small screen. A true opera singer works throughout his life to improve his voice and can only really be understood live.

- How do you see the opera's situation today?

JC: It depends on the country. It has been an honor to witness how much progress Hungary has been making in recent years. Opera, as I hear, will soon be beautified here is the Palace of Arts, which is wonderful, the Budapest Music Center, and of course the legendary Franz Liszt Academy of Music, which is the heart of Budapest's musical life. That place is simply magic. I last performed there in February, and I could almost feel the energy and spirit of the great composers of the past. It is good to see that there has been development and advancement of infrastructure from ten years ago.

- Among the young people, the Budapest Festival Orchestra's Midnight Music concert series, where you can listen to some of the most popular classical music pieces while sitting on pillows, is very popular.

JC: There is a need for such things. Classical music is like religion. As the man goes to the church with reverence, he breathes through the concert and gives himself over to the experience.

- Who is your favorite Hungarian composer?

JC:  If you go to another country, the first thing you learn is that they don't have a favorite, because everybody else likes it. Aside from the joke, from the very beginning, Hungary was the center of international classical music: it was almost born here. We must not forget that the biggest were here in Vienna and Prague. It is a joy to see this old pride return to the area and know I can be part of it. Hungarian training, talents and technical possibilities have been added.

- What is the future of the opera?