Retrospective 2003

We meet for our conversation in the Russian capital, a town that at the time had caught worldwide attention because of the tragic events at the Musical Theater. You have rehearsed here during these sad days. Your concert at the Kremlin took place exactly one week after the hostage- taking and your second scheduled concert was called off for security reasons. Don't you at times want to lead a different life, more secure, less travel, a less public one ?

That would be difficult for me to imagine as I have been on stage for 28 years. I am 40 years old now, that means more than half of it has been a public life. I almost don't know anything else.

I think that perhaps the year 2003 will be a decisive one. The worldwide crisis we experience is not only an economical one; the elementary question is - War or Peace. It is in these uncertain times the artists need to unite and cooperate. It is our duty to comfort people through music and theater. We cannot and should not walk away from unpleasant situations.

It seems you wish to make a change at the peak of your career. Your schedule shows less vocal performances but more conducting. Is this just an interlude or a turning point?

Indeed, it could look like an interlude but it isn't. Of course, one cannot plan his life precisely. We are experiencing this drastically during these dramatic days. I cannot tell you what will have happened in five years time. For me, this path means a return to my roots, to what made me a musician. As you know I debuted as a conductor in public at 15. This was 25 years ago. I became a professional singer in 1992 only.

What about the often repeated story that one of most in-demand tenors in the world became a singer only to gain easy access to the business?

This is true - but only partly. I also moved to Europe because of the substantial economic crisis we were experiencing already at that time in Argentina. Of course, as a tenor - lyrico-spinto - it was much easier for me to get into the business. I abandoned conducting for 6 or 7 years and have only slowly taken it up again since 1998. It increased in 2001 when I was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonia Varsovia.

For me, conducting also represents a good opportunity to escape from the routine of the opera singer. Whether I like it or not, out of the eighty yearly opera performances, 75% are always from the same repertoire. So one comes quickly to a point of falling into a certain routine. One loses freshness.

As a singer, are you now in demand for Verismo roles only?

Most of the time. Verismo is fantastic and interesting. But to sing the same roles over and over again can became painful.

Today you are surely in a position where you have your say on what will be performed?

No, I have a different opinion. One needs to meet, sit together to find out the best way. Dialogue is the key. Unfortunately, mostly it ends up with roles like Otello or else. This is also the reason why I have not conducted an opera so far but only symphonic repertoire - and of this, not the most current.

The planned performances at the Hamburg State Opera are in fact your real debut as an opera conductor?

Yes, it will be the very first time that I conduct an opera. I am looking forward to it very much. "Cavalleria Rusticana" is a work I know well and have sung often and have also recorded.

Was it a conscious decision to choose for your debut an opera you know well from your own performances as a singer?

It was, in fact, a very pragmatic solution that allows me to do both - singing and conducting - in the same evening.

You will sing Canio in "Pagliacci" after conducting "Cavalleria." Did you offer to sing so you could conduct or did Hamburgische Staatsoper offer you the conducting job so you would agree to sing?

When we met about three years ago, our discussion was free on both sides, without any criteria that had to be fulfilled. We quickly came to the conclusion that this combination was something extraordinary and could be a great attraction. Perhaps it will even be the first time that someone who conducts an opera will sing the lead role in the second part of the evening.

In concert performances you have already often practiced this flying change. Do you believe that it will be easy for you to stand the same day for one hour in the orchestra pit and for another hour on stage and act as a fully engaged singer?

It will be an adventure, I admit. The advantage is that I know very well, from my many performances, the character I will interpret in "Pagliacci." I can look back on sufficient experience and know which inner key to push to reach the character fast.

I have no doubt in this respect as you live your roles on stage with great acting intensity. But what happens should the conductor Cura break through the singer Cura? Yesterday evening, during the Kremlin concert, on some occasions in your role as singer you gave directions to the orchestra.

It is true that there is a special way of communicating musically not only within the orchestra musicians. If this were not the case, no homogeneity would be possible. Of course, one can still experience that when the singer sings his part, all the conductor and the musicians can do is to follow. This is not the right way. The singer has to develop a way to communicate (with the orchestra): with the eyes, the expressions, the gestures. All this together makes a satisfactory, common musicianship possible. Of course, one could interpret this to mean I wish to overrule the conductor but this is not true. I have been working this way with conductors like Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta - and these are really gifted conductors. They have understood me because they know the basics of good musicianship. Unfortunately, yesterday evening I had to step in at several times to save the concert.

We know you as a totally emotionally engaged singer, reacting sometimes even impulsively. How can you control your temperament as a conductor when you have to go through all the emotions of an opera?

Particularly as a conductor, one needs to remain cool. One is not only responsible for himself but for all. Whatever happens on stage goes through the conductor's hands. Should anybody experience a problem, you are the one who can and must help. As an opera conductor, you often have only two rehearsals. This also is part of the job and can be mastered by acting professionally.

I think it important during rehearsal to bring out all the emotions that will later be interpreted vocally and musically. In some cases [it's important] even to exaggerate the emotions, to force extremes to know how far one can go. During the performance, the art is not to cross that border but stop just at the limit. When I conduct, I have already given so much of my physical energy during rehearsals that the orchestra understands my intentions. During the concert, my gestures are noticeably less. The formula is then "very hot heart and very cold mind."

What in your eyes is the greater challenge, singing or conducting?

These are very different things. For a singer, it is a tremendous feeling being the last instance between the music and the audience, to be the executing "Instrument." As a conductor one feels somewhat less stressed, at least in my experience. This is because a good orchestra will continue even should you lose track for a few seconds. If a conductor falls ill, he still can somehow do his job. Is a singer is feeling just a little bit sick, it is a problem: nobody will sing the high note for him!

Do you think you will encounter difficulties in obtaining contracts to conduct operas?

I don't believe so but in any case I will approach it slowly. I want to allow myself and the musicians sufficient time to realise that they are not being directed by a conducting singer but by a true conductor. For sure, the orchestra may imagine, "Here comes a tenor to conducts us and it is only because he is famous." It pleases me when the musicians, after a short time, make me feel that they want to work with me. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra, with whom I should have given a concert tomorrow [performance was canceled for security reasons], were initially skeptical of my abilities, they admitted after the first rehearsal. But they also told me they had rarely played the music with such intensity and this in a program of Rachmaninov, their own music and repertoire. This is how it usually goes: the first rehearsal proves whether you are a bluff or not.

I wish to earn my success as a conductor over time. In no way do I want to experience another PR-campaign like at the beginning of my career as a singer: "Here comes the New Tenor, The Tenor of the Century, The Sex Symbol of Opera." This was nonsense and totally dangerous! When you arrive at a place where you are not yet known but everybody has read the most incredible stories - the pressure is unbearable! I will never forget a review written after my first "Otello" in Munich: ... believing until that performance that I was just a Sunnyboy, they finally understood that I was a serious singer. And this was in the year 2000, eight years after the ridiculous PR-campaign. I will not make the same mistake [with my conducting career].

You have already mentioned "Sinfonia Varsovia." What is the role of a "Principal Guest Conductor"?

This orchestra does not have a principal conductor. It is a free-lance orchestra. It also has no "season," no regular concert series, etc... So it would not make sense to have a principal conductor. As the "Principal Guest Conductor" I am holding the highest conducting function and am conducting concerts as they are scheduled. If they had a fixed season, it would be impossible for me to act as principal conductor - my tight schedule would not allow it.

Does this mean that if you should today get the opportunity to work with your own orchestra, with worldwide engagements, that you would go so far as to give up your singing career?

I have been working over the last 10 - 15 years to become a good singer. Now that I have reached the peak of my singing career -- this is for singers the age of 40 -- it would be unwise to abandon the success of this work. For sure, I will continue as a singer but will reduce my vocal performances. I have been singing a lot: up through the year 2000, eighty-five to ninety performances a year - far too much. Today, forty-five to fifty performances a year will allow my voice to remain fresh for a longer period.

There is a new milestone in the development of your career. You have founded your own music label. Why?

Two years ago, I founded my own production company: Cuibar Phono Video. I am a very active man and always eager to explore new things. I can carry out my plans, create my own productions and recordings. Together with an English producer we are about to make a film on "Il Tabarro," to be released maybe around 2004/05. We also arrange, together with other production companies, concerts all over the world.

For me it is a special experience to be a manager. It opens many new doors and it allows me to have a view on the business from a different perspective.

Was (creating a record label) a decision to allow you to do things you love, like making recordings major companies could not or would not want to make?

Correct. I can also make decisions on the choice of singers. It is always very important to me to engage young singers for my concerts. The creation of my own recording label is a way to allow me to realise my own ideas. To create official recordings you need a legal company. I am very pleased, I have signed the joint venture contract between my company and Avie Records for the marketing and distribution of my recordings. It is a young, dynamic company in London that markets selected product lines in an exclusive way.

Are other recordings planned with major labels?

Not at the moment. The reason is the actual important crisis in the recording industry. There are no more new recordings of entire operas, almost only of recitals and, of course, live recordings! But studio opera recordings? Almost none.

More and more smaller music labels are appearing on the market. Is this a reaction to the crisis in music business? Will the majors lose their influence long-term?

Let me answer this way. When a big elephant has a problem with a small nail, it can be helped by simply getting rid of the nail. The problem in today's CD-market is that the classical music department of a major company represents just a small part. If there is not enough demand and therefore not enough profitability in the classical music market, you just get rid of it and the Major company will survive.

As a small label, you need to operate differently. You are not allowed to ignore problems. On the one hand this means great risks but it also forces you to be very flexible. The influence of the market is less but it is more difficult to become established in the market place.

On the first solo-CD of your own label you have recorded a series of interesting opera arias. Do you have plans to sing some of those operas on stage?

I did already sing on stage "La Gioconda" and "Il Corsaro." As for plans on "L'Africana," I don't know. I recorded the aria of "L'Amico Fritz" because I love it but for the entire opera I am not the right tenor. There could be a possibility for "Siberia," it was once thought of for Zurich - longer-term. It is very interesting music, a totally different, more modern "Giordano," not so melodious as "Fedora" or "Andrea Chenier."

What more can you tell us of new roles?

I have signed the contract for my first "Calaf" in Verona, and this coming September I will debut as Jean in "Herodiade" at the Vienna State Opera. In 2005 I will sing a very rarely staged opera "Nerone" by Mascagni (not Boito). A very strong music, an extremely demanding and long role, because "Nerone" is almost all the time on stage. I am looking forward to it - for sure it will be another milestone in my career.

JC peers through the glasses in DO Feb 2003

Another, less known aspect is that you started composing very early.

Before I came to Europe, I had been composing quite a lot because I had much more time than now. I have composed a "Requiem," dedicated to the victims of the Falkland war. It is called "Requiem Argentino por la Paz." Furthermore, a "Magnificat," a "Stabat Mater" and a piece called "Ecce Homo."

I have also heard of a work for musical theater: "The Girl with the Matches."

Yes, that's true. It's a small opera for children I wrote in 1992; at that time I was already in Europe.

How would you describe your composition style?

I believe that my music style today is different from that of earlier times. From 1980 to 1990 I was still very young and I did not have the European experiences. Today, I ask myself if I would perform my works the way I wrote them as a young man or whether, with all my experiences, I would want to change them. I have not found the answer yet.

Let us talk now about the classical music field in general. Where and how, in your opinion, is an artist influenced from outside? Today, do you feel free and independent ? How strong is the influence of the opera house and major recording companies on a famous opera singer?

Well, as far as the recording companies are concerned, the creation of my own company has solved this problem. The pressure that was part of my life during the past ten years won't exist anymore. As for the Opera houses, it would be unwise to tell them what to do. You get together with the intendants and discuss possibilities. What has definitively changed for me is that nobody can make me sing on stage something I don't want to sing or I cannot support. As a result, when I go on stage I am definitively doing what I love.

Do you have a vision on the future development of musical theater?

The neo-romantic style that has influenced the symphonic music thirty years ago is now slowly also taking its path towards opera. You can hear in new operas an integration of melodious music--of course, no honeyed, romantic-old-fashioned songs, but melodies - and not just sounds and noise. The music is now finding a balance, a compromise, if I may say so, between tradition and modernity. This will develop in all fields: music, direction, staging, lighting. It is a small step backwards, after the crossing of borders and limits. If one would not have experienced this, we would have never known the possibilities of how far one can go.

And how do you see the development of opera in respect of direction?

Of course, I cannot predict anything but I can make a statement: for five or six years, what was going on on the opera stage had become more and more hysterical, very special, bizarre things, just to show something totally unusual, for no valid reason. Over the past two years I have observed a trend, the opera directors's staging has become a little less hysterical but more meaningful.

More and more singers, also young ones, are questioning the directors. They want to know "Why."

Singers are not just executing robots. Many directors - but not all - have understood the message. There is some hope for the future.

The 40 years old tenor José Cura has been labeled 'star' with good reason. He sings brilliantly, has an actor's talent, is original and has unmistakable charisma. In the opera world he is considered as one of the possible successors of the famous three-- Domingo, Pavarotti, Carreras. He is going to sing in Prague on 31st Jan in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House (Obecni dum) accompanied by the Prague Symphonic Orchestra. He first sang with this orchestra 2 years ago-but then only for a private audience of bankers and financial experts attending a session of the International Monetary Fund. Like every star, José Cura shoots among countries and continents – not long ago he was in Japan.

Do you feel uncomfortable being compared to the 3 tenors by journalists? Does it annoy you?

I think we have a huge misunderstanding here. I cannot pretend I am successful to the same extent as these great artists, for I was born a generation later. They could have been my fathers! But whenever this comparison arises I take it as an inspiration.

Yes, I know them, but nothing more that that; we are not friends. I am only a young man who admires them. Nothing more.

What about tenors of your generation? Does friendship in the operatic world exist or is there only rivalry among singers?

Friendship is perhaps too strong a word but I must say there are no problems among us. Should we find ourselves in the same town, we go out for dinner together. We are a good group and mutually follow each other's careers. It might even be that in the future we will participate in some joint projects. What one reads in newspapers about such relationships is rarely true.

Just got off the plane. Tired, but polite. Sits cross-legged in the leather armchair, wears a black shirt, jeans and comfortable shoes. Only his operatic beard reminds one of his profession, otherwise nobody would tell that he is a tenor. He is a too healthy specimen for it.

Do you know that according some opera fans José Cura is not really a serious singer?

- I have heard that, but I do not believe that real opera fans think that way, just the conservative ones. They believe that anyone who has a good time on stage, who laughs and is in a good mood, cannot be a serious musician. If one sings, after all, he should suffer, break into cold perspiration before high notes, and generally behave in a way as if he was in a funeral. Nonsense.

- I don’t know, I have never thought about it. I am just this person, and I have always been so. I don’t want to change simply to accommodate the tastes of others. However, I understand and perfectly accept that my approach to classical music does not appeal to everyone. On the other hand, some are very satisfied with me. This is life: you do not have to appeal to everyone.

Tonight marks the third performance of Puccini's 'Turandot'. The Argentinean tenor, who has an Italian grandmother, does not behave like a star. Only ten years ago, he was a mere "cover" in 'Don Carlo'; today he is one of the most acclaimed singers in the world.

José Cura: "The cost of fame is high: you are always in the viewfinder of others, always on the presentation plate."

José Cura does not have the demeanor of a star even though he would have more than enough reason to, given the great successes he has achieved in the international arena. Instead, he seems more thoughtful and levelheaded as he reflects on those days even as he admits (in leaving) that the somewhat tumultuous preparations for 'Turandot' have not let him sleep a lot. "I am not talking about the musical rehearsals", maintains the famous Argentinean tenor, "in those, there is always a solution. I am talking about those sets where we would work on stage eagerly and cheerfully- with hundreds of people. We all survived, stage hands and extras included, in this race against time, working often until three in the morning."

Cura takes a deep breath as if he had cleared major hurdles, and right away we are pursuing the subject of his tumultuous, eventful career: barely ten years ago, he was a simple "cover" at the Arena in 'Don Carlo'; today he is one of the world's most celebrated tenors.

How did this come about?

"My career is not dependent on entrusting myself blindly to one person, a promoter,a manager as the case may be, but rather on making the right "brain waves", the correct decisions. There have been three or four turning points along my artistic pathway. The first was the stage debut in Henze's 'Pollicino' at Verona's Teatro Nuovo. I would compare that experience to meeting the first great love of your life. I'll never forget it, my first professional job after I had left Argentina. I would so like to see the children again who performed with me back then. Who knows how big they have grown, and whether they will perhaps read this interview. The rest is history and well documented at that. Then I opened in the up-to-then unpublished version of 'The Makropoulos Case' by Janacek, and while I was singing 'Forza del destino' at Covent Garden in '95, I was offered the third version of Puccini's 'La Rondine' in the absolutely first performance ever- with TV coverage. Finally, I took part in the famous 'Otello', the one directed by Abbado with the Berlin Philharmonic at Turin's Teatro Regio-that one also taped for TV. It constituted, at age 34, the final step which definitively launched my career."

Why this difficult role of Calaf?

"'Turandot' is an opera which opens absolutely new horizons for every aspect of the voice. It is a score with incredible possibilities, of an impressive, unheard-of, unprecedented orchestral richness. There is modernity to the composing which leaves you with your mouth wide open, gasping. There is so much to dig up, to unearth here; it is never going to be finished. Puccini is supposed to have put it this way: "Boys, if you haven't figured out yet who I really am, then listen to this." The much discussed (part of) Otello appears more difficult because it has dark colors, requires a strong voice but is altogether of a more psychological coloring than anything else. It does not require the big volume of a Calaf. 'Turandot' was a last-minute choice. A period set aside for concerts in my country became available because of the difficult economic situation there. That's when I examined the offer from Verona, which was however only in regard to 'Carmen' and 'La Traviata'. It has taken a year to convince me to do Calaf. I am enjoying myself tremendously, and I would not have thought that because things appeared to have more to do with the first five years of my career. Besides, it is a role without great psychological complications. One sings the role of Calaf because the music is magnificent, because it is beautiful, because it gives real pleasure to sing it."

You have always been interested in orchestral conducting. How come?

"I became a musician in order to be a conductor and composer, after having studied 5/6 instruments. I debuted in '78 at age 15, something I had told my father about just a few minutes before the event. Only after another 15 years did I take the first steps as a professional singer. One cannot draw any comparisons with other famous colleagues, as for example Domingo, even if they have taken up the baton also. I have always been conducting symphonic music, rarely opera."

What is the price of fame?

"The price is enormously high. One always has to pay the bill, just as one always has to suffer the consequences. Every last minute you are under investigation. Ah! Now he has taken up conducting. Has his voice given out? Let's see what in the whole wide world he is doing now, but let's watch and wait for this and that. That's all part of the game. You have to get used to that; you have to be tough; you have to have a strong stomach to make your own way. Right now, my first CD of symphonic music is being released in Italy as well as a recital disc of Italian music, titled 'Aurora', which is dedicated to my country. I am a musician who has been working hard and seriously for 25 years."

After the initial Italian successes, José Cura had the great opportunity to be able to debut in the United States, at Chicago as Loris in 'Fedora', at Los Angeles and San Francisco as Pollione in 'Norma' and Don José in 'Carmen'. Great success followed at the Colon in Buenos Aires in Zandonai's 'Francesca da Rimini'. In May of '96, José Cura made his London debut with a memorable 'Tosca' and in a documentary (accompanied by Leontina Vaduva and Julia Migenes), which was distributed by BBC and took another look at Puccini. Finally, in December of '97, there was the grand debut at the Scala in Ponchielli's 'La Gioconda' and the following year 'Manon Lescaut' opposite Guleghina and under the direction of Riccardo Muti, an opera which became a prestigious, widely circulated CD.

IDNES, 25 October 2003

José Cura may very well raise the score of Dvořák’s New World symphony over his head and make it clear that the composer is the hero. It makes no difference. Even if Cura wished it a hundred times over. It would be like denying himself. It’s true that there are other conductors who are showy, agile on the dais, who squat down. And sometimes with less impact than that achieved by Cura, who didn’t hesitate to deploy his own specialty: tossing the baton from his right hand to his left. This was an interesting, wild and fiery Dvořák, also thanks to the excellent Prague Chamber Philharmonic, but concentrating on it wasn’t easy, because it was simply part of an evening show, whose master was the incandescent Cura with his wayward temperament.

... in his rush of emotion, sadness and melancholy, he is thrilling. It is no surprise that on the opera stage where the art of acting, costumes and other factors play their part, Cura is dazzling. So let us be glad that we have him.