Reviews

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “José Cura can be a real ham--and he is--but nowadays, there is simply no one else who knows how to make so much out of the Venetian Moor. He was stunning in an impressive ‘Esultate!.’ He glossed over a few notes in the love duet to make it more accessible, but he was irreproachable in the duets with Iago and Desdemona as well as in his two great solo scenes. It is a pleasure to be able to listen to an Otello like this, one who doesn’t make the spectator suffer in the least, when there have been outstanding Otellos who have had difficulties in the second and third acts.” La Razón, February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “"He is what he is." Iago’s definition of Otello serves as well for José Cura. The Argentinean tenor is one of the current interpreters of reference in the title role, as long as you like his idiosyncrasies: coarse sounds, phrases that are spoken with pressure, high notes that are just and sustained as little as possible, volume less generous volume than it seems. His slides, moans, sighs, and crying point to a conception of Otello that is more melodramatic than truly tragic. If we accept all this, what is left? Well, it's charisma at its best, served by a bronzed look and an accurate delineation of the Venetian general's emotional turmoil. It is not so insignificant.” Avui, 11 February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “This Verdi masterpiece is only mounted when the right interpreter can take the lead; in this case, that lead was the singer considered to be the most outstanding Otello of the moment, José Cura, who shunned the usual ‘Del Monaco’ interpretation to fill his character with edge, pianissimos, and middle voice. That’s not to say he was careful, perhaps even too much so, which resulted in a surge of emotion when he was vocally generous, when that silvery and steely timbre that is so unique to him appeared. The best of his beautiful singing voice lay in his high range, better, when he sings ‘forte;’ that, in addition to being a stage angel, makes him a theatrical winner.” ABC, 11 February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “In the person of José Cura, Willy Decker has a truly first-rate artist at his disposal to portray this complex being [Otello] who is under fire every which way. The tenor, at his peak in terms of his voice as well as his expressiveness, lives the role, and the way in which he takes over and fills the space (on stage) is exceptional. His metallic timbre with its burnished sparkle, his projection and the intensity of his accentuation are ideally suited to his character, with whom he seems to have become identified ever since he took on the role in 1997.

Of sensual charm and animal magnetism in the love duet, the actor later gives free reign to his uncertainties and to his pain in terrible epileptic fits, where he whimpers, moans, groans and twists down to the ground with confounding realism. Praying, uttering blasphemies, and clinging to a simple, omnipresent wooden cross that is like a fallen crucifix, Otello has come back to Cyprus to suffer, to humiliate and degrade himself, and to die under sinister Iago’s gaze of satisfaction and approval. Whatever admiration one has for Cura’s vocal stamina, good looks and naturalness, it is impossible to resist his commitment and his emotional investment, which gives rise to such a deeply felt performance. A memorable evening.” Concert Classic, February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “The Liceu has done nice work in presenting Otello, vocally the most demanding opera of the mature Verdi, with one of the best teams possible. To start with, there is José Cura in the leading role. The level of his performance was excellent, as much in the vocal as in the dramatic sphere. Cura proved himself an excellent actor on stage, which, in this Shakespearean drama, is much to be thankful for. His powerful voice, moments of intensity and sense for the dramatic made for a role of great vibrancy.” La Vangardia, 11 February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “No one can doubt that his version of this Verdi character is solid and interesting. However, the appeal of his performance lies at times more in the theatrical than in the musical. Cura has a stage presence of extraordinary delivery and dynamism, which, simply by stepping on the stage, completely captures the attention. Also, his construction of his character does not manage tension well at some moments and represents a younger and more impulsive Otello than necessary. Nevertheless, the final scene of the opera is flawless in the hands of the Argentinean tenor.

Cura has a powerful and impressive voice but it is not beautiful. His emission is tense, it sounds stripped and has a somewhat uneven color that makes it sound closed in the low register and open in the high register. These particularities give him a very personal timbre that he certainly knows how to take advantage of as Otello due to the dramatic charge that this character has. Curiously, his voice improves during the performance, starting hard and fixed in Esultate! and with difficulty finds nuance in the love scene with Desdemona, improving considerably during the second and third acts before reaching the final Niun mi tema full of musicality.” Mundo Clasico, 20 February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “The long-awaited revival of Verdi's Otello at the Liceu had the added bonus of being able to hear in the title role the brilliant tenor José Cura, and having seen and heard him we can confirm that he is well deserving of [the accolades]. Cura embodied the Venetian Moor as a true monster of the stage, forceful and superb in gesture; nuanced, energetic and flexible in voice. Despite the hardness of the role, he overcame the most difficult parts with wise performance and measured intensity, managing to highlight with mastery the contrary feelings that plague the character.” Filomusica, 2 February

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “In the title role, José Cura demonstrated that he is currently one of the best interpreters of Otello on the international stage. He relied on his middle voice and pianissimos, leaving for specific moments the vocal generosity required by the role. He is prone to use vocal excess to disguise the fact that the singing line is not properly projected in some passages. In spite of that, and thanks to his charisma and great theatrical gifts, Cura offered an exciting Otello.” Canto Lirico, 24 February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “Compensating the audience for [the staging] were the soloists, all of them in top form, led by José Cura who, lucky him, is still able to arouse hatred and love to a superlative degree, a rare commodity in these times of reassuring mediocrity. The Argentinean tenor is now able to offer a Moor with a more controlled and homogeneous singing, without that exaggerated gap of the past between the extremes of the dynamic range which spoiled his naturalness. Only an over-confident Niun mi tema spoiled a performance which accorded to the squillo its rightful moments and allowed the persuasive singing line to offer a recitation of great quality. There was great audience enthusiasm towards him …” L'opera, March 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “To speak of Otello is to speak of voice. José Cura has the vocal coloring, the power and strength, but above all the dramatic temperament that this colossal Verdi character demands. His best weapon, over and above technique and style, is his stage presence. In his visceral interpretation, the Argentine tenor strips the character of all nobility and puts himself into his skin and tortured psychology in such a way that he fills the stage and tirelessly maintains the dramatic tension until the anguished finale. Cura is Otello. It’s as simple as that.” El Pais, 11 February 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “The Liceu’s Otello was one of the most eagerly awaited entries in the current Barcelona season because of the presence of José Cura, the Argentinian tenor that the media is presenting as “the” Otello for the twenty-first century. Three years ago, when Cura replaced José Carreras in a performance of Samson et Dalila at the Liceu, patrons who were able to catch a glimpse of this intense, original performer started spreading the word that those who cared for opera in the city should wait for his return. Last year, Cura shone in a concert performance of Verdi’s rather sketchy Il Corsaro, in which he gave ample evidence of his acting skills and dramatic tenor, but local fans have since been waiting for a look at this artist in a staged performance of a more demanding role.

This was Cura’s chance, and his Otello did not disappoint the Barcelona public. Cura’s Otello is a performance that the Liceu audiences will remember for a long time: a profoundly felt, well considered depiction of a man’s descent into madness, paired with a true vocal tour de force. Cura’s tenor is sometimes strained and the sound is not always pretty, but his technique and the communicative powers are astounding.” Opera News, May 2006

Otello, Barcelona, February 2006: “Once you grow used to his idiosyncrasies (crooning, sighs, sobs and other melodramatic effects, besides his peculiar technique), José Cura remains an imposing Otello, full of charisma.” Opera, June 2006

A Dream of a Tenor

Guia del ocio

With a powerful, homogenous and very beautiful voice, José Cura is a singer with strong temperament and an excellent actor who also offers great stage presence. As it turns out, he is also the perfect interpreter of the role which many dramatic tenors only dreams about: Otello, the main character in an extraordinary opera by Giuseppe Verdi.

Cura will be accompanied by two accomplished singers, soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, who made her debut in Barcelona and baritone Lado Atanelli, who had a great success at the Liceu in the role of Renato in Un ballo in maschera.

From the 9th till 27^th of February, the Liceu will welcome Otello, conducted by Antoni Ros-Marbà, who conducted this work here 16 years ago. Of the eleven performances, four will an have alternative cast: the principal roles in which will be Valencian soprano Anna Ibarra, tenor Gabriel Sadé and baritones Valeri Alexeev and Carlo Guelfi.

“My Otello is a traitor, not noble”

The singer is considered the best interpreter of the famous "Moor of Venice,” a character who has become the archetype of the jealous man and victim of manipulation

P. M.

7 Feb 2006

ABC

BARCELONA. Promoting the best Otello of the moment was a marketing ploy the Liceu could not let pass, and in introducing José Cura, Joan Matabosch, the Liceu’s artistic director, said: "We are very proud to have with us the best interpreter of this role at this time.”

The main character in the opera Otello (1887), a product of Verdi’s [artistic] maturity, is one of the signature roles of the Argentine singer, currently living in Madrid, whose relation with the Liceu began almost by accident when he arrived in March 2001 to replace José Carreras shortly before the opening of Samson et Dalila.

One unforgettable night

After that unforgettable night –- one so memorable that with only that one performance the "Grup de Liceístes de 4. i 5è. Pis" awarded him the prize as the best singer of the season -- Cura made his official debut in January 2005, singing Il Corsaro, also by Verdi, but in concert version. This will be the first time he sings a staged opera with appropriate rehearsals, an occasion that allows visitors to the Liceu to enjoy the interpreter’s personality, when beginning next Thursday he steps into the skin of the archetype Verdian-Shakesperian character, alternating the role with Gabriel Sadé, under the musical direction of Antoni Ros Marbà, and appearing with Lado Ataneli as Iago and Krasimira Stoyanova as Desdemona, this last alternating with Ana Ibarra.

"It is a very difficult role, but it rewards the interpreter," Cura said. "I have been in 15 different productions and whenever I play the role I discover something new. That is why it never ceases to amaze me.” Theaters compete to sign him for the role but he tries to take a rational approach to accepting offers for a character "who exhausts not only physically but also psychologically. In 2001, when the Verdi Year was celebrated, I sang in six or seven different productions and that was insane, but it helped me matured in the role. Now I try to sing no more than ten performances a year."

Cura says that Otello is a traitor to his faith, his people and his motherland, "for those reasons I do not consider him a noble man. But it is true that many of the great tenors, all of them noble interpreters, like Domingo, Vickers or Vinay, contributed a portion of themselves to the nobility to the character. But in my interpretation, for all those reasons, he is not a hero. He is a mercenary, a military machine."

The Verdi opera being stage at the Liceu is the production Willy Decker designed for the Monnaie of Brussels that "puts it in the modern mode, crude, with almost nothing on the stage. There are four walls that become a psychological prison for my character and, of course, for all the other actors.”

Schematic stage

“The only scenic element that appears on stage is a great cross that is broken, that becomes an arm that serves to support us. When there is only us in the scene, we can never lower our guard. That is a disadvantage that in the end is transformed into an advantage, because it demands an absolute commitment from us.” This sort of success is not always obtained, says Cura, "because minimalism can hide a complete lack of ideas, but that is not true in this case. It works for this opera but not for all, since not all are as brilliant as Otello, in which nothing is too excessive or lacking. For that reason limited staging like this one can be understood without great difficulty. The tension is placed on the actors."

Another one of his talent as an artist is that of conductor, for which he has still not been offered a contract in Spain.

"I conducted two concerts with the Filarmónica Arturo Toscanini de Milán, with whom I also conducted I vespri siciliani. This year I make my debut on the podium of the Staatsoper in Vienna with Madam Butterfly. But I have not received offers of this sort in Spain." If his repertoire as conductor is growing, the same is also true of his operatic roles. "I recently added Fanciulla, Hérodiade and Turandot, so there is very little left in my Italian-French repertoire. Nerone has been offered to me as have the leads in Britton’s Peter Grimes and Wagner’s Parsifal and both are tempting. I will do the Nerone but I am afraid of the Grimes because musically it is very difficult, and Parsifal because of the language. I do not speak German and to make my debut in Wagner, which I find appealing, I must do under optimal conditions."

Andrea Chénier in the dressing room

Next year, Barcelona will be able to see Cura in another of his great roles, Andrea Chénier, in the opera by Giordano of the same name. That opera will inaugurate season 2007-08.

The Argentine singer declined to talk about the problems he had in Teatro Real in 2000 or to say anything about any conversations with the new director of the Madrid theater. However, following the departure of Montserrat Caballé, Cura confirmed that he has broken contact "completely" with the Coliseo of the Three Cultures that was going to be built in Madrid by Jose Luis Moreno, whose offer of musical direction Cura had accepted. "Now all that is stopped. I will see what happens if Moreno contacts me but at the moment I don’t know anything."

'No solo de celos vive Otelo'

Pablo Meléndez-Haddad

ABC

William Shakespeare, Arrigo Boito and Giuseppe Verdi. Three great names of western culture who for centuries have been the voices of treason, death and violence thanks to the fatality that accompanies the Moor of Venice: Otello. If the character represents the pinnacle of Shakespearean creation, it has perhaps become something even more in the world of opera, since he is the basis for two great masterpieces: one by Rossini and, more importantly, one by Verdi; indeed, it is the latter that returns to the Liceu next Thursday in a production by Willy Decker, with set design and costumes by John Macfarlane.

On stage will be Argentinean José Cura, a tenor who may cause many sighs in the stalls when he assumes this role. It has taken him several years to build a strong relationship with Liceu since his first, brief appearance when he replaced José Carreras in a production of Samson et Dalila until [last year] when he presented a passionate reading of Il corsaro in a concert version of the Verdi opera.

"But this is the occasion I consider to be my debut," declared Cura to ABC Arts and Letters. "Now I will be able to offer my take on this complex character, as well as accompany the debut of Kasimira Stoyanova in the role of Desdemona. I believe this will be the tenth soprano I accompanied in this baptism," continued the tenor, who lives in Madrid.

José Cura believes certain superficiality exist in the analysis of the character of Otello. "One does not think about what is behind his attitude. People go directly to the problem of jealousy, attributing this feeling as the only reason for the murder of Desdemona. If this were true, the story would be limited and lose a great deal of its importance. To make this mess over a handkerchief? No. I prefer to emphasize the character’s insecurity and attitudes which typify the behavior of a traitor."

The tenor eliminates the nobility, the heroism and loyalty, admirable characteristics that stand out in the interpretation of some of greatest singers, from his analysis. "It is important to remember that Otello is a traitor in all ways: he betrays his faith, his race, his beliefs; he becomes a Christian for convenience, he transforms himself into a mercenary and he is contracted to attack his brothers, the Muslims. If we were to modernize the situation, it would be very difficult to understand, because nowadays it is very improbable that an Islamist would attack his own faith. That is why I believe that Desdemona has little or nothing to do in any of this. A traitor sees only treason on every side; an assassin sees only assassins and a mercenary sees only mercenaries. There is basically a reflection that makes one feel that everyone is just like he is. Otello is blinded by the possibility of treason and reacts with the logic of his original culture. If he were a Christian he would have killed Desdemona in an act of madness, not as he does, slowly, without trembling hands, because he is a general accustomed to the war, to death and killing. He is paid for it. He is a professional."

In José Cura’s reasoning there is little patience for this the sort violence. "In Otello’s eyes, he is not guilty in judging the hypothetical treason of his woman. He accepts it as fact, and therefore he feels he should not be punished for the murder, considers that he has the right to do it, that is the logical thing to do in his situation, that he has no other choice. His big mistake was in not having the courage to face Desdemona and Casio together, watching with his eyes, as they deny their infidelity to him. Otello does not look for the truth because he is essentially a traitor...”

This situation, according to the singer, is translated very well in the score, "Mainly in the third act, psychologically the best one to understand the point of view of the character. In the first part of that act, Otello gets to behave as if he were the proper Iago.” By all these arguments Cura says, “My Otello lacks nobility and heroism, something that is sometimes commented on. And yes, I believe that this is the right approach. I do not attempt to be noble or heroic in my interpretation, but a mercenary and a traitor to his faith and his people." In spite of this, the tenor knows that the character creates empathy with the public, "because it is also true that he has a certain destiny written in his hand: he is not the only one guilty of his destiny. Apparently, Otello was the son of a very important tribal leader, kidnapped by slave dealers. Thus there is a little justification the fact of to have been bred to transform himself into a bounty hunter [murderer for money], as happens in as many Christian societies as Muslim. For that reason, the opera of Verdi and the work of Shakespeare remains a reflection of our own society."

A Trapped Animal. José Cura defends the production of Willy Decker. "The cruelty of watching an animal trapped in its destiny is emphasized, which has been assigned to my character, I agree with. From the eye of the spectator this is a difficult production to endure because it is rigid, presenting four oppressive walls and a cross as the only prop, but I believe that the staging transmits the mood of the character well in suggesting a cruel confinement, that can be the representation of his false Christian faith, his betrayed Muslim faith or his racial fight. It forces me to make Otello very feline in the way he moves around the stage because it is very sloped and prevents him from walking with nobility, something I am already good at. The cross is used as a crutch, a shoulder to cry on, a strongpoint. The production is disturbing in the beginning, but in the end the staging is useful in projecting the vision I have of this character."

Otello, premiered in Teatro de la Scala de Milán on 5 February 1887, arrived at the Liceu on 18 November 1890 for the first time, and did not reappear until season 1987-88, when, as now, Antoni Ros Marbà was on the podium.

The Argentine tenor José Cura says the role of Otello is demanding physically and psychologically

Barcelona, 4 Feb (EFE) - the Argentine tenor José Cura will make his debut at the Liceu in Verdi’s Otello, a role, he says, that is “very demanding physically and psychologically.”

Cura, who first sang in the Barcelonan theater in Samson et Dalila in season 2000-2001 when he replaced José Carreras at the last minute when Carreras fell ill, commented during his press conference that “in exchange for that favor to the Liceu, the audience adopted me and a history of affection began which I hope lasts many years.”

The Argentine singer dismissed those flattering praises that place him as the greatest interpreter of Otello in the world: “There are good interpreters in the world who compete for a role, as happens in cinema. And each of them gives the role different color and tone.”

Cura admits that “the character in Verdi’s opera is very hard and exhausting, as much physical as psychological” and, therefore, he is thankful to the Liceu that they have spaced the performances with two days of rest.

José Cura, who sang his first Otello in 1997, remembers “almost ten years and twelve or fifteen different productions,” during which he was always discovering something new--these findings are the secret of why he never gets tired of the character or the opera.

The Argentine tenor recalls that the culminating point in his relationship with Otello took place in 2001, in the Year of Verdi, when he did many performances of the opera that were responsible for his “ripening of the role,” but “after that savagery I have not done more than eight performances of Otello a year.”

For Cura, the character that came from Shakespeare’s pen “is neither a hero nor a nobleman, but a mercenary who earns a living as a military machine in the service of the enemy.”

Cura clarifies that “Otello does not take any actions that are the least heroic, especially if we remember that he was a Turk who converted to Christianity for political interests and a Muslim who kills Turkish Muslims. Thus he can never be a hero, but rather a traitor to his people and his religion.”

He attributes the positive musical reading of this blood-thirsty character over the years to “the nobility of the singers who have given him life, Placido Domingo or Mario Del Monaco.”

Perhaps because of the popularity of psychiatry in his country of origin, Cura applied psychoanalysis to Otello and remarks that “at the beginning of the fourth act, the character removes the mask of Christianity, returns to his origins and becomes more barren, colder and more reflective. Then when he discovers the deceit (of Iago) and his mistakes, he understands that he has no other escape but suicide, an act of cowardice but also an act of love.”

According to Cura, the staging of the opera at the Liceu, directed by Willy Decker, is minimalist: “There is nothing on the stage, located on a ramp, which gives the sensation of being a psychological prison that prevents the characters from escaping their destiny".

The only symbolic element that the audience will see is a cross that, based on the character, becomes a weapon, a religious object, or Desdemona's deathbed.

This minimalist staging has, in the opinion of the tenor, one great advantage: “The attention of the audience will not be distracted and instead is centered exclusively in the performance of the characters.”

Cura, who is considering contracts for 2011, thinks about the next years to focus his attention on conducting and to incorporate some new roles in his singing repertoire like Neró, Peter Grimes or Parsifal.

The tenor José Cura portrays Otello at the Liceu

Terra Actualidad - Europa Press

4 February 2006

The Argentine tenor José Cura will portray Otello in the Gran Teatre del Liceu beginning February 9 in a production that gambles that a barren stage will further the psychological investigation into the characters.

Cura explained today that, although he has participated in “between 12 and 15 different productions” of Otello, one of Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpieces, “it never stops surprising me” and “I always learn something new.”

Nevertheless, on this occasion the tenor will bring to the Liceu “my only Otello” of the season, since the role is “very difficult” from both a vocal and psychological point of view, a fact that has led the Liceu to schedule performances every two days.

The opera, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito based on the play of William Shakespeare, takes place at the end of fifteenth century in the harbor city of Cyprus, dominated then by the Republic of Venice. Otello, a military man of Arab descent to the service of Venice, has conquered the heart of Desdemona (Krassimira Stoyanova), the young daughter of Venetian senator Brabantio, in spite of his dark skin and they have secretly married. The character feels insecure -- "a traitor always thinks that he will be betrayed" - - and he feels almost unworthy of the beautiful wife and so is open to the evil suggested by the official Iago (Lado Ataneli).

The tragedy is transformed into a disquieting psychological drama and culminates with the murder of Desdemona at hands of a jealous Otello and his suicide when he finally understands the truth, which in Cura’s opinion demonstrates the “pathos” of the character and his “lack of heroism.”

At the moment that he murders Desdemona, the tenor says he wants the public to understand the sensation that “I suffer,” and that “I love her and for that reason I kill her,” reasons that Desdemona seems to understand at the moment of her death.

José Cura, who made debut with Otello in 1997, says that this character “is not noble or heroic” since “he comes to kill all in a Muslim town while he himself is a converted Muslim.” “He betrays his own religion and his own race,” stressed the tenor.

With respect to the staging of this production, Cura commented that the only element on stage is "a great cross", that each character "uses in his own way" and that it ends up as the deathbed of Desdemona.

The tenor is in favor of “minimalism” when it focuses greater attention on the character and as long as “it is synonymous with quality and not of lack of ideas.”

After his stay at the Liceu, José Cura, who at the moment does not plan to conduct any operas in Spain, will move on to Zurich for Turandot and later to the Vienna Opera to conduct Madam Butterfly.

Otello premiered at the Liceu in 1890 and it was last seen in the Barcelonan theater in 1988, is scheduled through 27 February.

José Cura removes all nobility from Verdi’s Otello

El Pais

Lourdes Morgades

4 February 2006

As a good dramatic tenor, José Cura (Rosario, Argentina, 1962) has derived many artistic satisfactions from the role of Verdi’s Otello. Starting next Thursday he sings it in Barcelona’s Liceu with to the Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova and under the stage direction of Willy Decker and musical direction of Antoni Ros Marbà. Satisfaction comes to the singer and actor as he looks into the psychology of a person with whom he has little sympathy. “He is not a hero, he is a mercenary. There is no type of nobility in him. He is as bad as or worse than Iago. In fact, I believe that Iago is nothing more than Otello's darker side.”

"The role of Otello is one I have sung many times and yet it always surprises me when I return to it. He is very complex psychologically. My relationship with him began in 1997 and since then it has been a sort of marriage. It is a relationship in which I find new delights in interpretation with each production," says the tenor.

Enthusiastic, intense and intuitive, José Cura is a permanent boiling volcano. "Of the physical exhaustion after playing an operatic role such as Otello I recover with only a day of rest," he says, "but with the psychological involvement of the character, and I get very involved, it takes me longer." In the nine years since he first sang this Verdi opera, the tenor has been completing his idea of the character, which has gone from seeing him through the eyes of actors and directors such as Laurence Oliver, Orson Welles or Kenneth Branagh, to drawing a psychological profile in which he barely leaves room for the slightest sympathy.

“The danger of Otello is that the audience confuses the nobility of some of the great tenors who have played him, such as Ramon Vinay, Mario del Monaco or Plácido Domingo, with the character. Because Otello is not a hero, he is not a noble person. He is a mercenary, a man who earns his living by charging for being a military machine; a Muslim who abandons his religion out of self-interest and who then takes the lead in the fight against his own. I find no nobility in any of this,” proclaims the tenor, who even sees the evildoer Iago as one more aspect of Otello. “He is just as bad if not worse. The truth is that I see Iago like the dark side of Otello, the man through whom the Venetian general discovers his own destructive nature,” he comments.

José Cura says that his present vision of the character does not always agree with that of the director of the production for which he has been contracted to sing but until now no director has been able to change his mind. In the Liceu, the 1997 co-production of the Monnaie of Brussels and Grand Théâtre of Geneva directed by Willy Decker appears to leave the stage empty with a giant cross as the only scenic element. “It is a closed space that creates a sort of psychological prison for the characters while at the same time focusing all the attention on them, which forces the singers to be always alert. Putting the action into a modern concept requires the singer to give the best of himself as an actor. But let nobody be deceived, no singer is a Robert de Niro or Anthony Hopkins,” he warns.

The tenor says he is in love with the Liceu and will return to the theater after this Otello to inaugurate season 2007-2008 with Andrea Chenier, but the reestablishment of his broken relationship with the Teatro Real after his clash with the public in 2000 at the Madrid theater still seems distant. Yesterday, in his press conference in Barcelona, he refused to respond to questions on his return to the Real or his relationship with the new direction of the theater. Yes, he explained, he has received an offer, without specifying which theater, to sing Wagner’s Parsifal in 2008, but he does not know if he will accept because he says that what frightens him most about this opera is the language: German.

José Cura: “Otello is a very difficult role but it has compensations”

El Periodico

Marta Cervera

4 February 2006

"He is a toad from a different swamp..."

The Verdi opera many consider his best, Otello, based, like Falstaff and Macbeth, on a Shakespearean play, will return to the Liceu on Thursday with Argentinean tenor José Cura in the title role. It is a co-production of the Monnaie of Brussels and the Grand Théâtre of Geneva, with a modern staging by Willy Decker and with Antoni Ros-Marbà conducting the Orquestra Simfònica of the Great Teatre of the Liceu.

Cura, whom has been adored by the audience of Liceu since his debut as a substitute for an indisposed José Carreras in Samson and Dalila, this time portrays the jealous Moor who kills his wife, one of his most critically acclaimed roles. He made his debut in Otello in 1997 and today, with more than a dozen different productions behind him, he continues to discover new nuances in each staging. “Otello is a very difficult role, but it has compensations. I enjoy it,” says Cura, who thrives on challenges and who, besides singing, also conducts orchestras.

“Obvious, Otello demands a lot of sacrifice. The vocal effort is great but I find the psychological effort is even more exhausting.” Despite not having gone through the Actor's Studio, Cura believes in the character and gives himself totally to it. “I put all my energy into the role and that leaves me drained because the psychological complications of Otello are enormous.” And he thanked the Liceu for the "delicacy" of giving him two days of rest between performances. “The voice you recover with a good night of sleep; the other, the soul, the mind, no.” That is especially true when, as in this case, the weight of the success of the performance falls to the singers, who must act on a completely empty stage and on an incline that complicates the actor’s movements. “The ramp is uncomfortable and hard. One assumes that if one manages to tame it, the public will forget that it is inclined,” Cura said in resignation. He defended director Willie Becker. “The masterworks like Otello, where there is not a single note or word more than necessary, allow an empty stage.” But in other occasions, “minimalism camouflages the lack of ideas.”

Cura defines his character as an insecure man, explained to a great extent by Otello being the only black in a society of whites and also married to a princess. “He is a toad from a different swamp, as we say in Argentina,” he points out, “He is a great general and skilled swordsman but does not have the courage to face both guilty parties and ask them directly what there is between them.”

He sees Otello as a man without honor or nobility. “He is a mercenary, a paid assassin. A traitor who becomes a Christian for convenience.” And, he adds: “He does not have anything of a nobleman about him, but that legend has grown due to the nobility of the great interpreters who have sung him, like Domingo and Del Monaco.” Distrusting by nature, Otello falls easily into the trap set by Iago (Lado Ataneli), who constantly feeds the lie that Desdemona (Krassimira Stoyanova) has been unfaithful with Cassio (Vittorio Grigolo). “Otello is as bad as Iago or even more so,” said Cura. “I see Iago as the dark side of Otello, for that reason Otello allows Iago to destroy him.”

The tenor did not want to comment on his relations with Teatro Real, where in 2000 he clashed with the public. Yes, he explained that his plan to direct the Coliseo of the Three Cultures in Madrid is still in the air.

With respect to the Liceu, he retains his commitment to open the 2007-08 season with Andrea Chénier. “The public here has adopted me.”

José Cura loathes his best character

Ambito Financiero

6 February 2006

A little more than a decade ago, Ambito Financiero was the first newspaper to draw attention to the artistic conditions of the then very young tenor from Rosario, José Cura, whose career would become venerated in the world very soon after. Since then Cura, whose artistic interests are now diversified between singing and orchestral conducting, has consolidated his name in the pantheon of international tenors (at the Colón, unfortunately, he could only be seen in a single season), and little by little he has been occupying, in the XXI century, the equivalent place to that of Mario del Mónaco in the decade of the 50s. That is: he is the voice par excellence for the demanding role of Verdi's Othello, precisely the one he sang in Argentina.

This week, Cura will premiere it at the legendary Teatro Liceu in Barcelona and, as usual with him, not without controversial statements. According to the singer, Othello is a detestable person, and much more vile than Iago. Cura does not understand why he is considered heroic and noble. "He is a hired killer, a traitor who disavows his race, his religion and beliefs. An insecure one, and therefore so miserably jealous. Even his suicide is one more act of cowardice."

“I've been playing him for 10 years, and I find him more and more despicable," he added.

"Otello is not a hero"

Avui

Marta Porter

4 February 2006

José Cura, one of the most renowned tenors in the world, presents his most emblematic role, Verdi's Otello, in a modern production at the Liceu

The Liceu audience saw him pass as a shooting star five seasons ago when he replaced José Carreras as Samson. That one evening was enough to put the audience in his pockets, a fact confirmed last season with the three performances of Il Corsaro in concert version. Now he returns with a staged opera, his opera - as some would say - as he is considered the best Otello today.

"I think it is an exaggerated to say that I am the first Otello in the world. Beauty and taste are relative. For me it is a difficult role but at the same time a pleasure. I sang it for the first time in 1997 and I have done between 12 and 15 different productions. In ten years it has never ceased to amaze me," explains the Argentine tenor, who in 2001, the Verdi anniversary year, performed in 6 or 7 productions. "It was a very interesting jopurney because I learned a lot." After that marathon, he has decided not to do more than twelve performances a year.

Cura says that Otello is the most exhausting role that exists, both vocally - "a fact that is solved by eating and sleeping" - and psychologically. "I'm a madman who gives his all and I put a lot of energy into it. And Otello has enormous psychological complexities."

Cura dispels the myth of the hero tormented by jealousy and bluntly states, "He is neither a hero nor a nobleman. He is a mercenary, a war machine, a hired soldier, a hired assassin." And he continues, "He is a Muslim who has betrayed his religion and his country by converting to Christianity to be accepted as a Venetian." Once the myth is revealed, why do people still find him noble? José Cura is clear: "He is a character dressed in stage legend. It is the great singers like Plácido Domingo, Ramón Vinay and Jon Vickers who have nobility. Domingo is noble, the character is not."

As for jealousy, the tenor thinks that "a murderer is always looking over his shoulder to avoid being killed himself and a traitor always thinks he will be betrayed. In Argentina we call it the straw tail syndrome (cua de palla), that is, insecurity. Otello is an insecure person, and insecure people either cower or slap you. That's how violence is born.”

Continuing with the dissection that José Cura makes of his most-often performed character, he considers that Shakespeare's genius consists in adapting a short story by Cinzio to turn the protagonist, a white Italian named Otello Moro, into a Moor. "This increases the insecurity of the protagonist. He is a Muslim in a country of whites who also falls in love with the most beautiful woman. And of course, the fear of being betrayed becomes evident as soon as a handsome young man appears. He’s not a hero because he doesn't have the courage to ask Desdemona and Casio directly if they are unfaithful to him."

Everything changes, however, in the fourth act. "Verdi's music changes and Otello returns to his original beliefs. As I kill Desdemona I am suffering and crying because I love her. But I kill her because my codes tell me I must kill the unfaithful woman. By killing her I'm doing a favor, and I'm doing it in the least violent way, by strangling her. To interpret that, I always ask [Desdemona] to caress my face as a sign that she understands what I'm doing. And once again he becomes a coward when he commits suicide after he discovers Iago's plot. That's his pathos."

As for Wily Decker's staging, Cura describes it as minimalist. "There's only one big cross, which means the audience's attention will be focused on the actor’s performance. It's a modern, raw and very interesting production," concludes this tenor who will conduct Madama Butterfly for the first time this season at the Vienna State Opera and that is considering the possibility of entering the Wagnerian repertoire with a Parsifal in 2008.

Otello, Mannheim, January 2007: “If the strongest weapon of a man is in fact his voice and he knows it well enough to use it with devastating effect, then he need only concentrate on the substance and tone of an intrigue, one already developed as a mental time bomb whose explosion usually ends in murder. José Cura offered a strongly projected Otello. His vocal strengths, which includes a darkly baritonal tenor and a strong inclination toward the dramatic subject, makes him an extraordinarily gifted actor, so much so that the final words of his last aria—the infinitely tender and equally hopeless “un altro baccio…” –before he breathes his last and sinks onto the lifeless body of Desdemona literally left not a single dry eye in the theater.” Mannheim Morgener, 30 January 2007

Otello, Szeged, April 2008: “Esultate” sounded secure and powerful, but rather incidental. It did not strike as lightning strikes into the semi-darkness of the typical Italian operatic introduction. In the love duet Cura managed to swing the performance into the sphere of timelessness with his gentle-virile vocalism and a stage presence that was free of all the artificial poses and allures of a tenor. And how did Cura sing from there? I am tempted to answer: I don’t know, I don’t remember, I don’t care. I am not sure whether José Cura sang or if he were even on the stage at all. Because Otello himself was present. I was watching somebody going through a whirlpool of self-doubt. It was terrible: the man, the hero suddenly realizes that it may be that he is neither a man nor a hero. Doubt takes shape in the external form of jealousy. On the altar of illness he sacrifices his anima, Desdemona first, then himself. During the evening, his theatrical presence was shockingly self-evident, practically obscuring Cura’s professionalism of the best sense of the word.

And of course, he sang outstandingly. He did not give in to the temptation lurking in Otello: to forget the music. Yet his singing sounded like a spiritual manifestation. Cura goes as far as he can but no further considering the rhythmic freedom of declamation, the quasi-prosaic thickness of the notes and the dissolution of the cultivated singing voice into speech sound. This exemplary interpretation was a holistic experience.” Muzsika, June 2008, Tibor Tallián

Otello, Szeged, April 2008: “José Cura broke with tradition and gave us a surprisingly unique interpretation of Otello: with his Latin temperament, he presented the Moor as a raw, brutal, overwhelmingly instinctual, a real dude. The world-famous tenor's play seemed exaggerated in some scenes, but overall he convinced the audience. It would be interesting to compare from scene to scene how much more effective and dynamic his actions were [than the alternate Otello]. It is arguable, of course, whether Otello is really worth setting up as an archetypal macho, or a much more complex individual, but that is not the question: when José Cura enters the stage, he commands attention.

He sang the love duet with Desdemona with sultry eroticism, glowing with passion. Otello later pushed his wife, whom he believed to be a courtesan, to the ground so roughly that the audience gasped. He tore Desdemona’s overskirt with a single brutal motion, then kicked it away. Such raw and theatrical gestures are a rarity on the Szeged opera stage: Cura preferred expression and instability; he won the audience with his performance, the charm of his personality rather than his voice and the subtlety and precision of shaping the voice.” Delmagyar, 11 April 2008

Otello, Szeged, April 2008: “Cura's voice is not what it used to be. The velvet sound known from the recordings wears and fades, and the artist must now audibly force the sound to flow. At the same time, Cura is able to make us forget about his vocal or technical shortcomings. In contrast to the usual tender and sad Otello, his singing voice clicks like a whip, mockingly sneers at the silly, and in love scenes he is more fornicator than lover. His singing style is more from the verismo school than the bel canto, which is why he gets cold and hot, collecting counter-dramas for himself. However, I like this way of performing. I think opera singing should be about the psyche of the characters and Cura has a great sense of that. I really liked his despotic, overheated Otello.” Brunnhilde, 18 April 2008

Otello, Szeged, April 2008: “The Argentine tenor José Cura, well known for his intense and original performances, has made his debut performance in the Hungarian city of Szeged in the title role of Verdi's Otello. Cura represented with great force the Moor's majesty and his foreign nature without any theatrics. Of course, sometimes it was a bit too much, but exaggeration is a part of the Mediterranean character, so even this fit in.” Kultura, 11 April 2008

Lethal Kiss

Verdi: Otello – National Theatre of Szeged [Hungary]

Muzsika

Tibor Tallián

June 2008 Issue

(extracts)

Why does a performer of the calibre of José Cura come to Szeged to sing? Kornél Esti comes up with cynical explanations. To make money, for sure; if the rural Hungarian theatre with a capacity of seven hundred is able to pay the star tenor’s gas (the actual fee is unknown to me), why wouldn't it be worthwhile for the singer to perform in acoustic conditions less strenuous than in giant auditoriums with three or four thousand seats? There’s also the publicity value for a somewhat exotic playground in terms of its geographical location and size. Cura's official website's calendar of events runs through London, where performances are repeated year after year, but adding Szeged in proves the global nature of his presence. In terms of image building, there are other benefits to visiting a smaller station outside the opera diamond horseshoe: it signals the democratization of the artist’s approach. It enforces the principle of equal opportunities more effectively than ministries established for this purpose. Also, the provincial location suggests, because the visitor is not an official and not only an artist, but an explorer, even an adventurer—that by singing the Earth can be navigated from west to east as well as from east to west.

According to his official biography, José Cura had intensive musical instructions in his hometown of Rosario as a child and youth and even started his career as a musician. He then conducted a choir and sang in a choir, but only as he approached his 30s did he dare to make the decision: he would study to be a professional singer. In 1991, he travelled to Italy to train. It was a great adventure with elemental success. This seemed to have led Cura to make adventure the guiding principle of his professional life. In the spirit of adventure, he set about terrifying vocal teachers and conservative critics when he plunged into the conquest of the tenor roles in the least recommended way imaginable. He sang Otello the first time at the age of 34, just two years after his first Cavaradossi. There is also a sense of adventure in the diversity of his activity, his regular conducting and recently his artistic photography. Is he a Domingo-protégé? Domingo’s faultless singing technique, heavenly cantilena, wonderful phrases, his balance of the dramatic expression and classical stylistic sense can’t be taught or learned or copied. But Cura proved to be worthy of his great predecessor considering the unconditional control on his own abilities, his audibly unreserved emotional-vocal devotion and the way he keeps the balance of his technical-artistic discipline and economy. There is no doubt: it feels good to listen to his singing and it is a pleasure to notice that the voice itself is only an adorned servant in the service of communication. This communication can only be realized in the singing voice in accordance with the written and unwritten golden rules of the great Latin and Mediterranean traditions (as Callas was Greek). This is true in the case of the role of Otello as well.

So: why does he do Otello here, ten years after his debut in Torino, which was then followed by dozen of repetitions on dozens of stages and accompanied by word-wide acclamation? Even if the inspiring operatic stage of Szeged’s theatre and the desire to self-realize in many directions brings Cura to the banks of the Tisza, why doesn’t he offer an evening of arias or at least choose a role less harrowing than the Moor? Adding to the unparalleled risk of Otello: can the theatre bring together two worthy protagonists without whom it is impossible to form a great triangle of Otello, Desdemona and Iago? As I watched the graceful, youthful, self-indulgent figure of the tenor, who did not spare himself for a single moment and sacrificed himself in every second on the performance of 11^th April, perhaps I found the answers to these questions. I think his purpose was precisely to test himself and his colleagues. An almost chamber-like stage circumstances and a company with whom he would assume to be fully cooperative, a new production he can master and transform and also something added from the attitude of the Maestro (since he regularly conducts): I will take you along with me for one or two evenings where I feel at home.

I knew from my kind informant that only a moderate success crowned the daring venture on the first night. But I both believed and disbelieved my informant after the course of the second evening. I believed him, as I wasn’t fascinated by Cura’s first appearance: “Esultate” sounded secure and powerfully, but rather incidentally. It did not strike as lightning strikes into the semi-darkness of the typical Italian operatic introduction. But I didn’t believe him, because on Otello’s return the desired conditions were already in place. In the love duet Cura even managed to swing the performance into the sphere of timelessness with his gentle-virile vocalism and a stage presence that was free of all the artificial poses and allures of a tenor. But in this action he was not alone. Szilvia Rálik’s voice doesn’t convey the ideal Desdemona; her voice is slightly sharp in the high notes and in the love duet fails to comply with the composer’s instruction, dolce; her middle and lower registers are colorless. There can be no doubt, however, about her musicality and receptivity. Close to Otello her tone begins to blossom, the intensity of her singing increases, her acting becomes more substantial. It was she who put the vocal crown to the finale of the third Act with her shining-saturated voice which easily cut through the whole ensemble. As it should be. In the absence of Otello, however, Rálik-Desdemona fades [and becomes] a conscientious performer in the fourth act, a Desdemona who did not have the power to summon her alter egos in the musical sphere: Barbara, Mary.

Cura also had a catalysing effect on Zoltán Kelemen’s Iago. […] Like a hunter who is only excited when he has a capital stag in the scope of his gun, Iago’s wickedness can also only obtain its meaning and shape from a real Otello. The physicality of Otello’s personality – and thus the actor’s physique who plays it – contributes to a very great extent to the authenticity of Otello. The unbearable final scene of the third Act can be ruined not only for the Moor but for Iago if Otello is merely a tenor. Cura's physically "real" vibe took Zoltan Kelemen out of the almost amateurish stage reservation that had strangled his Luna [in Il Trovatore]. At the same time I was delighted to see that his previous helplessness on the stage did not turn into a ham grimacing with which many former famous Iagos used to frighten the more sensitive spectators in the Credo. I do not hesitate to praise Zoltán Kelemen’s solid, accurate Iago …

And how was José Cura singing starting from where I left him some paragraphs above, from the beginning of the second Act? I am tempted to answer: I don’t know, I don’t remember, I don’t care. I am not sure whether José Cura sang or even he were on the stage at all. Because Otello himself was present. Fascinated, I was watching somebody going through a whirlpool of self-doubt. It was terrible: the man, the hero suddenly realizes that it may be that he is neither a man nor a hero. Doubt takes shape in the external form of jealousy. It is a mental illness like the imagined cancer which drives many to suicide. This led Otello into a similar situation too, but in an indirect way – on the altar of illness he sacrifices his anima, Desdemona first, then himself. During the evening, his theatrical presence was shockingly self-evident, practically obscuring Cura’s professionalism of the best sense of the word: I only realized this quality during the performance on the next day [cast with different singers]. It was only then that I was able to analyse how precisely the Argentinean followed the prescribed situations of the direction on the one hand and how much he added to it from his own – the experiences of other performances – on the other hand. I can say only one thing: he strangled Desdemona with his kiss!

And of course, he sang outstandingly. He sang – he did not give in to the temptation lurking in Otello: to forget the music. Yet his singing sounded like speech, a spiritual manifestation. I think this very concretely and not in a figurative sense; Cura goes as far as he can but no further considering the rhythmic freedom of declamation, the quasi-prosaic thickness of the notes and the dissolution of the cultivated singing voice into speech sound. This exemplary interpretation was a holistic experience…

Tamás Pál conducted the orchestra playing in heated form in the first night with tempi of grandseigneur and the deep understanding of the thing. The second performance showed faint signs of disintegration but I forgave him.

Note: This is a machine-based translation. We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

"This is My Otello"

Fidelio

Tamás Jászay

11 April 2008

Although José Cura is one of the most loyal guests in Hungarian concert halls, he had not yet performed on the Hungarian stage in a full opera performance—until now, when he sang one of his most important roles, Verdi's Otello, at the Szeged National Theater on two evenings.

Question: You seemed deeply touched by the audience celebration after Wednesday’s performance. I thought you get similar reactions every day…

José Cura: I wouldn't call what happened in Szeged every day. Each round of applause has an individuality, and that is decided in the first second. I always experience the same thing with the Hungarian audience: the applause does not gradually increase, but is more like a bomb dropped suddenly. I remember well when I gave my first concert in Hungary at the Erkel Theater, after the first aria the applause almost exploded. Of course this has a strong impact on me, as there are few such enthusiastic audiences around the world. The first performance in Szeged took place in an emotionally heightened state anyway, and it was a great feeling to stand in front of the curtain and recharge with the enthusiasm of the audience. If I didn’t get the energy back from the audience, I wouldn’t be able to walk back to my hotel.

Q: How did you see Otello 11 years ago when you first sang the role versus how you see him today?

José Cura: Let’s be clear first: the director's idea is irrelevant here, because we had an extremely short time. What he saw yesterday was my Otello inserted into a new production. If one is curious about Ferenc Anger’s Otello, you will have to watch the other cast. When I first sang Otello at the age of 34, I could only imagine what a man around 45-50 might feel in this situation. Not to mention that my hair was completely black then, and now half of it is gray. The way I approached the role of Otello at each age brings a whole new way of interpretting the role.

Q: Two months ago, you met the director, Ferenc Anger, for the first time in Budapest. Do you often take on a role without knowing anything about the directing?

José Cura: That’s not entirely true, because I already knew a lot about the production. In early February, I was measured for my costume, and that’s when I saw photos of the set. I really liked the stage image as it is extremely functional, it is easy to create different moods in it. In any case, two months before the performance, it is not possible to talk about staging with the singers and other contributors.

Q: Doesn't the fact that you're not only a singer but also a conductor, composer, set designer and director make it difficult for the theatrical people working with you?

José Cura: It always depends on the other person's readiness. If one has a thoughtful concept, he is always happy to take in the thoughts of another similarly prepared person. For example, at the Cologne Opera, where I am directing Verdi’s Masked Ball, I have a professional team at my disposal and our conversations clearly benefit the production. If, on the other hand, the director is unprepared and inexperienced and thus encounters someone who knows what he is doing on stage, the mask falls off in a hurry. Sometimes this happens, but there was no such thing here: Ferenc has little stage experience due to his young age, but he is extremely thorough. It was also thanks to this that I was able to get into production in less than a day, as every member of the team knew exactly what he was doing.

Q: Do you often have such a short time to get into a finished production?

José Cura: I was invited to Otello in Szeged more than a year ago, but my calendar already has dates for 2013, so I just didn't have time to take part in a longer rehearsal process. I usually spend two or three weeks on rehearsals, but if I get right in the middle of a workflow, it’s impractical.

Q: You most recently conducted Verdi's Requiem in Hungary. I was surprised to see that in the columns of Népszabadság, you responded in a letter to Miklós Fáy's criticism. Do you often respond to critics?

José Cura: No, this was the first time in my twenty-year career, and hopefully the last time I responded to a criticism. If you remember, I didn’t respond to the music criticism, my letter was purely about the human factor. We gave a charity concert to help those in need. If the critic writes bad things about musical realization, that’s one thing case. Since we live in a democracy, the journalist’s opinion is one of many. However, the critic must maintain respect for performers in all circumstances.

Around Town

Note: This is a machine-based translation. We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

Walking and Snapping Photos in Szeged with José Cura

Delmagyar

R. Gábor Tóth

11 April 2008

Szeged - José Cura, the tenor who had a huge success on Wednesday night, continued to fight the role of Otello in his dream - yet he walked downtown Szeged with energetic steps. He was also interested in the acoustics of the hall of the town hall, the dome of the synagogue and the musician of Kárász Street.

"Look, José, a little continental breakfast," said József Székhelyi, the outgoing director of the Szeged National Theater, offering a plate of chocolate at the Szeged town hall on Thursday morning. The world-famous tenor had a huge success on Wednesday night in the role of Otello at the Szeged National Theater. He sings again on Friday, but spent Thursday sightseeing.

He rolled into Szeged Square at 12 noon in a black Audi A8. Together with Mayor László Botka, current theater director József Székhelyi and future theater director Sándor Gyüdi, he went to the mayor's office.

“I was surprised by the key,” he told Botka, referring to the scaled-down copy of the city key he had received after the performance.

"I have it now. I can always come back, anytime," he joked. “Wednesday night was fantastic. I was delighted by the audience’s reaction. Many people are surprised that I did not sing my first Hungarian opera role in Budapest, but this production would have been a great success there as well. There are no first- and second-class theaters, there is only theater, and I think that Szeged, through its theater, could soon be a very important point in the world,” the tenor said, looking at the possibility of further cooperation.

"Otello doesn't need them, but Cura does," he commented cheerfully, explaining that he had to bring his glasses for the signing: he gave László Botka a DVD of his first performance in Hungary, which was released on Wednesday. He then looked around the hall as well, immediately inquiring about the acoustics of the room. “Just try it!” László Botka pointed to one of the microphones, but instead Cura sat in the mayor's chair. "It's too hot," he said with a laugh, then stood up.

Accompanied by Botka, Gyüdi and Székhelyi, the world-famous tenor then went on a short sightseeing tour. "There's Cura! Come on, let's walk after him," an elderly woman on Kárász Street said. A red car stopped on the crosswalk, from which we only heard the female voice: "so handsome!"

The star, walking in a black, long-sleeved top, black jeans and sunglasses, was followed by two girls taking photos. Andi and Nóri had read about the tenor in the newspaper and were curious about “both the man and the artist.”

"He's a Latin macho," commented Andi, focusing her camera on Cura, who had his own camera ready: he photographed the reporters around him almost more often than they photographed him.

It turns out the book compiled from his pictures will be released in September.

After listening to the production of one of the street musicians, he walked energetically along Árpád Square, then in front of the Episcopal Palace, although we learned from his Hungarian manager, Roland Bokor that Cura had not slept well. "He continued to fight in his sleep," he said.

“Here was my concert! I remember!” Cura exclaimed at the sight of the Cathedral Square. The bell rang here and then he listened to a music class. Throughout the walk, his companions kept telling him about the history of Szeged and Hungary.

In the synagogue, he looked at the dome of the beautiful building, the door hiding the torah scrolls, and the memento of the Martyrs of the Holocaust. José Cura, who was called a "sweet, warm-hearted, ordinary guy" by Székhelyi, also received a gift here: a videotape showing the building. To say goodbye, he wrote in the guest book “thanks for the warm welcome in the house of God.”

At the entrance, fans were waiting again: a woman had a large pile of CDs, adding, "I couldn't even bring them all."

Signing

After lunch at a Szeged restaurant - the menu was three courses, with steak - Cura met opera lovers in the theater. Fans equipped with cellphone and cameras were waiting for the world-famous tenor in the lobby, who signed for an hour. To "Annamarine," a woman read enthusiastically, then looked at the dashing signature, "José Cura," for a long time.

Reception in honor of the tenor

A reception was held Wednesday night after Otello in honor of the tenor. Mayor László Botka called the performance a beautiful, memorable theater evening in Szeged. Guests ate sushi, crab cocktail and red wine beef stew, among other things. The reception lasted until midnight.

Note: This is a machine-based translation. We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

World famous tenor José Cura arrives in Szeged

Delmagyar

From Our Staff

8 April 2008

Szeged – After arriving in Szeged from San Diego to Szeged, the world famous Argentinean José Cura, who can be seen in the role of Otello on Wednesday and Friday, rehearsed in the theater almost continuously on Monday. It turned out that the tenor's favorite dish was steak and he found the Villány Cuvée Barrique delicious.

José Cura, who had been basking on the Pacific coast last week with his family while performing in a series of Pagliacci at the San Diego Opera House, arrived at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport early Sunday night at the end of a 22-hour journey. As his plane landed earlier than expected and he was brought directly to Szeged by a top model Audi A8, he arrived at the grand theater shortly after the start of the first act. From the director's box, he watched the Otello production, which the audience can see him in on Wednesdays and Fridays. He had only one request: he wanted to remain incognito, because after such a long journey with such a time difference, he was tired and was not dressed for the occasion.

The future Director-General, Sándor Gyüdi, commented on the stage in his native language, Spanish, and the international language of opera, Italian: he spoke in recognition of the visuals of the performance, the concept of the director and the cast. After the performance, the conductor of the evening, Tamás Pál, joined them, and they went to Cura’s hotel, the Novotel, where they dined together. The star ordered a large, bloody steak with which he drank, on the recommendation of his colleagues in Szeged, Villány Cuvée Barrique – to his greatest satisfaction.

He started the piano rehearsal at 10 am on Monday morning with Tamás Pál, director Ferenc Anger - and the actors of the first performance, including Szilvia Rálik, who played Desdemona. During more than four hours of intense stage work, Cura, in consultation with the director, reshaped some of Otello’s movements.

“Finally, a real man! That's not what I'm used to on the opera stage. We have very similar temperaments, the air almost sparkled between us! José is a very kind, attentive and direct colleague, he has no star attitude, he created a fantastic atmosphere around him, he did not make us feel as if he were a world star, it is good to perform with him,” said Szilvia Rálik, who "had lunch" with the tenor at half past five in the afternoon. While the soprano, who is popular in Szeged, asked for a light, grilled chicken breast with eggplant fried in parmesan, José ordered a sirloin with salad. In view of the evening's rehearsal, they both drank only mineral water.

At the press conference, where twenty-five media outlets were represented, Cura remembered the 2001 Duomo Square as one of the most memorable concerts of his singing life, when there was so much fog that he could not even see the orchestra. He said the current production was full of good ideas and that its promising director will be mentioned among the best in ten years.

“In 1997, when I first sang the role in Turin at the age of thirty-four I was the youngest Otello in the world. Since then, I’ve sung it nearly a hundred times in dozens of productions and if I count correctly, I’ve strangled twenty-nine Desdemonas so far. There are three more this week: two in Szeged and one on Sunday in Hanover. Otello's role is like good wine - if you have tasted it, you don't want to drink anything less anymore,” said José Cura, who added that the professional company from Szeged did not disappoint him, unlike some of the big opera houses, where he has met with partners and conductors unworthy of their fame.

The tenor program in Szeged

José Cura asked for complete peace and quiet on Wednesday. On Wednesday evening, he will perform as Otello in the Szeged National Theater with Szilvia Rálik and Zoltán Kelemen, who plays Iago—this will also be Cura’s first stage performance in Hungary. On Thursday he will get acquainted with the city, meet with Mayor László Botka, visit the cathedral and the synagogue, and then at 5 pm opera lovers will greet him in the lobby of the main theater. Here he will present a DVD of his concert in Budapest, which he will then sign for all who are interested.

Note: This is a machine-based translation. We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

Basic Interests

Fidelio

Jászay Tamás

10 April 2008

[Excerpt]

Ferenc Anger, who studied directing in Venice, has made his opera director debut in Szeged. More attention than usual is being paid to Otello, since the lead role is sung twice by José Cura.

Question: Did you direct Cura in the first rehearsal, or did he direct himself?

Answer: It is difficult to answer this, but it is important to know that after José Cura arrived in Szeged on Sunday evening, he immediately watched the performance, and then at the rehearsal the next day, every walk and every movement was already in his head. With little exaggeration, I could say I had almost nothing to do with the five-hour rehearsal on Monday morning and then the three-hour rehearsal in the evening.

Q: How did he take to your interpretation?

A: He agreed with the concept in general. In our performance, Otello is not an idealized hero who overcomes all obstacles for love. On the contrary, he is a fallen man who has reached his position after a series of betrayals. Although the Venetians form a closed community, they still welcomed this talented stranger, Otello; however, the city employs him almost as a farm animal. He knows his position is only temporary. He wants to insure he can leave with the girl, Desdemona…

[…]

Q: How did Cura and you get together?

A: When Cura sang in Szeged in 2001, he said he would like to perform on the Hungarian opera stage, which became the starting point of a series of negotiations over several years. And when I was admitted to the University of Venice - where, by the way, Cura was teaching as a lecturer [not verified] - I started negotiating with Szeged to make my debut here. And a year ago, the two threads intertwined.

Q: How did the protagonist’s character affect your work?

A: I asked myself this question many times and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t know. On the one hand, there can be no professional work in which everything is shaped to single name, but on the other hand, I didn’t have time to think about it, as there was the three-hour piece that had to be staged. It’s a great honor for Cura to perform, but if he hadn't sung Otello, the performance would still be the same.

Note: This is a machine-based translation. We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

Comments about the star tenor by his colleagues

Delmagyar

From Our Staff

9 April 2008

Szeged - After the rehearsals, his colleagues from Szeged spoke with delight about José Cura, whom the audience can see for the first time today in the big theater in the role of Otello. The passion of the star singer, who is playing for the first time on the Hungarian stage, is infecting others as well.

"I've never seen a singer with such passion so close up. His famous Latin temperament was immediately evident. It’s useful for the role because Otello is an extremely passionate character. The rehearsal with José Cura was a pleasant surprise and I really enjoyed it, even though I was tired because I performed the night before,” said Zoltán Kelemen, who played Iago. The baritone, who sees Renato Bruson as his role model, was a huge success at the premiere and will now be singing four performances without a rest day.

“I’ve done three Rigolettos in a row. Iago is a little deeper and a slightly smaller role, so I dared to take it. In the nineties, when I was watching the final of the Domingo singing competition at 3SAT as a member of the Debrecen Opera Choir, I remembering saying about the young Cura: here is the new Mario Del Monaco. He’s similar in tone and temperament. I never thought I would perform with him one day. During the rehearsals, I felt like he was pulling me with him, his fiercer reactions and heightened emotions required more expressive power from me, too,” the baritone who collects the records of the great singers told me.

“I was impressed that José Cura had such strong ideas idea about his character and wanted to realize them. He tutored us at the rehearsal. His acting was overwhelming. It’s not about shaping the performance to show how beautifully he sings but about making the complex expression a priority. In a matter of moments, he burst onto the stage, assessed the possibilities of the sets, and was immediately able to turn the elements of the stage consisting of iron rails and stairwells to his advantage,” said Éva Szonda, who sings Emilia. The popular mezzo-soprano baked a tray of her famous cheesecake for Monday night’s rehearsal for her colleagues. Cura, after tasting it, told her it was delicious. "He asked me to beat him calmly and not to be respectful of him, because Emilia wasn't afraid of Otello. I tried to comply. I think it's a good thing that Szeged can get to know such a significant artist. I hope this will strengthen the opera company.”

He got Szeged boots

"I was totally impressed with José Cura! He brought a different world with him to Szeged,” said costume designer Janó Papp, who met the tenor in Pest months ago. Then they also took sizing from him. “We had József Zombori, a shoemaker from Szeged, make his boots so that if something went wrong, he would not have to run to the capital. Luckily, everything was fine, all he asked was to wear his jacket sometimes open or off. And in the end, he’ll be wearing a beautiful renaissance shirt we found in the warehouse,” said Janó Papp, who regrets not being able to see the performance. He has no tickets - and he is preparing a show in Veszprém anyway.

“It is a great honor for José Cura to join the Otello production. Even as a world star, he treated his colleagues with fantastic artistic and human humility. He dictated an incredibly tight pace that the company managed to pick up. By watching one of the performances and with a five-hour rehearsal, he perfectly captured everything the production represented while also realizing his own interpretation of the role. Both the scenery and the arrangement are quite fixed, so it was not possible to deviate from the set directions. I was unnecessarily afraid of meeting him, that we would have to make unacceptable compromises due to the shortness of time. As we started rehearsing, I calmed down. José Cura's tolerance, openness and flexibility were a surprise to me.” Ferenc Anger, director of the Otello production // Szeged National Theater

Note: This is a machine-based translation. We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

José Cura Blasted his audience to the Skies

Delmagyar

Gonda Zsuzsanna

10 April 2008

Szeged - It was a huge success on Wednesday with José Cura in the title role of Otello at the Szeged National Theater. The audience stood up and applauded for long minutes at the end of the Verdi opera, mostly celebrating the Argentinean world star.

Delmagyar was already in the theater an hour and a half before the performance as we followed behind the scenes as the tenor transformed into Otello.

Cura walked from the Novotel Hotel to the National Theater at around 5:00 on Wednesday.

“The weather is great!” exclaimed the world star. He was in good spirits before his first operatic appearance in Hungary. At 5:15 p.m., Marcsi Gyurisné, the theatre's make-up artist, began her work. The tenor had not wanted a makeup rehearsal prior to the performance, so this was the first time he turned into Otello. "You are the master!" Cura offered the specialist, who also took into account the fact that the auditorium in the Szeged theater is close to the stage, so the sharp contours had no place here.

“He's a sweet guy, and he's very precise. Everyone wants to prove themselves tonight and so does he,” Marcsi said of the world star, who in the meantime asked the photographers who surprised him if they were paparazzi. He tolerated the camera flashes for a few minutes, then asked for peace of mind. At that the photojournalists ask for the last photos of a smiling Moorish governor of the island of Cyprus.

“I'm Otello, and he's not smiling!” The singer replied, looking into the cameras with a wild look worthy of his role, then retreating to his dressing room, where tea - English and mint - was waiting, as well as fruit. That's all Cura asked for.

“I’ve worked with several big stars before, and the really big ones never ask for anything extra. It’s usually the little ones who throw tantrums,” said Cura's Hungarian manager, Rokand Bokor. The tenor, meanwhile, toured the stage, and we wondered if the forty-five-year-old artist, who used to be a body builder in Argentina, was exercising.

“When can I attack him with a handshake?” Asked Sándor Gyüdi, the future director of the theater, asked the manager. He stopped by the tenor's dressing room for a moment, joined by Mayor Laszlo Botka, who had just arrived. There was no shortage of potentates, by the way: Domingo Zullen, Argentina's ambassador to Hungary, watched the opera, and there were spectators from the Embassy in Vienna. We were still waiting backstage when Iago - Zoltán Kelemen - and the choir members appeared. Shortly before the seven o’clock start, Cura agreed to be photographed from the stage by some photojournalist, an unusual leniency. He walked in casually with the choir members, kissed his make-up artist, and at 7:00 PM, the curtain rose.

The performance was a huge success among the audience in Szeged. The audience stood up and applauded for a long time, celebrating the Argentine world star who received a huge basket of flowers from the theater. As the applause subsided, stage director László Botka and József Székhelyi gave a gift to the world-famous artist on stage, the former handing over the key to the city and the latter the book of Béla Dusa Szeged to the opera singer. After the performance, José Cura was further celebrated with an elegant reception by the theater.

Kultura provided two reviews -- a longer, more inclusive one in Hungarian and a shorter (summary) in English.

Both provided lots of nice photos from the production, so both are being presented.

Otello, Hannover, April 2008: “It takes a moment for Cura's voice to open up and then the sounds do not vibrate with sheer tenorial power. This Otello mixes a trace of uncertainty into his first exaltation. One needs to be patient in order to understand that here is a singer who is willing to sacrifice a quick effect and easy success in favor of a much greater impression that was soon to come. Cura’s performance in Hannover can safely be counted among the great musical events in the city's history. Not because an international opera star appeared and sang well but because his characterization added the decisive weight to a performance and lifted it from the good towards the extraordinary and turned it into an unforgettable night at the opera. The house was completely sold out and the audience responded greatly to the level of artistic achievement.” Hannoveriche Allgemeine

Otello, Hannover, April 2008: “One suspected a hurricane had announced itself, one anticipated to arrive at the end of the first act immediately following the duet of Otello and Desdemona. When José Cura stepped before the curtain for his solo curtain call, the bravos swept his hair back like a ride in a convertible. So it went from act to act. And at the end the opera house shook for fifteen and a half minutes with rhythmic clapping and innumerable bravos as even the second tier patrons rose from their seats for a standing ovation and rhythmic clapping and roses rained onto the stage. A powerful Otello: José Cura was on from the opening, singing Esultate! with immense vocal resource. His expression of fury and despair, colored with a slightly baritonal voice with excellent top notes, in Niun mi tema was world class--a real treat for opera fans. Cura did not retreat to cheap tenoral tricks: the occasional sob turned out to be very attractive, especially since no one else today delivers them in this way. This Otello was a performance of sheer joy, with everything simply turning out right. And much of that success had to do with the travelling star, who is no stand-and-deliver puppet with a fantastic voice. How he threw his bible upon the church bench, infuriated, convinced of his wife’s betrayal—even the smallest gesture was cinematic.” Neue Press

Otello, Tenerife, November 2008: “The role of Otello was interpreted by a splendid José Cura, undoubtedly one of the most famous ‘Otellos’ of the moment, and he did not disappoint. Cura embroidered the role of the jealous Moor of Venice with intensity, coloring the varied expressions required by Verdi. And even though the director forced the singers to the back of the stage, in spite of the problems with the projection in the Auditorio, Cura knew exactly how to resolve these disadvantages. A great opera and a great evening.” Diario de Avisos

Otello, Tenerife, November 2008: “I am happy to say that there was no weak link in any of the principles. My only the criticism of tenor José Cura in the title role is that he tended to sing in front of the beat, which was at times unsettling. The opera was received with a standing ovation which was very well-deserved.” CMS

Otello, Tenerife, November 2008: “Cura constructed his struggling character well but he did not sing satisfactorily. He abused declamation.” La Razon

Note: This is a machine-based translation.

José Cura uses language with precision and purpose; the computer does not.

We offer it only a a general guide to the conversation and the ideas exchanged but the following should not be considered definitive.

José Cura: 'Maybe it was destiny for me to sing, whether I wanted to or not'

La Opinióne Tenerife

Conrado Álvarez

07 November 2008

Sitting in the Martín González room of the Mencey Hotel, the acclaimed tenor José Cura—who tonight will return to the stage of the Symphony Hall Auditorium in Tenerife to play Otello—thinks that "if one makes music, opera or art in general with the right symphony, the experience is magnificent."

Conrado Álvarez: The first question is very direct, but it contains a lot of interesting information for everyone: Mr. Cura, is an opera singer born or made?

José Cura: Look, I could give you a very pre-romantic answer about indirect and direct actions and delays but the real answer is I don’t have the faintest idea. Why am I telling you this? Some say that he is born. Until I was twenty, I would have been lost if I’d been told about opera. At twenty-two I began to smell it, and only at twenty-eight did I begin to sing professionally, so I can say yes [in my case], but what happened is in the beginning I didn’t recognize it. In other words, the truth is that I don’t think there is an answer, as I do not believe that there is a one hundred percent technical explainable for anything that is artistic. Because if there was, we would talk about mathematical things, tangible things, and art is not that. So, I think that each person, according to his or her environment, has different reactions, according to how they lead their lives. There are people who at the age of eighty discover that they can paint, and that they paint very well, and there are people who never discover their talent. So, I don't really know.

CA: We know you started with the guitar, and a long path led you to become Manrico, Canio, Turiddu. How did your musical education lead you here?

José Cura: I started at the age of twelve with the guitar, actually, and at fifteen I told my father that I wanted to study composition for conducting, and he began to prepare me to enter the University. At the Conservatory I studied Composition and Orchestra Conducting, I did a lot of theater, I started studying, getting into photography, which is one of my hobbies—I’m semi-professional and my first book has just now been published—and only when I was twenty-eight, thirty years old, as I told you before, did I begin to sing, due to indirect relationships, due to coincidences, because perhaps, returning to the first question, it was my destiny that I sing, whether I wanted to sing or not. In other words, everything added up and makes me feel very comfortable today as an artist, very complete, because of this holistic training, because of having serious professional experience in many fields.

CA: Singing today is interdisciplinary, it has to do with many things. How is the day of the performance, does it start with a coffee or tea?

José Cura: [Laughs] I start with what they give me, I don't have many problems, unless I'm sick or I feel bad, or I'm especially dragging a huge fatigue from the previous performance. I try to speak as little as possible because, of course, during the performance, especially in an opera like Otello, the vocal organ is used a lot, and sometimes it is used a lot in extremely tense situations, so the more rested you are, the better it is. But as we say in my country, for a bad singer even a mustache bothers you.

CA: Apart from the passion that we know accompanies you when you take the baton, how do you currently see the attitude of stage directors towards musical directors in opera?

José Cura: In all performance there is everything, but everything. There are phenomenal orchestras that have an intense dramatic and musical understanding, and there are improvisers, which would be the least serious, because an improviser can even be positively contaminated. Then there is the stupid one, the one who doesn't understand anything, the one who pretends to understand and who generally gets annoys and ends up getting upset with everyone, screaming in rehearsals, going alone to eat; it is immediately noticeable. The thing about making music, making opera, making art in general, is that if you do it with the right symphony the experience is magnificent, but if you do it with the wrong symphony, the experience is deeply devastating, it ends up just as the word says. Fortunately, at the level in which I move, due to a situation of coincidences and also of delicacy, people who are not prepared are not usually in the mix, people who are on the same wavelength, as the kids say nowadays, are usually put together.

CA: Is anything valid to continue attracting audiences to the opera, which is still in good health, despite the global village, the media and the internet? Will the daring and sometimes unreasonable direction of the stage and globalization take its toll?

José Cura: No, look, anything goes, as long as it doesn't get mess up. I usually give an example that I think is very clear. If you have no other wine, and you want to drink wine, a glass of wine from a carton can be satisfying, as long as the person who serves you the tetra-brick is not telling you that he is serving you a Ribera del Duero '97. He'd be lying to you. He doesn't say to you: look, this is all there is; have fun considering its worth. Instead he is telling you this is all there is and it's the best. He’s deceiving you. In art it is the same thing. Everyone has the right to sing, to make music, to take photographs. Photography also allows us a very great elasticity, because, of course, in the past whoever didn't know how to take photos didn't shoot film. Today, if you don’t know how to take photos you take a thousand until one finally comes out, and if it doesn’t come out, you end up correcting it on the computer and then you go around telling everyone you are a photographer. Take photos, have fun and say: I like to take photos, this enriches my being and my person, but don’t take work away from the professionals who have been doing this for a lifetime.

CA: Do you feel closer to the biblical Samson or the Shakespearean Otello?

José Cura: As a person, I'm close to neither of them. They are two difficult characters, like so many, unfortunately; they are extremely negative characters. In other words, as a person I don't identify with any of them. But musically speaking, they are great characters. As a singer, I feel very comfortable singing both of them. However, Otello is immensely more difficult.

CA: This Otello being a production by the Saint Gallen Theater, we would have loved to have seen the Canarian soprano Yolanda Auyanet on stage with you.

José Cura: As I arrived with a few days to rehearse, I suggested two or three names with which I am used to singing Otello.

CA: Do you return to Real de Madrid or will you stay in the peripheries for a while?

José Cura: We have a temporary project, but, of course, very long-term projects are scheduled for 2011, 2012. So I, before asking myself if I'm coming back, I’ll have to see if I'll still be in Madrid by then, because as we know, all the sessions, references, artistic manifestations go according to politics, so only those who understand politics know that.

CA: How was the excursion on Saturday? Could you see the snow on Mount Teide?

José Cura: On Saturday we went for a walk and I very innocently asked in La Laguna, hey, where is La Laguna? And a man told me: well, there was a lagoon here once, but not now. We decided to take a walk and see the center which, by the way, is very nice. And we also went into the mountains and it was pouring rain. We went into a tavern to eat, winter has come early. But the weather is spectacular. It is a delight to go out with 20ºC. I feel very good.

Otello - Berlin - 2010/2013

Reviews

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “Musically the evening shines above all due to the very high level of the protagonists. José Cura is an Otello of magnificent strength and blazing highs, though initially his intonation was somewhat hit and miss. The singers were celebrated with ovations at the end, particularly the leading pair.” Kultiversum

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “José Cura in the title role is an event! Beginning with his Esultate!, he traverses his role tour de force style and has terrifying presence both vocally and physically. There is no way Desdemona can escape him, berserk as he is in his infantile thirst for revenge. The audience enthusiastically celebrated this exceptional singer.” Die-Mark-Online

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “At the end of the first act of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, the great warrior, just now celebrated, finds himself cast from the battlefield into the bedroom with his pre-Raphaelite Madonna. There he seems insecure and awkward at first despite all of his military triumphs. To begin with, he aimlessly fiddles around with a towel, hesitant, undecided; appears almost shy as he moves a strand of hair off the face of his Desdemona; then lays his power at her feet symbolically in that he lets her step across his outspread coat. And she reacts to these gestures with almost plant-like clinging and compliance as she nestles softly up to him. The way Kriegenburg succeeds (in his new staging at the DOB) in moving, in inspiring two stars of the operatic stage - the charismatic José Cura, who makes his instrument speak powerfully, and the phenomenal Anja Harteros - to a subtle characterization, eloquent down to the tiniest of gestures, is truly stunning, utterly intriguing." Faz

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “Otello's Esultate! entrance is the horror of tenors, from the dressing room straight up to the high B-- Cura fails in this, due to hoarseness and a prematurely broken off top note. Nevertheless, the man brings a virile power to the stage; the international career he has made for himself (not least with this role) in the late lee of Domingo, Pavarotti and Co. is because of this atmospheric aspect surely hard to deny. And when the Venetian commander admits his fatal jealousy to himself in the third act (Dio! mi potevi scagliar tutti i mali), it comes across with class." Der Tagesspeiegel

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “He sobs and sings and moans - and shoots; for, at the Deutsche Oper, the jealous general does indeed not stab himself but rather puts a gun to his belly. After almost four acts full of cultivated boredom, a thunderstorm of boos by the attendees of the premiere broke over the production team and a storm of cheers over the singers. Out of Verdi's psychological drama and marital tragedy, the director had made a pessimistic pièce noire, at the center of which he put the misery of encampment for today's refugees. Othello (in the title without 'h') is an aging Macho in suspenders. The few intimate moments when he is alone with Desdemona are among the most subtle, uplifting ones of the premiere. There, José Cura and Anja Harteros convince as opera’s new perfect couple. Certainly Cura, as always with great stage presence in his signature role, does push the sound hard in order to hit all the hellish Bs and Cs…” Financial Times Germany

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “The American Patrick Summers hits performers and audience over the head with it full force: a man of instrumental effects, as long as they have much bang about them. And for that, Verdi affords many opportunities, and he can get away with it, when he has a super-great heroic tenor like José Cura at his disposal. Cura takes advantage of many an instant for explosions of overwhelming dramatic power.” Berlin Morgenpost

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “Kriegenburg's presentation of the stage characters is to be lauded. As a theater director, Kriegenburg instructs the singers to express their internal emotional conflicts physically. This benefits above all José Cura in the title role. Here he is convincing both as tender and affectionate lover and as berserk madman half-crazed with jealousy. Appropriately, he doesn't go for continuous beautiful singing but for expression. Now and then, he delivers harsh attacks, sometimes even allows his voice to growl and hiss. Entirely different: his first private time together with Desdemona (Anja Harteros) at the end of the first act. In Gia, nella notte densa/ Now in the still of the night Cura fascinates with his mellifluousness and dark bloom.” Der Neue Merker

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “This Otello is, fundamentally, a soldier. As such he emphasizes some problematic scenes of dialogue between Otello and Desdemona. “Rude am I in my speech, and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace" (Shakespeare Act 3 Scene 1). This may be interpreted as Otello being more likely to resolve problems, not by discussion and negotiation, but by force. He calls his woman "whore" in the presence of the Venetian ambassador as he pulls her hair. At the end he crushes her skull against the bedpost. The overtly racist prejudices which one finds in the character of Otello become the ravings of a post-traumatically disordered soldier. How should one come close to portraying this internally destroyed man on stage? José Cura's singing reflects this character and his psychological destruction impressively, even if not quite voluntarily. The striking, powerful-dark tenor voice is working very hard, and the voice gesticulates as potently as the actor on stage. Together, this brings great expressive power to the character that produces impressive climaxes that threaten to tear the very fabric of the musical phrases themselves.” Berliner Zeitung

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “José Cura is viewed as the star of this production and, it has to be said, tenors who can do justice to Verdi are few and far between. As Otello he is in his element. He sang this role in what I would describe as an Italianate manner. At times the quality of his voice was reminiscent of Pavarotti, which is meant as a compliment. He was at times a little ahead of the beat and, unlike the other principals, I don’t think he watched the beat (in what is a rather deep pit) too closely. This was fine in his solo arias, but his contributions rocked slightly in the ensembles. I am inclined to blame Patrick Summers (musical direction) who should have been more flexible and sensitive in following his star tenor.

What was so special about this particular scene (Love Duet, end of Act I) was just how convincing these two principals were at conveying the depth and passion of their love for one another. This is the crux of Kriegenburg’s reading of Otello. Anja Harteros was incredibly seductive, showing her complete devotion to her warlord husband whom she had followed into battle and Cura convinced me he was besotted. In previous productions, Otello lashes out because of a bruised male ego, punishing the wife who has shamed him in front of his men. In this interpretation this love seemed so complete, so essential to Otello’s way of being that it felt entirely credible that the loss of it would precipitate a descent into a kind of madness.

The premise described in the program is that Otello is a great warlord who knows how to direct his troops and knows how to win. This is the behavior pattern which he understands. The profundity of his love for Desdemona and her love for him paradoxically offers a glimpse of utopia but at the same time poses the greatest threat to his way of being. To love someone as utterly as he does implies the sublimation of oneself to the Other. As a great warrior he is virtually invulnerable; to be human and in love is to make oneself vulnerable. To lose control in the arms of his beloved represents a greater threat to Otello, the warrior, than reverting to the way of being which he knows and understands. He is experiencing the greatness happiness of his life and yet that happiness springs a trap.

So when Iago presents Otello with the handkerchief, the symbol of Desdemona’s supposed infidelity, we witness the beginning of Otello’s implosion. He tears the handkerchief into strips and knots it to make a sort of garrote. But Cura very ably manifests that Otello is being pulled apart by an inner conflict. Passion as deep as this cannot be switched off. He veers between love and hate, but one feels that some of the hate in part is directed inward. It is no surprise that in the final scene, he kills her lovingly – another existential paradox. Then, finding she was innocent, he kills himself and attempts to hold her in his arms in death.

This was an acting tour de force from Cura and he certainly negotiated his way around the notes with apparent ease. At one point when he is preparing to kill Desdemona, he sings with Harteros’ head virtually in his mouth, reminiscent of a great golden lion, toying with its prey. Their duets have a thrilling intensity. As for the applause at the end of the opera, I lost count of the curtain calls and I am convinced the applause lasted more than fifteen minutes. It was a night of extraordinary.” OperaBritannia

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “The magnificent cast assembled for the premiere, one that would do honor to any opera temple with global reach, justifies (production entering repertory). The quartet and the duets in the two middle acts, the love scene between Otello and Desdemona at the end of the first act, and in the fourth the murder as its negative inversion--those were true, fulfilled moments of Italian (operatic) singing, of the kind which has come to be all too rare. Beautiful, sublime, bringing time to a standstill.

Vocally speaking, José Cura's bronzed Moor, turns his tenoral deficits intelligently into vehicles for expression. At times, the voice, by now situated far back in the throat, spews forth the notes; occasionally, there is also a slip in the tonal sound, something that is well-suited to the commander as he is growing ever more delirious. Where he formerly used to spill his tonal testosterone in a blasé sort of way as Supermacho, now a broken yet sure-footed battle-seasoned warrior strives for depth in character, and successfully so. When he--growing ever more crazed with jealousy--tears Desdemona's handkerchief into strips in full view of the crowd, and knots those strips into the rope with which he will tie her to the bedpost later on, right then everyone else seems suddenly cut out (of the picture) as if by some zoom motion.

Everyone but Anja Harteros' Desdemona. This dysfunctional couple is on close terms with each other in the interplay of their hands, in dealing with cooling water, but even more so in the harmonic contrast of their voices as they blend into each other. Here it's the glow of the tenor voice, dark as ink yet dimly golden, there it's the rich soprano voice floating on air, fragile, soulful yet secure. Well, just perfect Italian opera.” Der Welt

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “José Cura was a full-bodied, warm-blooded Moor of Venice. Heroic and vengeful, with a possessed look in his eyes, he was consistently fascinating to watch and listen to. The Argentinean tenor sang brazenly and, at times, sloppily: in his interpretation of this punishing role, overall emotionalism and force seemed to count more than accuracy of careful phrasing.” Opera News

Otello, Berlin, November 2010: “Cura's macho demeanour was perfect for the role, but there was a murky quality to his middle register. He had problems singing quietly, so the subtlety of his Dio! Mi potevi was lost." Opera Now

Otello, Berlin, November 2013: “Thrown into the sound turmoil the couple formed by José Cura (Otello) and Barbara Frittoli (Desdemona) proved to be of the highest level. José Cura combines vocal valor with accuracy in acting. His impulsive character is all the more credible since the deus ex machine Iago is cold and calculating.” Forum Opera

Otello, Berlin, May 2010: “José Cura’s voice is rather several voices, not being really equalized from bottom to top. All the top notes were there, including the one top C in the third act, but they were strangely produced and not integrated into the main body of the voice. Neither the ‘Esultate’ nor ‘Abbasso le spade’ exuded much authority. Cura was best in the phrases recalling his past happiness in the quartet, or just before the duet with Iago (‘Il fazzoletto ch’io le diedi, pegno primo d’amor’). However, he often rushed his music, with dangerous consequences. The most extreme case was in the aforementioned duo, in which neither of the two would budge: the first verse was fast, slowing down for Iago’s contribution, and chaos ensued when both sang together, the whole compounded by the conductor Patrick Summers’s tastelessly drawing out the instrumental coda. Iago was Zeljko Lučić, the owner of a beautifully ductile voice and reliable top notes. He was an unobtrusively evil presence, who disturbingly sang his nihilist Credo to the omnipresent children. But then this straightforward, violence-prone Otello was so quick to fall into the trap, that Iago arguably didn’t need to work any more on him.” Opera, October 2010

José Cura sings at the Deutsche Oper

Martina Hafner

28 May 2010

In a BZ interview, Tenor José Cura discusses the ups and downs of his career and the World Cup.

He was considered the most erotic tenor of the opera, won critical acclaim and then critical snubbed. But the Argentine José Cura (47) has survived it all. Tomorrow he sings Verdi's Otello at the Deutsche Oper - the man who kills his wife Desdemona out of jealousy.

Mr. Cura, do you ever enjoy singing a killer?

José Cura: Otello is also a victim who he kills himself in the end. But it’s true his job is to kill. He's a mercenary.

Do you like the character of Otello?

José Cura: Not at all, but I like to sing into him. He has a terrible soul, negative and self-destructive. He sees betrayal everywhere because he himself is a traitor. He sees murderers everywhere because he is one himself. A very modern theme, by the way.

In what way?

José Cura: Otello was a Muslim who converted to Christianity so that he would be accepted by society. And then he gets hired to exterminate Muslims. It's almost prophetic what Verdi has laid out there in terms of conflict. Think of the wars of today.

What will you look like in the production?

José Cura: I will be in black makeup. I understand, of course, why you ask that, because in Germany anything is possible on stage!

Andreas Kriegenburg's staging is very modern - do you feel comfortable with it?

José Cura: I don't completely agree with him. But as a professional, I follow his concept. And it is internally consistent. That's a lot to ask for today.

You were the tenor of the century, then the negative reviews started. Where do you stand today?

José Cura: At that time I was with a record company, where there is a tenor of the century every day. Many disappear again. But I'm still here.

You were considered the testosterone bomb of opera.

José Cura: On stage. In private I've been with the same woman for over 30 years.

As an Argentinean, what do you think about the World Cup - will your country win?

José Cura: The Spaniards play the most beautiful soccer. But they can be beaten by more aggressive teams. It's like show business.

How so?

José Cura: When I started, it was important to be able to do a lot, to know a lot. Today it's enough to win a TV competition - and you're the best singer on the planet!

Do you do anything to stay physically fit?

José Cura: I used to, about 20 kilos ago. But I have so much to do, I conduct, I direct, I write books. My wife says those are all excuses for not exercising. She's right, I plead guilty!

Otello - Santander - 2011

Otello, Santander, August 2011: “The Argentine tenor José Cura, who is an old acquaintance of the Santander Festival, offered the audience both good moments and others that were less so….” Público

Otello, Santander, August 2011: “Concert versions are always risky and no more so than with this opera, which like Faust has removed the static concept of its arias and replaced it with the linear development of its dramatic action. All this was taken into account on this occasion, in which all the details and nuances which Verdi requires were observed and where in (the person of) José Cura there was a top-class tenor. On his return to FIS, the Argentinean singer left impressions of his finely-tuned, focused voice, subtle timbre, and reliable register. He grew to be the heroic tenor who overcame with ease all the difficulties which the role entails, even when he was quite into the Italian style.” El Diario Montañés

Otello, Santander, August 2011: “José Cura sang a disappointing Otello, especially compared to past performances I have heard of him in this role. He was frequently inaudible, taking refuge in a whispered delivery which I found doomed his Otello to failure.” Seen and Heard International

Otello with José Cura and Barbara Frittoli open the FIS

El Diario Montañes

31 July 2011

John C. Flores-Gispert

[Excerpt]

The couple is an expert in giving life to the Moor of Venice and his wife, roles they have played together many times since 1997

Tenor José Cura faces the opening of the Santander International Festival (FIS) on Monday like a bullfighter facing a bull. As he said yesterday "opera is very similar to bullfighting, because we perform the roles without a net, as in the arena." When the spectator "is waiting for the tenor to face the wall when the high note comes" it is "the same" as when the bullfighting crowd waits to see what happens to the bullfighter when he "makes a veronica or is going to kill the bull." On Monday he gives life to Otello, the Moor of Venice.

The tenor from Argentina and Spanish nationality doesn’t know how many times he has played Otello, but each times he does it with the same sense of responsibility as the first time; this time he opens the sixtieth edition of this festival which he described as a model, "that has very few rivals in the world, which is morally unimpeachable and of high artistic and intellectual quality."

Cura, with soprano Barbara Frittoli, will play Otello and Desdemona, roles they have performed together in theaters around the world on many occasions since 1997 so their harmony is complete: "We can wrap ourselves in a particular halo, because we know each other very well, that just by looking at each other we understand the other," even though this time it is presented in concert version, without scenery, costumes or stage movement. Along with Cura and Frittoli will be in the role of Iago the Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli, who has come to replace Vladimir Stoyanov due to illness. The Argentinean conductor Mario de Rose will be in charge of the performance.

"There is no better Otello than this one and no better Desdemona than the one Barbara will perform," said José Luis Ocejo yesterday, at the presentation of the first show of the 2011 festival. Maestro De Rose agrees in his praise: "This is a great team. No conductor could have better interpreters than these two."

For Cura the value of opera "cannot die, it is up to us to keep it as bright as possible" and he maintains that it is the responsibility of artists and cultural managers to ensure opera does not become "a museum with sculptures full of dust," because both are their "guardians."

Otello, says Cura, is "much more than a story of jealousy over a little handkerchief" because behind Shakespeare's play there is "an enormous denunciation of falsehood, of the use of people, of racism that today, after 600 years, is still current."

In his opinion, the third act of this opera is "nothing more than the masterly musical development" of an act of gender violence. In addition, he believes that the work has "a different reading" since September 11, 2011 because it also speaks of fundamentalism, of those who defend their ideas by violence "whether they wear a turban or a tie".

It is our Responsibility to Pass on Works of Art like Opera and Painting

El Diario Montañés

Juan C. Flores-Gispert

1 August 2011

He is one of the best tenors in the world. Tonight in Santander he gives life to one of the most famous opera characters.

He doesn’t remember the number of times he has presented his Otello to the world but, by dint of getting into the character of the Moor of Venice it is clear to him that the story told by this opera is fully valid because it speaks of racism and the use of people.

It is sad that everything remains the same….

José Cura: The story behind the operas remain. Sometimes, because of the beauty of the melodies, we are left with the tunes and wonderful musical moments and we don't pay attention to the words, to what the opera says, no matter how many times we repeat it. And that has a lot of value in itself.

Would you say that the public doesn’t see beyond the story to the truth?

José Cura: The great majority of operas are the vehicle of social proclamation that the composers of the time used to say what they wanted. Art in general is just that, a proclamation. Puccini, Verdi, Leoncavallo, Shakespeare…. with their works they denounced the things of their time. After 600 years it is an open denunciation.

As in the case of racism….

José Cura: There is still racism and xenophobia against foreigners, from white to black and black to white. And people are still being used. In Verdi’s Otello, you don’t see it because the first act of Shakespeare’s text is missing, but in the original, when they find out Othello has secretly married Desdemona and her father wants to recover her from the arms of the Moor, the Venetian Council said, “We need him at the moment to control the Turks. When we have our victory we will see what is to be done with Othello.”

So we shouldn’t see opera only as a show, but we should also see what is behind it.

José Cura: You have to see its message. You have to know a lot about opera to enjoy its maximum expression. It is not enough to go to listen to the melodies. But that’s true about all classical art. If you stand in front of La Gioconda, at first glance you see only a chubby lady who seems to smile at you—until they explain to you the wonder of the strokes, the use of perspective, the depth, the brightness…and then you get the piece. To understand classical art you have to study. It isn’t a gift. Art demands sacrifice on the part of the public.

Just like the singers and artists.

José Cura: That’s it. Just as we professionals need to sacrifice and do the big job in tackling the technical difficulties we face, the audience needs to be professional in the sense that they take the time necessary to analyze the show before they see it to understand it at its best. This is not a changing art.

Does it never change?

José Cura: This art is like that. In its essence, because they are masterpieces, they are sculpted like this forever. They will never have a note more or less, not one color more or less. Generation after generation we pass on the responsibility of maintaining these masterpieces with the same brilliance as always.

How a singer does like you keep your voice (in shape)?

José Cura: The day-to-day life of a singer is more normal than you might think. The worst thing is the travel because you get on a plane in a city where it is 35 degrees and you get off two hours later in a place that is 10 and with the air conditioning on the plane, the lady next to you coughing, the man behind you sneezing….none of this can be controlled. Last week I worked in Finland, 300 km from the North Pole. I hopped on a plane back to Madrid, where it was 40 degrees. And from there I drove to Santander, where I was told it was almost winter. Luckily a few days were very nice. There are a few things we can control, we must be careful not to eat junk food, to get enough rest the day before the performance….

The purists will complain that Santander is presenting Otello in concert.

José Cura: I want to emphasize the fact that the Festival is determined to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary with something special. For the performers, it is difficult to present Otello in concert. Not have it staged is highly emasculating. Not only does the audience suffer, but we do as well…

How will you manage it?

José Cura: Barbara Frittoli and I have often worked together to bring life to Otello and Desdemona. There is a special chemistry between us and although we will be dressed in street clothes we will create a micro-environment on stage.

Your particular style has its detractors….

José Cura: I am aware that it bothers many, because I go beyond words and gestures and use stage and vocal attitudes that do not match what people expect from a work they have seen and heard many times. But that's what it's all about, getting the artistic bandwagon moving, experimenting and working, because classical art has a future, as long as we don't stop taking risks. If we continue doing classical art the same as we did 100 years ago, the audience will leave the theaters. With one hand we have to hold on to tradition and with the other we have to pull towards novelty, towards today's society.

Otello - Zurich - 2011

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “In [Vick’s] staging all are white. Otello, who commits the killing of his wife Desdemona as an honor, is not granted the status of an outsider by Vick—Otello’s character is the sole trigger of the tragedy. At the beginning, this approach is still logical, but later Vick digresses; he has Otello say but not do very unpleasant things and tones down his savageness. In spite of this moderation, Desdemona seems to not only sense her imminent death, but in fact know it; Vick has her go slowly insane—why not Otello but rather she is driven mad--isn't plausible. As an experienced Otello, José Cura knew how to allow his tenor (voice) to rage in the low register without it losing its radiant power in the high notes.” NZZ

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Peter Seiffert's cancellation resulted in a reunion with José Cura, the celebrated Otello of the previous production. In the first two acts, his voice sounded dull, slightly palatal and stressed. Only in the third act did he rise to truly great form in interpreting the monologue Dio! Mi potevi scagliar and in the fourth act with nothing short of an intensity that caused goose bumps. In this final scene, he stole onto the empty stage in an Arabic robe and committed the murder of his white spouse as a planned honor killing and not as an act of jealousy in the heat of the moment.” Oper Aktuell

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “There was no lack of heroic metal in the smoldering Otello of José Cura, whose yearning phrasing was really spine-chilling. Cura sang powerfully, with a true squillante sound that he reduced to soffocato volume when Otello seemed to lose control. This Otello was a "bloke" of a man who fell all too easily into the trap laid out for him.” Opera News

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “José Cura may sing uncleanly at the outset, drawing negative attention with register breaks and countering expectations with antics (he rushes through Esultate, misappropriates the infamous Sangue! cries). But he imbues his role with detail. And the way he sings the finale with a quivering tone is something no one today can imitate. Cura has no need to mime a sympathizer. He is the opposite of that beautiful Domingo-Zeffirelli Otello who could hypnotically direct the crowd. Cura drives up in a tank in Act 1, shouting "Down with the sabers!" St. Galler Tagblatt

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Tenor Jose Cura was a gruff, hulking, brutal Otello who held forth magnificently in high Italianate vocal style and whose high style method acting transported his Otello to admirable histrionic heights.” Opera Today

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Principal conductor Daniele Gatti and a trio of protagonists provided for a musically soaring experience. José Cura in the title role irritated--well, one has to say, as usual-- with some mannerisms; however, not even the slightest doubt remained that he has mastered this dreaded tenor part, and that, by virtue of his stage presence, he is also able to charge its every moment with an actor's intensity. The scene with Desdemona in the second act came alive almost exclusively because of his will to expressive through acting.” Die Südostschweiz

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Bad boys are Jose Cura’s specialty. In the title role, he had a good night, extending himself to show not only Otello’s lack of confidence as an outsider, but also his manly desires and competence as a general. He was at once raw and tender, seething inside as his tolerance for apparent infidelity evaporates. Using dynamic range to capture both intimate moments and public ones where he is leader, Cura gave a detailed portrait of the man who never feels comfortable at the center of Venetian society. He is a charismatic Otello.” Berkshire Fine Arts

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Strong performers in singing and acting plus a conductor, who knew how to combine intensity and vigor in the orchestra's playing, gave wings to this Zurich Otello. After Peter Seiffert cancelled his debut, the theater had the good fortune to be able to recruit José Cura, whose Otello has set the standard. His dark voice, which has lost brightness, permitted him to portray a powerful hero, but also one spiraling downward. ” Ópera Actual

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Filling in for [Seiffert] was José Cura, currently engaged in Zurich for another role. Sounding a bit pressed at first, I was increasingly taken with him as the evening progressed, especially when he shed some of the vocal showiness in favor of vocal shaping. By the end, a convincing performance.” Rossignols

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “José Cura brings so much experience to the title role and so much fierce emotionality that one can literally overlook the strangely two-part voice and ignore the 'scooping' or what appeared to be deliberately different emphases: this Otello has something to say.” Basler Zeitung

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “Instead of letting Otello take the stage as a Moor in the theater tradition, Vick has the Venetians gathered here to daub their faces with black paint right off--among them is Otello, celebrated governor and commander for Venice, whose human flaw with Verdi is to be the only one who is really black. And as robust as this Otello appears whenever he struts across the stage, brawny in his military uniform, an oversupply of testosterone marking his gestures he is also weak and thin is the line which he is walks in (his position of) exalted height: it is in his dark skin color that the root cause, the germ of his self-doubt can already be found. Tenor José Cura makes that clear right from the start. Far from (the style of) a radiant heroic tenor, he lifts the tone up. Each note (is) an act of power and each phrase significant, brimming with well-developed meaning.” Tagesanzeiger

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “In Graham Vick's staging, Cura presented from the outset the picture of a heartless military commander in whom no Iago was needed to ignite the fire of jealousy. When Otello strangles Desdemona, he does so with ice-cold premeditation. Vocally, Cura is convincing with his somewhat cloudy middle register and his secure high notes.” Wiener Zeitung

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “What's taking place in Zürich just now could almost be called a José-Cura-Festival, since the Argentine tenor can be heard in three roles. In Graham Vick's new staging under the baton of GMD Daniele Gatti, and alongside Thomas Hampson and Fiorenza Cedolins, he is at the center of one of those magic moments that secures the Zürich Opera House its place among the greatest opera houses in the world. José Cura has been very busy in Zürich for more than a month now: the superstar tenor, who among colleagues today is perhaps second to none when it comes to innate machismo and fiery stage presence, was Dick Johnson in Fanciulla del West, will sing Calaf and in-between, he can be seen and--nota bene--heard about eight times in one of his signature roles as Otello.

The very young Argentine newcomer caused a sensation in the Italian provinces, and shortly thereafter much hype and sold-out festival performances at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich. The star was born. The years have not left the compass of his voice entirely untouched, and his interpretation has long been searching out new ways to score other than only with high Cs. In this sense, the conditions in Zürich are more than ideal: the dimensions of the Opera House offer many advantages. The singers do not have to force the sound to be heard. What's more: when they approach the very front of the stage, one can experience them practically so up close as to catch a lot of the details of the action, almost like in the playhouse. Result for Cura: one is moved, smitten, completely under the spell of this stage animal who charges through this role with the eyes of one possessed, with bulging jugular veins from a cold Esultate to an ‘un altro bacio’ of overwhelming tension that compels tears. One cannot ask for anyone better to be cast in this.” Operallo

Otello, Zürich, October / November 2011: “José Cura's bronze tenor voice no longer has its former luster in the high notes; however, the advantage the tenor has vocally over many a colleague is his pronounced charisma, a distinctive stage presence; his Otello does not deteriorate into one of raging savageness but rather appears all the more dangerous, the softer the phrasings are sung. There is no emotionality; rather, credible realism has his Otello become the actual main character (as well as the eponymous hero). And because of it the finale is truly heart rending.” Opernfreund

Otello, Zürich, October 2011: “Bad boys are Jose Cura’s specialty. In the title role, he had a good night, extending himself to show not only Otello’s lack of confidence as an outsider, but also his manly desires and competence as a general. He was at once raw and tender, seething inside as his tolerance for apparent infidelity evaporates. Using dynamic range to capture both intimate moments and public ones where he is leader, Cura gave a detailed portrait of the man who never feels comfortable at the center of Venetian society. He is a charismatic Otello.” Berkshire Fine Arts, 9 January 2012

Otello - Luxembourg - 2012

“Verdi's opera Otello is the tragedy of a down-and-out old soldier who can no longer cope with civilian life. That's the perfectly exciting interpretation that Andreas Kriegenburg's concept for Berlin's Deutsche Oper offers up in guest performances this week. Prominent drawing card: tenor José Cura in the title role.

With all due respect: the beginning can only be called awful. In his initial triumph aria, Otello squeezed out notes that at best accomplished an approximation of Verdi's notes; the transition between the registers sounded like gear-shifting without synchronization; a bawling resounded, the likes of which had not been heard since the worst days of Mario del Monaco.

Not to worry; it did not stay that way. Perhaps this misery that makes a person want to scream was even intentional. For this Otello, whom director Andreas Kriegenburg and singer José Cura have created here, is anything but a shining hero. An old, grey, stooped man, who has won many battles but has long since wearied. Who no longer finds enjoyment in being triumphant and being met with cheers. Who doesn't quite know how his life away from the battlefield with a young, attractive wife should take shape. Who is afraid of those young people, set to move up in succession. And who is exactly for that reason almost inevitably an ideal victim in the comparatively paltry intrigue, instigated by his adversary, Iago.

Cura lets his character descend bit by bit into delusional madness, and the less he presents a hero, the more intense gets his portrayal of the role. Where he does not force and roar, but rather characterizes with vocal nuancing, he gives evidence of what has taken him to the world class tier of tenors. His desperate delusion-monologue ‘Dio! Mi potevi scagliar’ is an experience that gives one the shivers.

At the end, the audience heaped extensive applause on all participants.” Volksfreund, 22 May 2012

Otello - Bratislava - 2012

World-renowned Argentine tenor José Cura in Bratislava

Opera Slovokia

Ľudovít Vongrej
10 February 2012

The world-renowned Argentine tenor José Cura has traveled to Bratislava to perform as the main character in the Slovak National Theater Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello. The past few days have been spent in rehearsal for the performance, which will take place on 11 February and 2 March.

Along with Maestro Cura on 11 Feb will be Jago: Dalibor Jenis; Cassio: Oto Klein; Roderigo: Ivan Ožvát; Lodovico: Martin Malachovský; Montano: Mikuláš Doboš; Un Araldo: Daniel Hlásny; Desdemona: Adriana Kohútková; Emilia: Denisa Šlepkovská. The conducter is Ondrej Lenárd.

The tenor was available to answer questions at a press conference. He said that a man does not become an artist instantly. At the beginning of his career he has only one talent. A man becomes an artist over the course of his lifetime. He was asked about problems with the current makerting of opera productins in the world. Cura spoke of the need for a strong, high quality culture and available art that is needed not only for leisure and entertainment but is also necessary for the higher goals of transmitting tradition and enducation nations. He said the current trend to introduce new, modern production is not a problem if it has been intelligently thought out and the concept can be logically explained.

José Cura has such standing in the opera world that he can actually chose where he works. The Maestro said he came to Slovakia to work in a professional theater and has enjoyed the collaboration.

The artist also spoke about the character of Otello and breifly compared Otello and Nabucco, two works by Verdi. According to Cura, Verdi was a composer with talent at the time he wrote Nabucco but by the time he wrote his next to last opera, Otello, he had become an artist.

“I have sung Otello for fifteen years. I have not counted all of the performances, but it must be around two hundred. For those two hundred performances, I have worked in about twenty different productions. I have worked with excellent conductors and directors, but also with very poor conductors and directors, and I have learned a lot from both. From the first group, I learned what the opera should be like and from the others I learned what it should not be. When I started to sing Otello, I had all black hair and I had to paint it white so I would look older and anow I have to color them black so I do not look too old. What seems like a joke is very serious because it means that for 15 years I have been a young man who has been trying to imagine how it feels to be an older man, and now I that older man who knows how it feels. This is, of course, reflected in the interpretation.

I have seen the DVD performance of Otello from the Slovak National Theater. Last August I did the opera Pagliacci in Cesky Krumlov and Director Průdek told me about his ideas of staging in the SND. The theater asked me to sing Otello at the premiere but I had a performance scheduled somewhere else. Now I am here, so I will sing Otello.

At the end of the press conference, the theater management informed us that José Cura will beh the exclusive guest at Prince Orlofsky’s ball in the presentation of Die Fledermaus, the comic operetta by Johann Strauss II, on 9 February. Upon his arrival on the opera stage Cura received great applause and not only by those who knew about it. José Cura treated the Bratislava audience to the aria Nessun dorma from Giacomo Puccini’s opera, Turandot.

All are equal before art

The world-famous tenor José Cura came to the SND for a ball and at the press conference he spoke he spoke about Otello and Samson, his memorable characters.

SME

Oliver Rehák

5 March 2011

[Excerpt]

BRATISLAVA. "It's strange that my first visit here begins with a party. Usually the reception comes after the work is done. Here, it begins with the celebration," laughed the famous Argentinean tenor José Cura at yesterday's meeting with journalists. He added that it says a lot about the spirit of the country.

He apologized for perhaps revealing too much but confirmed that he had been invited to be the guest at the premiere of Otello, which the SND is preparing for the autumn of 2012. Although his calendar is not yet free, he believes that something can still be done about the current conflicts in dates. He is looking forward to returning to Bratislava, simply because this time he will stay in Slovakia for only a short time. He also remarked that thirty years on the stage and twenty years in Europe, there is still a place in the world where he can come for the first time.

Beauty lover

José Cura did not immediately recall a Slovak personality with whom he had worked but he was quickly reminded of Andrea Danková, who made her debut with him as Desdemona in London. At tonight's Crystal Ball, he will sing Prince Calaf’s Nessun dorma aria from Puccini's opera Turandot.

At the ball, however, it certainly will not be he who starts with the waltz and he won’t be breaking into a tango. Referring to his Argentine origins, he described himself as a "failed Latino" who never went to discos.

He did, however, show his proverbial temperament and spontaneity on the subject of the importance of art. "I don't understand what's happening to culture. They say no one can eat art. But if it disappears from a society, what unites us also disappears. Except for God, whom you may believe in or not, we are all equal only before art. The love of beauty is the only thing that connects us and if we lose that, we can lose ourselves. I'm sorry but I sometimes get a little angry about this," he added.

According to him, art is a privileged profession precisely because it gives beauty and love to people.

He wants to present our Prime Minister with a book of photographs he published three years ago which is full of human faces. He searched for the stories behind the different expressions. "To be a good actor, you have to understand the human soul," he said.

Singer and conductor

He sings in Italian and French but refuses offers for German operas. "If you don't want to be a parrot and repeat something just phonetically, you have to understand the culture of the country. If you want to win new audiences, you have to catch them in the most important place - the heart," he reflected.

Cura also has experience in conducting, though he does not conduct as much as he would like. However, he plans have more time to conduct when his voice "goes away" one day. The death of an artist, in his opinion, comes not when people start saying he is worse than others but when they begin to say he is worse than he used to be. "There are so many different people in the world that it is impossible to please everyone. The only thing you can do is start doing something," said the artist, who seemed both spontaneous and relaxed during the press conference.

I Like to Play the Bad Guys

HN Style

Zuzana Sotáková

15 February 2012

[Excerpts]

José Cura I like to play the bad guys, says world famous tenor José Cura

He is among the leading singers of the world and he likes Bratislava and he likes our theater. He is not afraid of criticism or his hardest role. Living legend of the opera—José Cura

You perform around the world and yet are returning to us to perform Otello. Who persuaded you?

No one persuaded me to come. Bratislava is a beautiful city. I am a professional and this is a professional agreement in a professional theater, where they treat me with respect.

How does criticism affect you?

I really appreciate it when it is constructive because nobody is perfect and there is always room for improvement. The one thing I cannot stand, and this is not just about me but about everyone, is when the critic shows a lack of respect.

You have sung in the most famous operas in the world. Can you compare Slovak artists with foreign ones?

I can but I won’t. I won’t compare professionals because then I become the critic and I do not have to be. I have to be the one who is criticized.

But who, if not you, would be the best to offer criticism?

Perhaps true but if I told you these things, it would be over a glass of wine and not for a newspaper. It’s not exactly classy to speak in public about your views of your colleagues.

You have played Otello in more than twenty productions. Which one was the most exciting?

Each production was exciting, even if some of them were stupid. The text is so rich that even if you do strange productions, for example in a space ship, in the end it works. Of course, if you have good artists.

So, no special production?

Of course, I have special memories of my debut in 1997. When you do your first Otello, it is like the first time you make love—you never forget it. I remember one teacher told me that Otello is a danger because once you sing it, then in the next opera that comes after it you will sound silly. This is true of any great work.

And it is your most difficult role?

So far. The second act is more complex than other complete operas. I’d rather sing Turandot twice than the second act of Otello.

Are there any roles that you will not take?

As an actor I think every job is interesting. I like a challenge. Personally, I prefer to play bad guys. That’s one reason I often play Otello and more recently a similar role, Pagliaccio, is that it is boring to play a happy and cheerful character. Otello is great because he is dark figure and psychologically complex.

You are now directing and conducting. Is singing not enough?

I do not know what I will do when I stop singing, which will happen sooner or later because I am 50 years old and I do not think I am a human miracle like Domingo. And also because the intense physical exertion of stage performance requires the strength of youth. But it is true that you can conduct all of your life. The older a conductor or director, the wiser because he knows more things or, in other words, ignores fewer things!

Do you have any fears about the new generation that is difficult to shock?

Yes, I do. My son often talks about how this generation is accustomed to every kind of aesthetic and visual aggression through the internet, television, and film. How do we convince them to come to the theater for a show, compared with what they can see on the internet?

And your answer?

It is simple. Be honest, be real, be intense. The new generation gets its excitement virtually from the internet but they miss one thrill—real human emotions. You will find that only in the theater.

José Cura: It frustrated me to become the sex symbol of Opera

SME

Michaela Mojžišová
14 February 2012

[Excerpts]

Since the middle 1990s he has ranked among the world’s most sought after tenors. Despite a full calendar, he accepted the offer of the Opera Theater and to be introduced to the Bratislava audience as Otello.

You have sung Otello, the role for which you come to Bratislava, for fifteen years. Where has your interpretation led you?

When I started Otello, I had to dye my hair so I looked older. Today I dye it black so as to not look too old. It is a joke, but it says a lot—that’s how my interpretation has evolved.

How do you feel about the Bratislava staging?

I know Director Josefa Průdka very well because last year we worked on Leoncavallo’s Pagliaci in Cesky Krumlov. It was there we talked about the Bratislava Otello. It’s a bit tame for my taste. I would prefer a more focused production. On the other hand, you can sense that it was made by a director who was himself a singer. I appreciate it as rare respect for the voice.

Which do you prefer, traditional or modern productions?

It depends on the intelligence of the director. The traditional staging can be silly, a modern one wise and profound. But if artists with charisma and experience come together, even with a less accomplished directorial concept, it can work well.

Does your work as a conductor affect your singing?

Very much. It's one thing for a singer to assume what's in the score, and another thing to have it analyzed accurately.

You are not only a singer and conductor but also an opera director. What has brought you to this new role?

In 2007 I was in Rijeka, Croatia, to prepare a special production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci called La Commedia e finita. Originally it was just an experimental show for the summer festival—a mix of opera, drama and pantomime—but it was a surprising success. Since then I have directed three productions and I am going to do three more—Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana in Liège, La Rondine in Nancy, and Carmen in Nimes.

How would your characterize your directorial style?

I approach directing the same way I approach conducting and singing - with commitment. Be faithful to the work and to the text, I think that is the key to theater. We are just instrument of the art. If required by the nature of the character, I have no inhibitions about singing ‘ugly.’ Otello cannot die with a stab in the side and warble like a nightingale. Since I first began singing Otello, I have sung the end with a broken voice. I’ve received both heavy criticism and much praise. Some people like it, some don’t, but it’s my style. And I approach directing with the same passion.

Initially you studied composition and conducting. What brought you to singing?

I began my studies at the end of military rule (in Argentina). I remember when we had breaks between lectures we would watch the television reports of the Falkland War. Argentina was living through some complicated times. It was impossible to make a living composing or conducting. The reason I took up singing is rather prosaic.

In 1994 you won Operalia, the Domingo competition for young singers. How important to you was that?

Operalia was very important to me because it brought me to the public’s attention. But it did not start my career. It had already started three or four years earlier.

What do you consider milestones in your career?

Certainly there was the very important debut at Covent Garden (1995), the first Otello in Turin (1997) and the film Traviata (a Paris, 2000), which millions of people saw. And setting up my agency Cuibar Productions SL (2000) allowed me to pursue a career according to my wishes. I was frustrated at being presented as the sex symbol of opera and being sold as a piece of meat. Today’s market is ruthless, destroying many talents, well before they have the time to become artists.

You come from Argentina. Do you still have connections with your birthplace?

Few, unfortunately. I haven’t lived in Argentina for twenty years. But I have professional plans there in the near future. I very much hope that they will come true. You can leave home, you can do well, but if you don't feel comfortable in the place where you were born, your life is not complete. And that's true in general, not just in art.

José Cura: If Verdi no longer had anything to say to us, we wouldn´t perform his operas

Opera Slovakia

L’udovit Vongrej

1 April 2012

The world-famous tenor José Cura talks about the character of Otello from Verdi's opera of the same name in an interview for our Opera Slovakia website. He performed this role at the Slovak National Theatre Opera earlier this year. As well about speaking about Verdi´s music, Cura tells us about art and his plans for the future.

The character of Otello is very specific in opera literature, because it places high demands on its protagonist and requires a special approach. Could you tell us who the real Othello is?

I don't think anyone can say who the real Othello is, simply because even today, five hundred years later, he is an extremely complex character and the last word has not yet been spoken about him.

Why is it that the character of Othello can only be portrayed by the best artists and not everyone can identify with it?

It is probably because he is an extremely complex character, with a complicated character psychology. The latter acts as a "filter" for artists who are not up for the role. It's one thing to "just" sing Othello (which is a challenge in itself), and another thing to portray him. This condition of having “to be” a character —and not only to sing it— is what modern opera should be and not what a certain snobbism pretends modern opera is. Returning to Verdi, Otello is not a “belcanto” opera because Verdi altogether is not belcanto. “My operas are melodramma” he repeatedly told the world and still does through his letters. But even after more than a hundred years, many do not want to accept this fact, while at the same time they fear that their incorrect Verdian dogma will collapse because it does not stand on solid foundations. It is incredible that this misguided Verdi’s doctrine, created more than 50 years ago by some self-called musicologists, is still in vogue despite the new knowledge we have about Verdi.

How did you identify with the character? Did you approach it from any specific psychological aspect? How did the relationship between your inner self and Otello develop?

First of all, it is important to understand that we are NOT talking about a “hero” but about an apostate who rejected his Muslim faith to embrace Christianity to secure his political future in Venice, a traitor who agreed to fight and kill Muslims, a coward who violently mistreats his wife and then kills her and a mercenary, a professional killer hired for money. Since I don't resemble Otello in any of these respects, I can't say that I identify with the character in the sense that you understand it. However, I have had to use my ability to observe, study, and emulate feelings that I have never experienced myself in order to translate the psychology of the character.

But in the beginning of the opera Otello is pictured as a hero…

A Muslim converted to the Christians who shouts “Rejoice, I have killed the Muslims!” does not strike me as heroic…

On the other hand, Otello is portrayed as a man with a very sensitive nature who loves his wife with a pure and deep love. How would you account for these differences in his character? Othello, as a powerful and strong man, but at the same time sensitive and loving, does this not give the impression of a torn personality?

Who said that strength and authority cannot go hand in hand with passion and sensitivity? On the contrary, is this complicate personality that makes the character so interesting. Otello, the great commander, collapses in fear (reflected in an episode of post-traumatic stress syndrome) while remembering the battle when he is alone with his wife, for example.

Naturally, throughout his career, the artist acquires his own knowledge and experience. The approach of a young artist is different; the approach of an experienced artist later in his career can be crucial to the character's grasp. You’ve portrayed Otello for almost 15 years. Is there something you have changed in terms of approach to the role?

When I started portraying Otello, my hair was dark and I had to treat it with white make-up in order to look older. Today I don't need white anymore ... draw your own conclusion.

Why did Otello kill Desdemona? Was the murder part of ritual, or it was result of his frustration and hurt feelings?

It is a long analysis and we don't have enough space here. Quickly said, on one hand we have Otello’s need of using the “excuse” of a “ritual” as an alibi to explain to himself the brutality he was about to commit, and on the other one, we have Desdemona’s psychological dependency that moves her to accept the violence with no resistance…

Why is the role of Otello so close to your heart?

Otello is not close to my heart in the romantic sense of the phrase, because I don’t identify with the negative side of the character, but it is a super vehicle for a singer-actor to be on stage with. I would liken it to the feelings I get when I conduct Beethoven’s 9th or Bach’s Mass in B minor: these are works that have marked me as a human-being as much as a musician.

How would you rate the music of Verdi? Does his music still have something to say to the contemporary listener? What makes it still so popular? Do you think Verdi’s music was more fashionable in his days than nowadays?

If Verdi had nothing to say, we wouldn't be performing it. The problem is: are we listening to what Verdi wants to say or are we still thinking that what a certain operatic “intelligentsia” preaches about Verdi is the only truth? If so, then Verdi has nothing more to say because, by preserving him in chloroform we are insisting that nothing new to say.

What is most important for a correct interpretation of Verdi's music? Does his music have any particularities, peculiarities, concerning, for example, colour or musical language?

A close relationship with the text, phrasing and accents and a willingness to distort you’re your vocal expression to convey the drama. I cannot insist enough: READ VERDI’S LETTERS!!! and stop listening to the false-preachers who have surrounded us since Verdi’s time. Verdi himself never stopped fighting against them.

What can undermine or devalue Verdi's music in terms of opera production or production design?

To do the opposite to what I said in the previous answer.

From my personal experience I can say that your performance of Otello in Bratislava was an excellent contribution to the Slovak National theatre and your artistic delivery was comparable to that of poetry. Many young performers are keen to achieve what you have achieved in your career as widely known and highly respected singer. Is there any recipe for a successful career as a professional and widely known singer?

Let me put it in the words of Oscar Wilde. Be yourself: everyone else is already taken...

Nowadays, many professional singers will take whatever theatres offer them. Understandably everyone have to make living. Do you think that if a singer's choice of repertoire was guided solely by his or her own interests and preferences, rather than money matters, it would be reflected in the singer's performance? How do you see the situation in nowadays opera houses regarding repertoire choices, production, etc?

It is a long and very complicated issue. Of course, without the pressure of having to work to earn your living, one could have a more relaxed approach to the choice of roles. But then, because we are always doing the same 30 to 40 titles (due to the fear of box office failure) the options are limited. On top of that, most of the audience live in the memory of the past, wanting their “new singers” to sound like the old ones. Still today, I am sometimes criticized for not doing Otello like this or that singer who lived 50 and more years ago. It's like criticizing a contemporary actor for not being like, let’s say, like Errol Flynn. Things have changed and no one desires to emulate actors of the past, even the great ones, because our social reality is so different that it would be ridiculous rather than good. Opera has yet to go through its revolution.

What is your opinion the specific vocal characteristics and some of the vocal qualities of the artist, in terms of the diversity of the characters he portrays?

If your voice isn’t strong enough you cannot fight compete against a big orchestra but if it’s too big, you cannot sculpt the necessary nuances of a delicate opera. Somewhere in between these two positions there are a lot of clichés that have nothing to do with style but with tradition and, what's worse, are subject to current fashions. Massenet wrote the role of Werther for Jan de Reske, a Wagnerian tenor, but today, if you don’t cast a more lyrical singer for the role, you’re making a mistake. And this is only one example among many.

What are you plans in the future?

We are living difficult times. Nobody knows for sure what is going to happen in the next few years, so planning has become a very daring thing to do. What I know for sure, regardless of where the events will take me, is that I will work hard every day to become a better artist. I hope to publish my books, one of which is dedicated to Otello and pray that I will live to a healthy old age to be able to enjoy the fruits of so many years of sacrifices. As you can see, nothing special, just the same old wish all men around my age have.

The last question is related to your performance in Bratislava. Can you tell us something about your collaboration with Slovak National Theatre? Is there anything that particularly attracted you to the Slovak National Theatre? How would you rate collaboration with Slovak artists and musicians?

My collaboration with the Slovak National Theatre has been very smooth and professional. Everybody, members of the ensemble, choir, orchestra and back stage people (make-up artists, dressers, stage hands) are great professionals, with lots of experience. I hope this is only the beginning of a future relationship. I would love to direct an opera in your country or to conduct the great Slovak musicians one day.

SDN Bratislava: José Cura Carves the Drama in Otello

Opera Plus

Paul Unger

12 February 2012

[Excerpt]

If memory serves me correctly, my first live encounter with tenor José Cura dates back to the Vienna semi-finals of the prestigious singing competition Operalia in 1994. One of the winners of the final in Mexico was the 31-year-old dramatic tenor from Argentina. After that, José Cura’s career rapidly gathered momentum.

Today, he is one of the most sought-after performers of the verismo school and in the title role of Verdi’s Otello. It is in this character that José Cura appeared at the Slovak National Theatre Opera on Saturday, 11 February. Three days before the performance, he literally “opened” himself to the reporters at a press conference. Intelligent, witty, and friendly, the artist spent an hour answering a wide variety of questions about his professional and personal life, discussing his career as a singer, conductor, director, and his passion for the creative arts.

Cura talked about Otello, whom he sees not only as a historical drama, but a deeply psychological one, a drama about racism, betrayal, and manipulation. The title role has been a mainstay in his repertoire for fifteen years and he has donned the hero's costume two hundred times in two dozen productions. He doesn't choose his participation in a production based on whether it is traditional, modern, black or white. If a good director and cast are available, anything is possible. The concept just needs to be logically justified.

Cura also touched on the on the status of singers at the turn of the century. This generation has not had the good fortune of previous ones to be able to mature gradually into suitable vocal roles. Some have been successful, others have not, and under the pressure of marketing, publishing, and money (repeated three times) we have lost a lot of talent. At the beginning of a career, a singer is not an artist. According to Cura, if you have talent and have a long enough career then you transform into an artist. He has no problem claiming that he doesn't sing like Mario del Monaco or Placido Domingo. It is just personal preference. But when the moment comes when “Cura doesn’t sing as well as Cura,” then it will be time to pack his bags.

With an extraordinary sense of humor peppered [throughout the conference] he responded to the disturbing ring of the cell phone of one of the journalists: “Verdi calling…..Hello, Giuseppe!” Cura admitted he still has dream roles and when asked by the reporter from Operaplus if any of Richard Wagner’s was among them, he replied with a smile, "I have dreams, I don't have nightmares..." He admitted that he had received many offers for Wagnerian roles but since he did not speak German he could not shape those role to the desired level and so he has not accepted any of them. “Old age begins just when all the dreams end,” he added. The 21^st century has killed the spirit of the Renaissance man; everyone wants to label the man. He does not like questions like what are you—singer, director, conductor, photographer? He also doesn’t like the world to be divided into compartments. He does not care whether it is east or west (where is the center, he asks?), he just goes wherever professional theater is done. He considers stage dust to be a “drug.”

Before Saturday’s performance Cura offered Bratislava citizens an unplanned bonus. He appeared in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus as a special guest at the ball of Prince Orlofsky.

And how was his Otello? In a word, riveting. He poured life, drama, emotion into a rather lackluster production in which none of the three previous performers of the title role had managed to fulfill the complexities. The first two acts where filled with a surfeit of tense moments, when the ideas about the deployed tempos between Cura and conductor Ondrej Lenárd vastly differed. Even in the opening Esultate! the tenor was incomparably faster than the beat Lenárd put down. The important thing was, however, that from the very first entrance onto stage we see a warrior, a commander hardened by both sea and storms. He had the authority to be able to intervene decisively in the current conflict in Cyprus but he was also a man with all of a man’s human frailties. In the first duet with Desdemona, Gia nella notte densa, the voice changes from powerful, bronze-colored and heavy to one whose tone, not only in its colour and dynamics but above all in its emotional undertones, expresses the joy of meeting the woman he loves. Even with strict compliance with the staging of director Průdek, the singer ends the duet lying on his back.

The quartet in the 2nd act got a special charge. Otello’s part in this moment is not to dominate; it was conceived as an inner mental reflection, as a struggle with conflicting ideas about Desdemona's infidelity. With extreme sensitivity to nuances he reveals how his relationship with Iago is being shaped and though he still hesitates to believe the intrigue, he has failed to banish the worm of doubt. Cura expressed these motives for the proceedings in an absolute interplay of vocal and acting resources. Again, he may have broken out of the established tempos at times ("recitative" sections are treated very loosely, almost colloquially, as if they were "recco recitatives"), but it was an effective move in favour of sharpening the atmosphere of the moment. On the other hand, José Cura is so prudent and experienced that he knows where to cut from the held pitch, where to open up and develop the phrase, so that the effect is unmistakable. For the first time in Lennard's conducting, Ora e per sempre addio was sung in cabaletto tempo, with tremendous expressive urgency, sung with a steely firmness and luster.

If the tempo disagreement between the protagonist and the conductor came often in the first half of the evening, the partnership between the soloists avoided collision. Cura was extremely empathetic to Adriane Kohútková (Desdemona) and seemed to relish the mutual dialogues with Iago. It's hard to imagine a more riveting Act 2 finale of Si, per ciel marmoreo giuro! than with Cura and Jenis, although timbre-wise the two voices weren't all that different.

A huge variety of expressive nuances were revealed in the third act. With outbursts of anger, expressions of mental chaos and self-doubt, Cura provided starkly dynamic contrasts and colors. At times he was a predator, demolishing everything he could get his hands on. The monologue Dio! I potevi scagliar began as a quiet reflection but gradually evolved in expression until it culminated in the arrival of Iago in an admittedly loosely held but luminous ‘Cielo! O Gioia.’ He sang with great conviction the scene with the Venetian message, his own mental breakdown, and only clumsy direction prevented the end of the third act (Iago's triumphant "Ecco il Leone") from making an even more chilling impression. In the last act, he brought his charismatic speech to a close with an outright ritual farewell to Desdemona. He gave in to Prudek's suggestion of unwrapping the scarf from his head and, with faith firm and voice calm, he knew what he had to do and ended the life of his beloved wife. Nium me tema, the closing monologue, was an intimate testimony of the sorrows of a man who believed he succumbed to a manipulator. With great license in his choice of rhythm and tempos but also with huge and credible psychological immersion, José Cura had completed his first Otello in Bratislava.

The audience welcomed Cura with spontaneous applause (for Esultate!) and bid him farewell with a prolonged ovation. It was definitely a superior evening at the Opera Theater. … May we experience similar evenings as often as possible.

José Cura – Lover, Predator, Murderer, Victim

Pravda

Paul Unger

13 February 2012

In recent years, a number of world famous artists have appeared live in Bratislava. While Juan Diego Flórez, Ramón Vargas, Cicilia Bartoli and Dimitri Hvorostovsky performed in concerts brokered by private agencies and after the Lucrezia Borgia with Edita Bruberová and Paul Bršlíkom within the framework of the Braislava Music Festival, the first truly stellar name has finally been brought to the opera theater. The title role of Verdi’s Otello is played by one of its most popular performers, Argentine José Cura.

At 49, José Cura stands at the zenith of his career, with fifteen years years and over two hundred performances of Otello behind him. He knows at every moment what the hero experiences, what internal, often pathological, conflict sets him off, how to express quiet emotions of love, jealousy, impulsivity, mental collapse and failure. Cura is fixed on stage, the sea-and-storm hardened warrior, the tenderly loving husband who is also a predator, all the barrage of emotions that he must manage. Cura’s concepts are extremely polished, both contrasting and based on his deep knowledge of the original.

It is particularly valuable that the actor’s expressive resources are subject to the musical and vocal lines of the situation. Cura’s big, serious, almost baritone-tenor has a bronze polish and he has the experience to build the emotionally charged role without compromising in delicate areas—even at the price of a serious misunderstanding in pace between him and conductor Ondrej Lenárd. Both have strong personalities so the search for the ‘middle way’ was challenging, especially in the first half. Finally, however, some of the points were raised at a lively pace and slower sections were given content and inner reflection.

It was a wonderful experience to watch as José Cura developed a dubious relationship with Iago (the expressive Dalibor Jenis) and as his feelings changed for Desdemona (Adriana Kohútková) as the predator becomes a lover, then getting caught in mental whirlpool as he becomes the victim of intrigue, murder, and death.

The high expectations for José Cura were fulfilled.

Cura Crawled under the Skin of Otello

SME

Michaela Mojzisová

12 February 2012

On Saturday, the Slovak National Theater Opera presented Verdi’s Otello, starring on of the world’s most famous tenors, Argentinian José Cura

Although I have no doubt that with his charisma and charm, José Cura would have won over a concert audience, it's great that he didn't hesitate to don the costume of Otello and take to the theatre stage. Thanks to him, the little-loved Bratislava production gained a juice that it had lacked until then.

The world-renowned tenor has performed as Otello approximately two hundred times. To the SND he brought his own, mature concept of the controversial character. His Othello is an ageing man who hides old scars and inner insecurities behind his masculine appearance and confident demeanor. He seeks redemption in the love of a young woman but instead Desdemona inadvertently becomes the instrument of his destruction.

All this—and much more—can be read through Cura’s singing and acting. He is emotional, not pathetic; he is dramatic but not hysterical. Otello’s pain, his doubt, and his suffering are internalized and they are conveyed through Cura’s tone and gestures. He keeps the viewer off-balance, impressing as he crawls under the skin. One could fault his vocal performance in the details, but opera in Cura's conception and delivery is not for nitpicking. The singer with the dramatic, masculine, metallic voice did not hesitate to sacrifice the perfect aesthetic tone for the sake of authenticity in his character.

Dalibor Jenis supported Cura in Saturday’s gala as an expressive, sophisticated Iago. Adriana Kohutkova's Desdemona was more convincing in the fragile lyrical portions than in the drama of the last act.

Although harmony between conductor Ondreja Lenárd and the star creaked here and there, the performance picked up a smooth flow as time went on. The Bratislava audience was thus able to experience an evening for which they usually have to travel beyond the borders of our country.

José Cura – Another Star at the National Theater

Slovo

Vladimír Blaho

14 February 2012

[Excerpt]

After the concerts of the great opera stars of today (Ramón Vargas, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Juan Diego Florez, Cecilia Bartoli), we finally got to see a big star in an opera performance. The Argentinean tenor José Cura appeared in Bratislava as Otello on 11 February 2012.

José Cura is one of a group of Latin American tenors (Ramón Vargas, Marcello Alvarez, Juan Diego Florez, Rolando Villazón) who in the past decade have played “first fiddle” on the world’s opera stages. The singer, whose family roots lead back to Lebanon, Spain, and Italy, is now nearly 50 and has for the last two decades been one of the jewels at the most important opera houses. His is a unique, idiosyncratic personality and that, in addition to his artistic origins, his singing and conducting, and more recently, his directing, have gained him a certain (charismatic) reputation.

In concert, he upturns the usual sleek production with both informal dress and behavior to attempt to make contact with the audience and offers them in song repertoire which features above all a certain theatrical artistic expression. That approach is fully appropriate to opera performances, in which Cura focuses neither on the beauty of the voice nor on perfect technique but in the comprehensive understanding of complex characters interpreted through expressive voice, movement, facial expressions, and gestures. With his dramatic, almost-baritone vocal characteristics and interpretative abilities, he is ideal for projecting dramatic, verismo characters (Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot, Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci). Apart from the heroic Samson in the French opera by Camille Saint-Säens, he is perhaps best known for his role in Verdi’s Otello, having appeared in about twenty different productions and in which he has now presented himself to the Bratislava audience.

Cura offered a thrilling portrait of Verdi’s passionate hero at the SND, alternating between rage, despair, and resignation, his dramatic resources of striking force and with a metal ring in his top that must allow the same to be written as that by a Viennese critic about opera star Maria Jeritza, “that it (the voice) is amazing even when she sings with approximate intonation.”

A speak-song interpretative style is a peculiar [Cura] characteristic so recitatives are reminiscent of parlando (which would have strict vocal defenders of the Italian school distinguishing between verismo and the late Verdi and permitting it only in the first instance) and he occasionally deviates from the flow and tempo of the music, changing the musical accents according to his own taste. On the other hand, his performance is all perfectly thought out, calculated for maximum effect. For example, when he first sees Desdemona he runs up the stairs like a young man but by the third act he is climbing them on wobbly (broken) knees.

In evaluating Cura’s Otello, it is important to be aware of differences in interpretative approaches. On one side stand the singers with beautiful voices, expert bel canto style and lovely legato, which makes listening to these singers a wonderful experience. Cura, on the other side, represents the stage animal, in which the visuals (either physical beauty of acting and expressive skills) play the more important part.

After the great Luciano Pavarotti and Alfredo Kraus died, both of whom the broader public considered to be ‘technical’ vocalists, it appears that the scales have begun to lean toward the side of representational in the complexity of interpretation. True, this approach has its limits [for example, Paris production of Madama Buttefly in which an otherwise good interpretative performance was marred by uninspired/average singing]; if this was indeed the case, why not perform the dramatic version of the work? …However, Cura has not yet exceeded the threshold [of acceptability] and therefore Bratislava opera lovers can enjoy even more of his art at his second appearance in Verdi’s Otello.

José Cura as Otello

Opera Slovakia

Terézia Ursínyová

1 March 2012

[Excerpt]

Since the premiere of the new production of Verdi's four-act opera Otello at the Slovak National Theatre in 2011, the ideal representative of the title character has been awaited. Despite the efforts of both local and guest tenors, it was only with the guest appearance of the world-renowned Argentinean tenor José Cura that the expectations of the ideal Otello were fulfilled.

He had already sung at last year's Opera Ball in the New Building of the Slovak National Theatre, when the idea was born to invite this singer from the world's most famous opera houses, a dramatic tenor of the first class, to the then still-being-planned production of the Slovak National Theatre. Despite some difficulties (the artist's available dates... etc.), the theater was able to secure two dates for his performance at the SND (11.2.2012 and 2.3.2012) plus an unexpected, but all the more pleasant, performance of Cura in the Die Fledermaus Ballroom scene. Cura is a personality who, with all his world fame, remained a "normal" man with the charisma of a charming bohemian.

The atmosphere in the auditorium before the first guest appearance of Cura was exhilarating: the SND Hall was packed to the last seat, in many ways with an extraordinary audience with great expectations. The entrance of the guest singer onto the stage was greeted with applause—not a customary thing—which certainly energized all the performers. The minor nervousness between the orchestral pit and the stage disappeared after Act I, and we were able to enjoy the drama of love poisoned by the demon of evil in musical fullness. Cura refused to wear the elaborate robes, turbans and other accoutrements of costume designer Josef Jelinek from the original production: he acted and sang in stylized contemporary rather than historical clothing, which brought the work even closer to modern times. Cura's Otello is a handsome, charismatic, grizzled, mature man (not an exaggerated Moor) whose power, strength and fervent love for Desdemona gradually take on negative but equally passionate forcefulness under the influence of Iago's scheming. He's not only a superb singer but also an actor who knows how to dispense gestures in a minimalist but effective manner.

Just as he can quiet his voice into an introverted mezzo voce before gradually transforming it into a storm of notes, he can also convey the metamorphosis of his emotions. There was, for example, an unforgettable scene in Act 2 where Otello listens, frozen, to Jago's creeping intrigues, with only his hands playing on the table in nervous movements, only to burst into a rage that renders him unconscious at the end of the act. Or the small gesture of defiance and threat of the Moor towards the cross in Act 4, before which Desdemona prayed. It said more about the racial, religious and psychological disintegration of a once powerful man than any other outcome of the tragedy. José Cura became an icon of the Bratislava production. We experienced the impression of the fulfillment of Verdi's brilliant, complex opera by an equally great interpreter.