Covent Garden - 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “The first act seemed a particular challenge to José Cura in the title role. In his short aria of the boatman, the ensuing concertato and in his duet with Lina, Cura had a tendency to push his voice, with the effect that he sometimes lost accurate tuning and, in particular, he kept missing rests or proceeding too quickly through notes so that conductor Mark Elder and the orchestra had a hard job of keeping up. After the interval, however, Cura seemed more at ease. His tone was more exciting in the graveyard scene, and both of the final scenes were deeply moving; his acting was unflaggingly dedicated throughout.  I would strongly recommend this rare opportunity to hear one of Verdi’s most modern and unjustly neglected works onstage at Covent Garden. ”  Musical Criticism, 20 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “Handsome and swaggering, Cura gives a barnstorming performance with a return to the thrilling vocal form which made him famous. The difficulty is that you cannot believe in his inner religious faith. He excels at intensity, but not humility. When finally, with much furious Bible bashing, he forgives Lina you fear for her safety the minute the curtain goes down. …”  Evening Standard, 23 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “José Cura keeps his extrovert-self contained, but you can see how Stiffelio is boiling inside…” Classical Source, 20 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “The dark, Latinate tenor Jose Cura brings a note of beefy charisma to the title role. His top notes might not be as lustrous as I've heard in the past and he overacts on a couple of occasions, yet he keeps a cool check on his glottal swoops and vocal mannerisms, and the result is exciting.”  China Post / Bloomberg, 24 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “José Cura, in the title role, sounds tight and technically edgy.”  Financial Times, 23 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “José Cura's glassy eyed stare at the work's conclusion made no promises for the future of the relationship, and it made a lot of sense after the tenor's emotionally giving performance. Stiffelio's animalistic, Otello-like rage was kept firmly under lock and key, and when it did burst forth, it did so with venomous fury. Vocally, Cura's inhumanly baritonal tenor was deployed with a manner standing somewhere between good and bad taste. I could have done with a tad less barking in Act One but, in Act Three, Cura found a noble and exciting ring up above.”  Music OMH, April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “In his first appearance on stage, José Cura did not pay much attention to Elder’s baton, nor did he convey any emotions with his static acting and monotonous singing. Things improved as the tamer’s whip, the orchestra, imposed its rule and made the singer follow them. Cura’s loud wilderness lost its worse side, and from act two on he sounded increasingly passionate and at the same time more controlled. I still think Cura is not the most exciting singer, but his acting has improved a lot in the last three or four years. It is in operas such as Stiffelio and La Fanciulla del West in which this improvement is more apparent.”  Mundoclasico, 27 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “The crucial shortcoming is José Cura in the title-role.  Apart from a little pianissimo crooning, he seems able to produce only a harsh and effortful forte, much of it sliding under the note. He makes nothing of the text, goes his own sweet way with tempi, and despite his swashbuckling appearance, achieves no convincing characterisation. What a sad collapse of a once promising tenorial contender.”  Telegraph, 23 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “Twelve years on, its latest revival effectively allows Cura to return to the role that made him famous. Time has taken its toll on his voice, though his performance remains compelling in its erratic brilliance.  His carnal presence offsets the fiery, eruptive fanaticism that glows in his eyes. Faced with this conflicted creature, you understand why Lina (Sondra Radvanovsky) has sought sexual happiness elsewhere yet remains emotionally attached. Occasionally, he phrases clumsily, but there are also moments of hushed introversion.”  Guardian, April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “José Cura [is] a tower of strength as the preacher Stiffelio.”  The Stage, 23 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “For its revival of Verdi’s ‘lost’ masterpiece, the Royal Opera fields what must be three of the most turbo-charged voices on the planet.  Every note of Verdi’s electrifying vocal writing comes over loud and clear.  José Cura [is] the anguished preacher Stiffelio…”  TimeOnLine, 23 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “Rather more disturbing in the case of Jose Cura in the title role was a complete disregard for Verdian line. For a singer who fancies himself as a composer and conductor, his sense of rhythm is disgracefully wayward. Elder had his work cut out keeping him on track. It isn't Cura's fault that he is infinitely more attractive than his on-stage rival Raffaele (Reinaldo Macias), and those dark, swarthy looks with a voice colour to match will always be seductive to audiences. But he is a poor singer with only vocal brawn and the basics in tenorial histrionics to carry his message to the back of the auditorium. Whatever happened to phrasing, to legato? More and more, too, Cura is developing two voices: it's like he's going from automatic transmission to shift-stick between craggy baritone and dramatic tenor.” Independent, April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “For me it continues to be Verdi’s realisation of the main characters that is the main reason to experience Stiffelio. José Cura previously took the title role at Covent Garden in 1995, but the intervening years have seen his voice change considerably. Arguably he no longer has what many would consider a typical star tenor’s voice, if such a thing exists; for his is now darker in timbre, appreciably more comfortable in the middle and lower ranges, though not without reach to the top when required. Coping with the challenges such change throws up can make an artist out of a musician. His phrasing is still sensitively timed and weighted, and his long experience in the Verdian repertoire pays dividends in that respect too. If early on in the evening an occasional hollowness of tone induced slight doubts as to his vocal form, these were more than offset by the dramatic benefits to be reaped in his later prolonged scenes of doubt, anguish and soul-searching. That his tone could be none other than it was gave credibility to thought, action and plot that could hardly be manufactured. Stiffelio sees the Royal Opera back on peak form.   That this cast and company has a very special relationship with the work cannot be denied.”  Seen and Heard Opera, April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “A decade on, Cura is back in this rather thankless part, flinging his arms around in a display of operatic acting so antique as almost to acknowledge that other tenors have since dimmed his once shining star. His voice is as strident as ever, lacking the expressive subtlety such a role demands…” Observer, 29 April

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “In the title role, José Cura, the Argentinian tenor, is surprisingly convincing. Better known in the roles of handsome seducers himself (he last appeared at Covent Garden as the outlaw Dick Johnson) he here conveys both the gravitas and despair of a pastor whose world is falling apart. Even the way in which he slowly and repeatedly takes his spectacles on and off, shows his pain – they seem heavy as lead. Cura’s immediately recognizable, burnished tenor is made for this role and he shines in it.”  The Baptist Times, 26 April 2007

Stiffelio, London, April 2007:  “Cura cannot match [his predecessor] either in his portrayal of the character or in the grace and elegance of his singing.  When he remembers to sing below forte he is quite agreeable, but his tone is course (to my ears) and often forced.”  Opera, June 2007

José Cura: 'I have always been an artist who was ready to put his head on the block.'

Interview on singing on Stiffelio at the Royal Opera House and his ambition to play Peter Grimes

Musical Criticism

Dominic McHugh

2 April 2007

Almost exactly twelve years ago, a young and largely unknown Argentinean tenor opened the Royal Opera's Verdi Festival playing the title role in Stiffelio, Verdi's long-neglected masterpiece of 1850. But in the interim, José Cura has risen to become one of the most highly-acclaimed and beloved singers of his generation; at Covent Garden, he has performed leading roles in operas such as Samson et Dalila, Il trovatore, Andrea Chénier and most recently La fanciulla del West.

He returns to the House on 20 April to bring a fresh take on Stiffelio, and I caught up with him in the middle of a heavy rehearsal schedule to see what his views on the piece are.

Although it's often been overlooked, Verdi took many risks in making an opera out of Stiffelio, because the story is riddled with controversial topics. A pastor's wife commits adultery; the pastor challenges his wife's lover to a duel; she asks him to hear her confession as a minister; and in the climactic final scene, Stiffelio reads a story from the Bible to publicly forgive her (some of the early productions cut this passage because it was considered a scandalous use of a religious text onstage). I ask Cura whether this kind of daring and danger characterises him as an artist as well. 'Well, it's a different kind of daring!' he laughs. 'After having been happily married for more than twenty-one years, it's not the kind of threat that endangers my life. But yes, daring in the sense that I have always been an artist who was ready to put his head on the block, ready not to be too obvious. For that reason, as you know, I have been praised, and I have been criticised. That's fine. It's a good sign.'

Cura is a very complete musician: he has been a conductor even longer than he's been a singer, he is an intelligent actor, he evidently understands music from the inside as well as the outside. Is that the key to his success as a singer? 'It is an ingredient, yes. But I think the key ingredient is to be daring enough to use all this information. I don't think I'm the first or the last singer to have this kind of complete approach to the business. That's something called professionalism, and we expect more and more people to have it. But what is rare is to use that encyclopaedic information in the complete sense: not merely to know it - because as I've always said, for as much as one person knows about something, there's always somebody else who knows more - but actually to use that background as well. Show it! It's a case of having the courage to go onstage and say 'I have discovered this and this and this and I am bringing it to you' rather than 'I have discovered these things but because I know what I have discovered it is not what you expect me to do, to avoid any danger I will not show it to you'. That has never been my philosophy.'

His debut as Stiffelio at Covent Garden in 1995 evidently holds many memories for him. 'One of the main things that I remember is quite funny, though the meaning is not so funny. At that time, in order to get me to look older they had to colour my hair and my beard white. Now I don't need to because I have enough white of my own! It means I have a completely different approach to life - experience and maturity as a human being, which is perfect for this role.

'This is a completely different take on Stiffelio. Many roles don't need that kind of thing - they need maturity as a musician but they don't change a lot as you mature as a human being. But Stiffelio is one of those roles like Otello, where age and experience of life changes your approach to a part, to the meaning of a word, to the psychology of the character.'

Written in 1850, Stiffelio comes before three operas which are often (though erroneously) considered to belong together as a trio: Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853). Does Cura think it deserves to be elevated to the same sort of 'masterwork' status? 'It depends on your point of view, of course. For me as an interpreter and an artist, yes, I consider it to be a masterpiece. But if to consider an opera a masterpiece you need to have fifteen minutes of recognisable tunes that become hits, then of course it's not that kind of piece. You do not have 'Nessun dorma' or 'Di quella pira' here. In terms of musical style, it is a piece conceived more like Peter Grimes. The music leads the action, one behind the other; apart from a moment in the third act when the baritone has a big aria and stops for a moment for the 'picture' and then goes on, it's music that drives on from beginning to end. It's like an Ibsen play. It's a raw drama.'

What does he make of the character of Stiffelio? 'The character is so complex and so psychologically linked to every other character on stage (unlike Calaf in Turandot, for example, who is the same all the way through) that I'd rather say what we are making of the character. What we are doing with him is the result of reading what my colleagues are making of their own roles, and to that extent I think what we're creating is very strong. Today we spent six hours working on the tougher spiritual moments of the opera and we've discovered each other crying more than once. So we're going very deep with this. Everybody in the cast is inhabiting his or her role, not just singing the notes. I think it's going to be a surprise because what's going on now is very essential, in the pure sense of the word. We're doing very little on stage, moving only when absolutely necessary. Everything is passing through the text into our internal feelings and emotions. That's a big risk on one level because the theatre is big and it could easily be lost. But I think it's a good way of building up the opera at the moment - probably when we get onstage we'll make it a bit bigger so that it can be understood by everybody at a distance as well.'

Mark Elder is the conductor for the current revival of Stiffelio and Cura explains how they haven't seen each other since he last sang Stiffelio here. 'In 1995 the conductor was Edward Downes. One month after that, I did the original 1857 version of Simon Boccanegra with Mark Elder. But since then, we've never worked together, so it's funny that we should meet up twelve years later to work on the piece that I was singing when I first met him. It's great to finally see him again after we've grown up together in such a parallel way.'

We move on to more general questions, and I ask Cura what music means to him: is it just a career or something more? 'Oh, that's a very Freudian question! We could go on for ages and I'm not sure I want you to know what music means to me! With such a question you can become very kitsch or you can become very philosophical. Or I could be very practical, and say that music is a way of earning my living, which is true - it's a marvelous way of earning my living which I'm very grateful for; I truly and humbly believe I'm gifted for it and am glad I am able to do it.

'But parallel to that, I am like many musicians in being an enormous lover of silence. Most of the music in my life is linked to my professional activities; when I am not doing music as a professional, I am normally in silence. So today I cannot say that music is the essence of my life or that I listen to music from the shower to the bed. Music is a beautiful business and I'm lucky to do something so great, but I really appreciate silence.'

Does he like working at Covent Garden? 'Yes, I wish I worked more here, and I don't say that because I'm an easygoing flatterer! This is probably today the number one house in the world. It's not just a single aspect that's great but all the departments work perfectly together. Of course if you are inside every day you get to know all the tiny problems, but in a house things are never going to be always perfect. It's the result of the whole thing that makes this house very special.

'You have the luxury of not working in a repertory system. That means that each opera is taken one at a time and built. So each time something goes on stage at the Royal Opera House, we know that it's the best we can possibly do at that time. That's a great thing. In a business that's getting more and more superficial and commercial and 'fast', it's wonderful to have three weeks of rehearsals for a revival like this, for example. Personally, I'm not usually fond of doing many rehearsals unless we're doing good work that justifies the time, but I'm having the time of my life in this case. I'm the first one to arrive and the last one to leave! I'm really having a great time.'

He admires the audience here, too, which he feels is very much based in a serious theatrical tradition: 'There's a theatre every 100 yards in London. You can really tell that when you're approaching an opera with dramatic truth, it's being appreciated. In some other places, they expect you to stand around like some singer from the 1950s, so there's a very different characteristic of working here.'

Any plans to return? 'Next year in September we're doing La fanciulla del West again because everyone enjoyed it so much - it's a fabulous piece and a great production. And in December 2008 I'm singing Turandot - my first Calaf in the UK. But beyond that, there are no more projects booked, so I hope that before I leave we can plan something.'

And what lies ahead for the singer, given that he's already sung most of the major roles in the Italian repertoire - anything new? 'That's a good point, because it's very difficult to persuade opera houses to go for new repertoire. Being mainly specialized in dramatic roles, when you have a free period the opera houses want to go for a Samson or an Otello - works that are very difficult to stage because so few people can do them. So it's difficult to say 'I have one month free, can we do Le Cid?'. But one of my dreams is to do Peter Grimes and I would love to do it here. Where better to learn and perform it than here in London? On the other hand, it's a very dangerous thing to do. If you do an English or German opera and you are not English or German and don't get the accent absolutely spot on, you are criticized to death. But if you're English and you sing an Italian opera without a perfect accent, nobody says a thing. I don't know why it works like that. I think that the Italian approach is the most healthy because it's not possible to have a perfect accent in a foreign language, but who cares if I speak English like a Spaniard? The important thing is to have a perfect approach to the characterisation. I think I could do Peter Grimes, but every time I suggest doing it in the UK they say 'yes, but go and do it somewhere else first and then bring it here'. Why?! I want to learn it well from the beginning rather than do it again and have to start from scratch. Hopefully someone will read this and allow me to do it!' He also seems keen on the idea of having an opera written for him: 'That would be great - if you know somebody, just pass on the word!'

While he's in Britain, Cura is busy spending time on helping young singers. On 4 May, he's chairing the panel of judges for Opera Rara's bel canto competition at the Royal Academy of Music, while on 6 and 7 May he is taking part in a masterclass with twelve young singers at New Devon Opera, of which he is Patron. 'For me, this is one of the most important things. It's something I didn't have when I was a kid. It's essential to share with young people all the things you learn as well as hearing from older people all the things they've experienced; it's about growing up together. It can be amazing: you attend a masterclass for two hours and you end up spending ten hours with them and you don't know how it happened! It's great, provided that there's preparation and respect. I always tell them I'm not there to teach them how to sing - I don't have the technical authority to tell someone how to do that. But I want to bring to them some things I know from my own experience.

'Young people like you are everything to the future of opera. I'm only 44, so I'm not the past! But if I'm the future for the next twenty years, you are the future for the next forty years. And the people behind you will be the future for the next sixty years. If there's hope for everything in the world, the hope is in the future, not in the past. Once I read a quote that said, 'Children are the living messages of the future you are not going to see'. That's so absolutely true: it's the future of humanity.'