José Cura: Classical music is elite art, not fast food
Mojakultura
Zuzana Vachová
5 August 2022
“Without art, as well as without many other human achievements —too
long and complex subject to sort out in two lines, the human species
would be reduced just to its negative side,”
says the world-famous tenor, who will perform at the Symphony of Arts
festival in Bratislava, in an interview for our website.
During your career you have been performing in a lot of places. Theatres
that have intimate, almost family atmosphere (the audience size is about
800 – 900) or Metropolitan opera in New York with audience size of around
3 thousand. Which is closer to your personality? Where you as an artist
feel better?
Definitively I feel better in the “short distances” because these allow
a close interaction with the public. But then you have those incredible
events in which 10.000 souls sing a song together, and that’s also an
amazingly “close interaction”. So, is there a proper answer for your
question?
In September you are going to come to Bratislava again, this time for
the Symphony of Arts festival. Your concert will be open air. How about
you and open-air festivals? Do you enjoy them? Especially after covid
period…
I have just inaugurated a new festival, the Pelješac Festival Orebić
—of which I am the General and Artistic Director—, and which main stages
will be open air. Open air concerts are a different kind of enjoyment,
more connected to entertaining people with good music, rather than pretending
to be philological. I mean, we cannot expect that a score that has been
“designed” by its composer considering a certain “space”, can be faithfully
reproduced in an “ambiance” that’s so far from the one for which the
piece was conceived, even performing many times under taxing conditions
like humidity, wind, or mosquitoes!… There are a lot of factors to be
considered too, on top of the technical ones, to begin with an old dilemma:
if we only perform in small halls —some of them acoustic jewels—, the
number of people we can reach is insignificant compared to the number
people that wants to enjoy this “summits” of the human genius. Hence,
the consequence is the common cliché that says “classic music is for
an elite”… A cliché that is wrongly adjudicated to an economical factor,
when the truth is that a ticket for some of the most exclusive performances
(Scala or Met inauguration, for example), is infinitely less expensive
than a sit in a stadium to enjoy a top football match!
Mr. Cura, maybe this question is going to be a personal, but I will
never forget, how you started to conduct the orchestra during the rehearsal
for the show (and there was another conductor, indeed). And yes, it
was necessary for the right interpretation, better tempo and expression
of that aria (let us not name the conductor and the orchestra – Slovakia
is too small country). Of course, you are an opera singer, director,
music composer, musician, set designer and conductor, so you have your
imagination how it should sound, right? Are you usually consulting this
way the interpretation?
I have a saying: if we are dancing partners and you guide, I let myself
go because it frees me up from the responsibility of leading, allowing
me to concentrate in just dancing as best as I can. But, if you step
on my toes, I have to take the lead to protect my poor feet…
The audience still remembers how you threw away your bow tie during
the concert. So, it is not the dress code that’s important for opera
arias, but emotions? At least for the spirited artists coming from Argentina,
right? Or maybe you could show us better expressions and feel yourself
free?
I really don’t remember the episode you quote —more than 30 years of
international career for almost 3000 performances makes it hard to recall
every detail—, so I would rather answer your question about me “wanting
to show better ways of expressing”: A true artist, a “sincere” artist,
produces his art the way he believes he has to, regardless of what others
think. One of my best critics —even if it was intended to be a negative
one—, was after my Otello at the Met: “This damn habit Cura has of always
doing what he wants instead of what we expect from him”… Amazing definition
of what a true artist is, implied in a supposed to be bad review.
Now, I’m going to be serious, I promise. In Bratislava during festival,
you are going to perform opera repertoire – famous arias, duets, but
as well operettas and songs from musicals. Let’s start with opera. Did
you choose for the audience something special? What opera repertoire
will you focus on?
I didn’t choose the program. We discussed it with my singer partners
and maestro Raiskin in order to come to a list that would suit us all,
allowing also some interaction in way of duets, for example. The program
will be a number of very well-known pieces of great music.
You will also have two ladies on stage – soprano Eva Hornyáková and
mezzo-soprano Polina Shamaeva. Can you tell us what repertoire will
you sing with these opera singers?
With Polina I will sing the last duet of Carmen and a
fragment of Samson et Dalila, and with Eva I will sing
Otello’s love duet, a remembrance of our shared Otello performances
in Prague many years ago.
Opera is considered an elite art in the world. I mean, not from the
economic point of view, but from all the genres opera is shining the
most. Why do you think it is during centuries always like that?
Classic art, in the sense we use the word “classic” today, is an amazing
human achievement for everyone to enjoy, regardless of the economical
solvency. There are tons of ways to reach classic art —not just music,
but also ballet, sculpture, painting, literature, etc.— for little money
or even for free. Nowadays more than ever. But classic art has a “sweet
trap” embedded in its nature: it is not “fast food”. And here is where
the “elite” confusion we mentioned above steps in: The enjoyment in
classic art is in direct proportion with the time and effort invested
in preparing yourself to “dive” into it. The better scuba you are, the
more you will relish the magic of a great reef. But how many humans
you know are willing to go through the demanding —before being rewarding—,
process of learning how to dive? Just a few. Just an “elite”…
And then we have operetta – you will also perform some songs by Franz
Lehár and his famous piece The Merry Widow. The genre of operetta
is nowadays popular again and some people think of it, that is “light”
and easy, but it is composed sophistically. Lehár was a very good composer.
What is the main difference in singing of the operetta and opera? Because
I noticed some singers sing operetta like opera arias, but I don’t really
think it is correct…
Operetta as well as Zarzuela, are not minor genders. They are totally
different styles to opera, and their challenge relies mostly in the
performer’s capacity of mastering several different performance technics.
Things that in opera performers are rare (even if they shouldn’t be)
in an operetta performer are a must: dancing, acting, good diction,
etc. The common confusion with “operetta” is born in the word itself
that means “small opera”. But this semantic quid-pro-quo has nothing
to do with the demanding skills necessary to properly stage an operetta.
About the way of singing operetta you mention, we have to be careful:
if we are singing without microphones, then the operatic way of projecting
is a must otherwise the voice will never arrive to the audience. But
there are not “dogmas” in this. If you perform an operetta of a lighter
orchestration —some of the Johan Strauss’ pieces—, you can negotiate
many things in terms of sound projection, but if you are performing
Lehar’s works —for example “Giuditta”—, you have to put more “meet on
the grill” since good old Franz loved larger orchestral palettes. Good
professionals know this. Theoretical points of view are very welcome,
but non very effective when it comes to the real thing that is to be
on stage.
Why do you think operetta is nowadays popular again?
This question will be more of a personal guess than a verified opinion:
Could it be that operetta, in its (generally) lighthearted approach
to subjects that are less truculent than the operatic ones, finds a
fresh new place in a World that is enough contorted already to enjoy
going to the theater to witness yet more drama? I mean, even if I am
considered one of the leading Otello of my generation, and the role
has more than obviously helped me paying my bills for decades, I cannot
deny that the devastating implications of a true-to-the-text approach
to the Moor’s drama are everything but funny… Tosca, Pagliacci, Grimes,
Traviata, Boheme, Butterfly, the list is long, are no precisely “a walk
in the park” if you go to the theater just for the entertainment. Of
course, there is the music factor that mainly prevails, and here is
one of those points in which opera encounters paradox: some of the most
disgusting human behaviors, shielded by the beauty of music, seem to
be no so bad… Sorry, I let myself go.
You will also perform the song Como yo te amé. Do you realize
all the women will fall in love with you and all the men will be jealous?
Just a beautiful song is not enough to seduce anybody. But if this beautiful
piece by Armando Manzanero can ignite people’s romantic dreams, not
towards myself but toward each other, then it would be “mission accomplished”…
We need that today more than ever.
This is a really very special song about love; it has a special sentiment,
because it is about unhappy love. When you perform this song, do you
think about it how are you going to perform each word, phrase or it
just an emotional process?
It is a beautiful text, dressed by a very sweet but intense melody.
I just enjoy the hell out of it by singing without any background thoughts.
In other words, I let Manzanero do the job for me!
Is it difficult for an opera singer to perform such a song – to find
a compromise between an opera singing using your technique (for example
in beautiful high notes) and “relaxed” singing?
If you master your voice, you can alternate between styles without problems.
One dimensional technique is not a bad thing in itself if you stick
to a single music gender, but if you alternate styles, either you adjust
your performing or you will sound suspicious, to say the least. On the
other hand, one doesn’t have to be so drastic. Of course it is better
to do things as they should be, but here is where we step into the “slippery
territory” of individual taste versus what it is “supposed to be correct”,
a controversial still fascinating subject of discussion. In conclusion,
that you sing a bolero like an opera aria or an opera aria by crooning,
is not a great deal of a problem if you do it for fun in a concert,
as far as you keep in mind that the real thing is a whole other story.
The Slovak Philharmonic will play under the baton of Maestro Daniel
Raiskin. What is important for you according to the sound and the work
of the conductor? The chemistry between the musicians and the maestro?
In such a short professional interaction —one day of rehearsal, performance
and goodbye—, there is no time to create a deep human connection. But
if the spontaneous chemistry is good and the “partner leading” factor
explained above, works, the result is guaranteed. The public feels all
is good on stage, relaxes and enjoys.
Let’s talk a bit about nowadays opera production. You are also an opera
director, very good actor, set designer. You must notice that today
there are many experiments in the world of opera. Lot of productions
of operas are modern, minimalistic, often not following libretto. Do
you think it is correct when Rusalka is dressed in latex costume and
ends on the garbage dump? When there is just one table on the stage
(does not really help the singers, right?) and singers are dressed like
people from 23rd century? Should opera from 19th century look modern
or historical?
Without experimenting, human kind would still be in the stone age. But
one thing is to experiment in search of new paths and a totally different
one is to “pretend” you are experimenting when the truth is you have
no idea of what you are doing. The line is thin. However, performing
again and again a classic piece wouldn’t be justified if not by the
existence of different approaches, provided you don’t forget that “different”
and “silly” are not synonyms.
Another thing is – big volume voices. Where did we lose the voice like
you have? Like Peter Dvorský? Did you notice nowadays the opera houses
prefer the new young generation with the “smaller” voices for the chamber,
minimalistic, modern opera production? Do you think Verdi, Puccini and
other composers would have accepted it?
You touch here a very complex subject of “plutarchian” connotations:
What comes first, the egg or the chicken? Is the fashion of small voices
an imposed phenomena, or is it an outcome of nowadays conformism, which
is also the consequence of living in an era in which the need of quick
results prevents the blossoming of maturity? Neither Peter, nor me or
other singers of our kind were born with the voices we became known
for. On the contrary, we are the result of years of hard work…
And the last question: why do we need art? And especially today?
Art is the living proof that humans have the potential to reach the
sublime. Without art, as well as without many other human achievements
—too long and complex subject to sort out in two lines—, the human species
would be reduced just to its negative side, a side that we have to accept
as part of us in order to be able to fight it back. An existential dilemmas
since the night of times. My favorite way of illustrating this is imagining
a flower shop, full of flower perfume, in which you hide a little piece
of dog shit somewhere. The first thing the next customer will say upon
walking in the shop is “smells like poop”, regardless the many flowers
around. So let’s end with a positive quote: As long as there are more
flowers than caca in the World, there is still hope. Art is one of those
flowers.
José Cura Madrid, August 2, 2022
Questions: Zuzana Vachová
Photos: Zoe Cura
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