Lovely Opera Gala with José Cura
and Ildikó Komlósi
Veszprém Summer Festival, Hungary
30 July 2010
by Zsuzsanna
José Cura was the artist who
accepted the invitation and opened the program of Veszprém Summer
Festival in Hungary with a concert in 2004 when the organizers
launched the first year of the town’s Summer Festival. That time he
sang opera arias in the first part and then he took the conductor’s
baton for Kodály and Rachmaninov
sharing the podium with the great Hungarian
pianist Zoltán Kocsis in the second part. After the success of his
first concert José Cura became Citizen of
Honor of Veszprém. Since then the
prosperity of the Festival is unbroken providing high standard music
in a wide range from pop, jazz to opera. Now, six years later Cura
returned to Veszprém this time with another world famous Hungarian
artist, the mezzo-soprano Ildikó Komlósi. They know each other very
well from the opera stage; one of their legendary performances
included Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in the Metropolitan Opera
last year.
We felt great nostalgia
about our memories travelling to Veszprém for the concert. The
weather was not on our side and the clouds exiled us from the open
air, from the baroque Trinity Square to the Sport Arena, the home of
the famous handball teams of Veszprém. Tickets were sold out two
weeks earlier, but in this case the more spacious Arena could still
ensure extra seats in the last moments for those who did not want to
miss the event. The organizers did a careful and amazing job to
arrange and secure the concert in this backup place well in advance.
So we were well informed about the change which went on very
smoothly and friendly thanks to the kind hospitality of the Arena’s
staff. The entire program promised exciting entertainment and
opportunity to enjoy the unique voice, charisma and musicianship of
José Cura together with Ildikó Komlósi on the stage in her homeland,
here in Hungary. Their well known, old musical partners, the
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra served the music with Mario de
Rose’s enthusiastic leadership. More cameras followed the stage to
produce a film of the concert later as we were informed by the
program leaflet.
Although the acoustic of the
Arena was far away from the ideal one in the case of an opera
concert, the singers and musicians conveyed such a great passion,
energy and beauty that we totally devoted ourselves to the opera
enjoying its musical and theatrical pleasure from the first bit of
sound to the last tune. These two exceptional artists showed us real
star qualities in the dramatic solos and duets and filled the
atmosphere of the demanding evening with playfulness, natural
intelligence, brilliant passion, empathy and virtuous temperament.
They formed and utilized that wonderful and rare chemistry which was
palpable and apparent between them from their first duet in
Cavalleria Rusticana and it reached the peak in their last,
murderous duet in Carmen.
José wore a naturally
designed, white shirt what we already knew from the concert of Cesky
Krumlov, while Ildikó varied her elegant outfits skilfully and
harmonized it to the arias. At the beginning she wore a simply and
sorrowful black dress as Santuzza, then she put on a colourful shirt
as Dalila, and later a big red ribbon was fit on her skirt to
symbolize Carmen’s flirting mood and temperament. All together we
could count at least five different arrangements in her dresses.
Surprisingly José did not talk to the audience during the concert,
though his characteristic body language showed us his great sense of
humour in the right moments due to some amusing situations.
The concert started with the
long Prologue of Leoncavallos’s Pagliacci and a big circle of
light escorted José Cura’s figure in his way through the auditorium
toward the stage. He adapted his warm timbre and tenor voice to the
lower range of this baritone aria and playfully sang and explained
Tonio’s words to the fortunate members of the audience who sat not
far from him. His dynamic, joking mood of performance was hinted by
moving sadness. He crowned the story with a virulent top note and we
were quite frightened by his giant eyes during the twisted, painful
conclusion of the aria. Our applause indicated we were in good hands
for the rest of the evening.
After the sad symphonic
Intermezzo, Cura appeared on the stage again, now as Canio for
the famous aria “Recitar! Vesti la giubba”. Within a moment
he totally transformed himself into the role. His singing was
beautifully composed and focused even he pursued the tempo a bit up
to the climax of the aria demonstrating his touching mood to
heighten the temper and influence of his voice. His shining lines
ended in painful sobbing to the accompaniment of the orchestra. Our
enthusiastic applause was mixed with many shouting of bravo and the
tenor had a look around with a smiling face.
The very attractive Ildikó
Komlósi came to the stage and introduced herself with strong high
notes in the aria of Adriana Lecouvreur (“O vagabonda ..”)
for which she also harvested noisy success. After her solo, the
orchestra and the conductor, Mario de Rose was celebrated for the
airy Intermezzo of Cavalleria Rusticana. Then we were totally
impressed by the exceptional beauty of Santuzza’s song
(„Voi lo sapete o mamma ..”).
You just couldn’t detach yourself from her eyes
first, then from her whole character during the aria. Ildikó Komlósi
formed the vocal lines with plenty of voice, colourful and natural
expressivity and evoked a great empathy and admiration from the
audience. In her solution the development of the aria had a kind of
unsurpassed virtuosity and temperament blossoming right on the top
notes while the entreaty of the girl remained fragile throughout the
act and in the most dramatic moments. We were happy to honour her
for long minutes for this memorable experience
Only the equally unique
dramatic power and emotional intensity of the next Santuzza-Turiddu
duet (“Tu qui, Santuzza ..“) could make us forget about the
previous delight and we immediately immersed ourselves into their
magical aria with renewed energy. We lived and sensed the drama
again at the edges of our seats. The mezzo took the direction over
their quarrel and tried to keep the tenor in captivity using the
power and sensibility of her will and voice. But José Cura’s
strongly built and virile Turiddu did not soften his determination
for a moment during the beautiful fight of the songs and souls.
Their matching with the roles and each other was born and maintained
so naturally that you felt they were one of the best couples of this
opera you’ve heard and seen for a long time on the stage.
For our greatest surprise
Maria Bisso’s net figure and fresh soprano voice joined to them in
her short and flirtatious appearance. Her Lola transformed Turiddu
to another man for some moments. His whole attitude had changed and
he showed us some melting drops of his unfamiliarly gentleman mood
and sense of love. Lola mesmerized him so deeply, that the man
almost left the stage with her. Just imagine the amount of Turiddu’s
fury in his dark, thunderous voice and act when after these
unexpected, magical moments he found himself fighting with Santuzza
again. He had to work hard, since Santuzza hanged onto him
physically and vocally desperately while she was still able to
increase the softness of her entreaty. At the climax of their fight
we had the impression that Turiddu’s soul had been weakened for a
passing moment of deep sympathy for the girl. But then the cruel
movement of his voice and hands noted us that they were separated
forever. The fiery power and beauty of the last phase of their
dramatic duet was accentuated and fuelled by gripping high notes
from both sides. The singers concluded this situation differently
acting with heartrending and cold, refusing temperament. Then huge
veil of our dark silence covered the Hall for a few moments until we
could breathe again and our thunderous applause broke out
unrestrainedly. This was the end of first part of the concert and we
still lived their story during the intermission.
The second part of the
concert also promised rich program for us. José appeared on the
conductor’s podium to launch the Bacchanale of Samson &
Dalila. We loved their music making, the created energy and
turbulent dynamic. Then Ildikó Komlósi performed Dalila’s solo
(“Mon coeur s’ouvre á ta voix”) under José’s baton who also
accompanied her in the tenor’s part very gently and beautifully. Our
conductor followed the mezzo with protecting attention and
tenderness. He adjusted the sound of the orchestra and softness of
his voice to their duet remarkably. Finally our tenor/conductor gave
Dalila an encouraging wink, and then the last high note (“je
t’aime!”) of the aria was sung by Ildikó virtuously! We agreed
with the embraces and warm kisses they shared with each other while
long celebration granted the stage again.
After these hot moments José
Cura came to the stage to perform Rodrigo’s great aria
(„O souverain! O Juge! O Pére!.”)
from Massenet’s Le Cid. Closing his eyes
he folded his arm on his chest and sang the whole aria from his most
inner soul and feelings shaping his sensitive, caressing vocal
lines, gentle phrases and rhythms to the affecting beauty of the
song. His body gently accompanied the bending of the music in the
nicest arches of melody. We produced huge bravos for this brilliant
performance in exchange of some great smiles of the tenor.
The next music block was
dedicated to Bizet’s Carmen starting with Seguidilla of
Ildikó Komlósi performing together with José Cura’s Don José. When
they stood together side by side on the stage, Carmen suddenly
lifted up and flirted with her skirt so impudently and naked, that
the tenor immediately joined her joking mood, recalled his modest
behaviour and covered his eyes with his hands. This
characteristically playful and twofold attitude settled down in the
duet while Komlósi’s every inch of Carmen and her joyful, passionate
game prevailed over Don José. Thus we fully understood and were
entirely thrilled by the heat and gentleness of José’s confession of
love in his proud and beautifully rendered Flowersong. We
could not control ourselves any further; by then you became familiar
with the many inventive forms of our enthusiastic celebration.
Then we were granted with
the grace and imaginative performance of the orchestra in Bizet’s
Carmen Suite No. 1. We cheered the conductor Mario de Rose and the
musicians; they well deserved our almost endless ovation. The
atmosphere of the concert got another extra energy and impulse here
though we were still ahead of the final duet of Carmen and Don José
(„C’est toi? C’est moi!”).
What drama took place again on the stage
and we happily live with and bear the enormous tension of their
lethal duet! José Cura acted and sang with warm tenderness and
utmost sincerity in his soft and tearful entreaty for Carmen’s love.
The beauty and passion of his song all together could not help on
Carmen’s cold and increasingly hardened wish of contempt and
separation. Thus Carmen’s hopeless and cruel voice and attitude
awakened Don José’s awareness and proud jealousy burdened with his
unpredictable dark, burning passion and violence. They could even
surpass our imagination in the peak of their desperate clash of
naked emotions so much, that José’s murderous act and final, gentle
words over Carmen’s dead body acted as a kind of relief for our
souls. It was time to fill the Arena with our characteristically
rhythmical, frenetic applause for long minutes. This meant the
ending of the official program and together with the grateful
applause and curtain calls the protagonists also received nice
presents from the celebrities of the city and organizers.
Of course the singers could
not escape away the encores and there were three of them. The first
one came from Ildikó Komlósi with another hot and generous Carmen
solo (Habanera). Then Ildikó was very happy and visible moved
seeing the plenty of love of the audience as she had to return to
the stage again and again. Then José Cura ran to the podium
pretending some joking coughs and reluctance to begin his usual hit
“Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot. They shortened the
introduction and we were soon in the middle of the melody. The
daring power and warmness of the tenor’s performance enchanted us
again. His long prolonged, freely soaring high notes immediately
provoked our enlarged celebration, so the conclusion of the aria was
turned down by our endless applause and bravo. José smilingly seized
the conductor’s baton from Mario and he waved the last note of the
orchestra himself. After this long run they were still busy to
produce us the final encore, a bright duet from Lehar’s operetta
(Lippen schweigen
- Die lustige Witwe). Ildikó gave José
a surprise when she conjured champagne glasses in the middle of the
duet and the bubbles and melody also made them dance together. After
a series of prolonged celebrations the singers nicely waved us
goodbye, left the stage and the concert ended. After this program an
official reception was still waiting for the protagonists of the
evening.
Enjoying this wonderfully
constructed and performed opera fest, we are looking forward to
welcoming José Cura and Ildikó Komlósi together on the stage in
Hungary again not only in a concert but hopefully in an entire opera
performance.
