Samson et Dalila, Bologna, June 2008:  “The merit of the final scene goes to José Cura, who seems reborn and purposefully refining the interpretation of the role that fits him so perfectly. Beside him we must note, as the principal interpreter of the work, the Coro del Comunale, now in the hands of Paolo Vero who has moved to Bologna from Palermo. The rest of the cast was less convincing—Julia Gertseva combined remarkable beauty with the sensuality of a curbstone and Mark Rucker, a mediocre singer despite a significant voice (the Gran Sacerdote). It was business as usual for Mario Luperi as Abimelech. Director Michal Znaniecki did not convince. The costumes by Isabelle Comte were beautiful for Dalila, less beautiful for others, and tedious for the chorus of the Philistines, encumbered by enormous onions on their heads. Even less convincing was the choreography by Aline Nari, especially in the Bacchanal, which featured rapes and physical violence of all kinds, in absolute dissociation with the music.”  La Repubblica, 2 June 2008

Samson et Dalila, Bologna, June 2008:  “Dalila, the beautiful Philistine who betrays Samson for racial hatred and thirst for revenge, truly the dark heroine in the work, is Russian mezzo Julia Gertseva. She is beautiful, with a sumptuous voice, sings well, and is both musical and a musician. However, just as in Bizet’s Carmen heard recently at the Maggio Musicale, and even though this role has less weight (Dalila does not have the complex facets of Carmen) there is that necessary spark of inexpressible femininity that renders an artist an excellent professional that simply fails to materialize. Unlike the performance of José Cura. In the first act, shirt opened across his buff chest, he runs agilely up and down the metallic stairs that divides the two levels of the set designed by Tiziano Santi, with the oppressive Philistines occupying the upper level, the oppressed Jews on the lower one. One suspects the inspiration is more Cecil B. De Mille and his colossal Hollywood [epic] than Saint-Saëns, since the promise of years ago of the heroic voice is lost in the opacity of the timbre that did not ring. But if the instrument may not be what it was, any ungenerous thought is swept away in the second act, that of seduction and betrayal, where the emphasis is more intimate and uncertain to prepare for the arrival of the true emotions that comes in the third act, where shorn, wounded, and suffering, [Cura] shows himself to be a mature and sensitive interpreter, with the true timbre of an artist.”  Il Sole 24 Ore, 5 June 2008

Samson et Dalila, Bologna, June 2008:  “The Bologna season ended with a resounding success for Samson et Dalila, marked by the rhythmic ‘ola’ of the final applause. Principle merit must be attributed to that vocal and interpretive hurricane who answers to the name of José Cura. One of the roles felt most keenly by the Argentinean tenor from Rosario is Samson. You may have seen and heard him in action at the Teatro Regio in Turin when he caused a sensation by appearing in loin-cloth, or at the Liceu in Barcelona when his unexpected performance substituting for José Carreras resulted in him becoming a favorite of that theater. In short, there are few to turn to now for the role:  with the abdication by Domingo, Cura is the only Samson. Beyond the undeniable stage presence, it must be noted in this role [Cura’s] obvious musical engagement in respect to the score and in adherence to the signs of expression, arriving at a display of unthinkable and sweet mezzevoci in the vocal surrender, where the timbre of precious bronzed amber stands out in all it manly beauty. Thus applied we want to see and listen more often but one thing more is also Cura: unpredictable. However, when he is on stage he is the catalyst who demands the attention while the other struggle twice as hard to be noticed.”  L'Opera, August 2008

Samson et Dalila, Bologna, June 2008:  “The predominant tessitura of Samson is congenial to both the beautiful voice of José Cura and his temperament. The broad timbre, encased in burnished velvet, is at its best in the middle tones…in the third act the singer offers the best of himself and the results are excellent, showcasing a man defeated but not tamed, making credible and touching the prolonged moral agony. This Samson, in fact, is not drawn from the religious, maintains at all time a very strong human nature with no hidden ‘divine mission,’ combining fragility and vulnerability to make the events even more tragic.”  Teatro.Org, 6 June 2008

Samson et Dalila, Bologna, June 2008:  “With his natural fighter’s temperament, José Cura mesmerized the audience and it would be difficult nowadays to find a more convincing Samson with the requisite quasi-baritonal qualities.”  Opera Now, September/October 2008

Samson et Dalila, Bologna, June 2008:  ‘With great pleasure we found José Cura in wonderful form, extraordinary in stage craft and incisive in accents and phrasing.’  GBOpera Magazine, 11 June 2008

Samson et Dalila, Santander, August 2008:  “Style tenor José Cura undoubtedly has, and his beautiful timbre shone brightly in his debut in the Santander Festival. He has the force and dramatic quality necessary [for this role] and was splendid in the second act aria, ' Mon coeur s'ouvre á ta voix,' sung with Dalila.”  ElDiarioMontanes, 29 August 2008

Samson et Dalila, Liege, September 2009:  “Strictly balanced between the hieratic general and the psychological particular, he directed all the actors except the Argentine tenor José Cura who is allowed free rein and for good reason: the singer knows the role thoroughly, he brings to it his deep, warm timbre (habits, too) and, despite some reservations in style and diction (as his French speaking is perfect), he embodies, by his immense talent, his charisma, and his generosity, the trump card of the production. The Russian mezzo Julia Gertseva (Dalila) has a superb voice but she needs to move out of her reserve, in sexiness and cruelty, to match the fiery temperament of Cura.”  La Libre, 21 September 2009  

Samson et Dalila, Liege, September 2009:  “Julia Gertseva, with a beautiful figure and a large mezzo voice, displayed nothing of the irresistible seducer. And she needed the sensuality to cope with José Cura’s Samson: powerful, carnal, of real presence. If in his first ‘speech’ exhorting the Hebrew to free themselves from their chains the tenor mishandle the accuracy and the line of singing in the second act as a man torn between his God and Dalila he revealed mastery of his broad, solid tonal range, from the low register to the high. Cura unleashed in the third act, painfully, tragically.”  Le Soir, 21 September 2009

The Opera World Rewards Strong Performers

EFE

Santander, Spain - The Argentine tenor José Cura says the world of opera requires "a very strong back" and that only the strongest performers last, a "natural law" that extends to other areas such as sports or politics.

In an interview in the Spanish city of Santander, the singer, composer, conductor and director said that after 20 years on stage he has seen many singers broken, talented or not.  Cura noted that only now can he afford to seek new paths but believes that he still needs to break stereotypes and end, for example, with the idea that an interpreter cannot also be the director of an opera in which he performs.

"A [Robert] Redford or [Robert] De Niro directed and acted, and nothing happens. When you have a good team of assistants and good coordination it can all be done," he said.

Following his debut at the Santander International Festival, the multifaceted musician awaits a new project as Samson and Dalilah in 2010, in which he will sing, direct and design the scenery.

Furthermore, Cura will return to his native Argentina, though it will not permanent, at least for now, because of his children.

"Their lives are here, their friends, their roots. It would be like breaking the family," he explains.

However, if in ten years or so he gets a flattering offer from his country he can live between Spain and Argentina, "where there is not only the Colón but other great theaters.

Cura was trained as a composer and conductor in Argentina but life circumstances led him from a country emerging from dictatorship to a Europe in need of new voices.

"The first five or six years are very hard because they throw everything at you: the media, the public, agents, theaters ... and if your back is not strong, they'll crush you," he explains.

"Those of us who made it through that filter, we live to tell about it and are able to enjoy the maturity of our career," he says.

The Argentine musician argues that the obligation of the interpreter is to analyze the society in which they live and bring that aspect to their characters if you do not want opera to become "a museum piece.” That’s why he has shown another side of Otello since 2001.

Cura has little time for composing but he felt the need to put music to seven sonnets by Neruda, his last work.

And while continuing to record, he understands that the market is in a complete redesign, because if in 1997 the finish line in classical music was to sell 200 thousand copies, today ten thousand ears a gold record. 

For the Argentine tenor new technologies are rewarding to "the career artists in claiming his profession: to communicate directly with the public.

Argentinian tenor José Cura returns to Spain with a new version of Samson and Dalila

EFE

26 August 2008

The popular Argentine tenor Jose Cura returns to step into the shoes of Samson, one of his most acclaimed roles, in a remake of the classic Camille Saint-Saëns opera debuting tomorrow at the International Festival of the Spanish city of Santander ( FIS).

For the artist, the biblical story of Samson and Dalila, one of the great international opera repertory titles, shows that more than three thousand years, "nothing has changed" and that killing in the name of God, "whether Yahweh, Krishna or Allah, is cowardly."

"In my view, it is religion that is, as represented in the current political climate, that you can kill and kill, and as long as it is done in the name of God, tough luck,” he said at the press conference.

José Cura will embody a Samson with a character that has been acclaimed in theaters around the world.  This show from the Teatro Comunale of Bologna was first performed on May 31 in the Italian city and is now presented for the first time in Spain.

The new version of the opera will be directed by Maestro Eliahu Inbal Israel, leading the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, while Poland's Michal Znaniecki will take over the stage direction.

Mezzo-soprano Julia Gertseva in the role of Dalila, and baritone Mark Rucker as the high priest, will share the scene conceived as an abstract space with the Argentine.

Therefore, according to Znaniecki, two different worlds have been created, one filled with color and one in black and white to recreate a biblical conflict, the one between Philistines and Jews who remain in conflict today.

The stage director confessed that José Cura has helped him better understand this opera and made him give up, for example, a classic ballet which is a mainstay of French operas to give it more emotion.

Eliahu Inbal also praised the "great musical personality" of this singer, who joked that in Spain he only sings on the coast: in the Gran Liceu of Barcelona and now in Santander.

"I wonder when I will be invited to a theater a little further inland," added the Argentine singer, who has not returned to the Teatro Real in Madrid in over eight years.

He plans to return to another one of his musical aspects, conductor.

He debuted a decade ago against with the orchestra of the Theater of Bologna, where, as he revealed in Santander, he will return next January to conduct "a full symphonic concert with music of the American continent from North to South, from Barber to Piazzola.”

"Ten years later, I will meet again with the same orchestra, all of us older, more grizzled, but perhaps a little wiser. I think it will be a fun concert," he predicted.

Samsón and Dalila” shows the cowardice to kill in the name of God

Saent Saëns’ opera stars the charismatic Argentine tenor José Cura

 Eldariomontenas

Maxi De La Peña

27 August 2008

 “To kill in the name of god is the way of cowards.” The charismatic Argentine tenor José Cura, the male lead in the opera ‘Samson et Dalila’ by Camille Saint-Saëns, wants to accent the ‘sad’ force of the argument found in this work inspired by the Book of Judges from the Old Testament.  The Argentine singer and conductor attended an introduction yesterday of the opera being presented during this year’s International Festival of Santander, a production made possible by the joint efforts of four European theaters: Comunale de Bolonia, the Ópera Real de Wallonie, the Ópera de Wroclaw and the Giusseppe Verdi de Trieste.

[…]

For [conductor Eliahu] Inbal, it is a question of the opera being of the ‘highest quality’ and of emphasizing something that is centered on the charismatic figure of José Cura “that supports the musical tension.”  He thanks the director, Michal Znaniecki from Poland, for his great contribution since “he has found the visceral sense of the opera.”

José Cura, who along with many others planned to stroll Santander next to his wife and son and to visit Santalilana del Mar, mused aloud about the reasons “operas are so often presented in the least attractive cities.  Here, two things are joined.  If things go well, I hope to return.”

On a professional level, he explained that there are many ties that bind him the Bologna theater. “The reunion with Michal Znaniecki, who has for the last three or four years been the artistic director of Opera Warsaw and with whom I worked in the Comunale, has been special.  These are the returns of classical music.”  The tenor jokingly complained about singing in the coastal cities of the Iberian Peninsula (Barcelona, Valencia, Lisbon, and now Santander), to which he added:  “I hope they invite me to sing more often on the inside.”

The Argentine opera star didn’t waste [the opportunity] presented by this new adaptation of the Camille Saint-Saëns to analyze the plot background.  The action is developed in Israel, during the occupation of the Philistines, in the time of the Judges.  “In my opinion, when it is by religion, as represented in the current political climate, that one commits suicide, when one kills himself in the name of God it is much worse.  It has been 3,500 years since the war between the Philistines and the Jews and nothing has changed in the world.  As human beings we are responsible for our actions and should not seek out excuses from a superior being.”

On the hypothetical question about his future retirement, Cura threw up his hands with both a sense of humor and of reality:  he majority of opera singers are not millionaires, except those who belong to the ‘star system.’ “My wife,” he added, “tells me I can retire when I have paid off the mortgage.”