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Interview
with José Cura: The Artist as a part of society by Daniel
Elder - DerStandard.at - 20 December 2007
A talk with
José Cura about his conducting, burned-out colleagues and
Christmas as folklore.
Standard:
Mr. Cura, you have different approaches to music. You have studied
piano and composition, started conducting at 15 and only much later
began to sing. Is it sometimes difficult to switch between these
approaches?
Cura: I do not think that I should switch, but
that all of these activities interact. It is very interesting that
no one is surprised when an instrumentalist starts to conduct, but
everyone is when a singer begins to do so. Unfortunately, a singer
has for many years been viewed not as a musician but only as someone
is lucky enough to have a voice. Today there are many singers who
are real musicians. And as a result, as a singer you presumably
have different approaches to phrasing and breathing music.
Standard:
Is it for different at the opera or at a Christmas Eve proceedings?
Do you see any difference between art and event?
Cura: We use these traditional concerts especially
to be present in the society. It is one thing to be staying in town
as a guest artist and to appear in the concert hall, another to
feel as if you are slowly beginning to belong to the people of a
country. To participate in a Christmas celebration has to do with
an informal feeling: the artist becomes part of the society and
is not just someone who comes and departs again. This concert shows
this difference. It is beautiful for an artist to identify himself
with many people, not only those who go to the opera, but also those
who switch on the television to hear Christmas carols.
Standard:
Entertainment as an art, not only for the elite?
Cura: When one says this, it means one thinks just
the opposite. Artists are there so that the audience feels good
and happy. That means that we artist must return to our roots and
ask ourselves what it means to be an artists - a person from the
society who is there to maintain the society. If we only look at
it as a business, we lose contact with reality. We must do both:
I must pay my bills, but must also have the good feeling of being
part of a whole, as a doctor, lawyer or journalist, and not just
an isolated individual. All this Bullshit about the élite
is anachronistic. Sorry, but a normal ticket for the Vienna State
Opera is a lot cheaper than a ticket to a football game.
Standard:
A big issue today is the dangers for young singers who sing too
much.
Cura: That was also a danger for me when I started.
In many cases, we lose great talent because they burn-out before
they go far. In this respect, the music business is very brutal.
This is a question of control and it is very difficult because young
people are afraid that the dream may end once they say no. I thought
to myself today: perhaps those who survive are the stronger, better
able to remain on track - a kind of natural selection. But that
is very dangerous and also very sad.
Standard:
What is Christmas to you?
Cura: I come from a Catholic family, and Christmas
is for us an important date. I think today’s celebrations with its
strong symbolism is very important. Individualism is strong today,
and Christmas is a day on which all at the same time are thinking
the same way. We should exploit that and send a message of peace,
love, send a dialogue. That is something we have lost today. We
no longer speak with each other, but rather send SMS. We are not
even talking on the telephone with each other because it means a
direct confrontation. If you send someone to hell, you send an SMS.
At Christmas at least give all at the same time a kiss. If we succeed
in bringing that into everyday life, then this festival means more
than mere folklore. We do not need more folklore.
Interview
with José Cura: 5 Questions to José Cura by P. Rinck
- Forumopera.com - September 2007
You are regularly seen singing certain roles in French (Samson,
Don José); we are awaiting your taking up the role of Rodrigue
(Le Cid) in January 2008. What is your relation with France nowadays?
I have lived in Paris for 5 years... But today, I have no particular
relation with France anymore. No more than with any other country.
I have a closer relation with Spain, the country in which I live;
with Portugal too, because I am the Founder of the Society against
Leukemia and I thus perform another kind of work, extra-musical.
You are
giving master-classes in Nancy during this period. In the past we
have seen stars, a bit ageing, in the role of the teacher...But
a tenor, on the summit of his art, benefits from what when teaching?
It's not me who proposed doing the master-classes. In Argentina,
we say: "you must never give advice if you are not asked for
it". I am here because I was invited. But I came with pleasure
because I have been giving master-classes for four years already
a bit everywhere around the world. I gave some in conservatoires
in Russia, in Moscow, in Lekaterinburg, but also at the Royal Academy
of Music in Indiana and again in Buenos Aires. In particular, I
have just been named as a “visiting professor” by the Royal Academy
of Music; I am the vice-president of the British Youth Opera and
the patron of the Devon Opera. I thus spend a lot of time teaching,
because it is, I believe, the only way to assure that our profession
is passed on. Hence being a compulsory path for "old singers";
but why not do it at my age if am I asked to? Being named Professor
at the renowned Royal Academy of Music, as selective in the choice
of its students and its teachers, doesn't happen either - normally
- before you turn 60! I see in this title an honor and a confirmation.
Which have
been your masters? And what have they taught you?
I am a rebel of classical music. I have thus never followed a particular
master, never had a fixed relation with one and only teacher. I
have always drank directly from the fountain I needed to drink from
in the moment I needed to do so and judging from the amount of authority
I saw in the teacher. That is why, when I am asked for master-classes,
I always insist on working on pieces from my own repertoire. It
is only this way that we can transmit veritable experience, acquired
in a specific domain. Omniscience doesn't exist.
We know
your international success not only as a tenor but also as a conductor.
There is a notable memory of one evening in Hamburg in which you
sang Canio after conducting Cavalleria. Recently, you have been
seen creating entire spectacles like La Commedia è Finita
or directing other shows. By doing this, are you looking for a global,
absolute vision of Opera?
First, a short parenthesis concerning La Commedia è Finita:
there will soon be a non commercial DVD sent to those who are interested,
showing the making-of and the result of a different approach on
an opera. I believe it is also the first time a singer directs him/herself
on stage. That always creates scandals in a lyric environment where
we are still thinking like in the 1950s! But, in films, certain
great actors do direct themselves! This approach will be, for once,
that of someone who knows what he is talking about because he is
used to getting his hands dirty, and not that of someone exterior
who always knows what should be done better than others.
Second, I think it's always a question of personality. I am a very
expansive personality. You can see that! I have trouble staying
in a cage... That said, it is still about doing things right...
But until proven the contrary (opinions are always welcome) I think
I am not doing things that wrong... I am criticized for doing too
much sometimes, but it is the way I like life. I do photography
and other things too. And when I go back home, I mown the lawn before
repainting the door... I accept all the points of view and critics,
but I always say: "Live your life, I live mine". If someone
doesn't like my work, don't come; those who do, come!
Do you have
limits? Are you preparing us some surprises for the years to come,
incursions in other repertoires, in German for example?
Of course, everyone has limits. I can't do everything. But before
saying I can't, I try anyway! I think we live in an era of exacerbated
specialization. When you go to the doctor, you are sent to someone
specialized in the right corner of your left eye! And it's like
that for everything... We should try and retrieve the ethos of the
Renaissance: the human genre progresses through the integration
of disciplines that are diverse and varied. Of what concerns German,
I must say there is one of my limits! I have asked several times
to sing in that language, because of my kind of voice. I have always
said no for now. I am afraid of that language, so distant to my
way of being and of articulating. I am afraid of being ridiculous
while missing a certain word or even a particular accent. The audience,
fortunately but also unfortunately is used to a "Cura style",
to a certain level of interpretation on my behalf, and I don't want
to be under that level! You can't be the best everywhere, but if
one starts to become worst than oneself, it's the beginning of the
end! Hence, I am going to conduct an "experiment": in
2010, I will sing Parsifal in concert, at the Deutsche Oper of Berlin,
but I have asked to have the score in front of me! That will allow
me to see if it's really a limit, or not... After that, we will
talk about it again...
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