Zsuzsanna's Report from Rijeka

 

A delightful, excellent concert from José Cura in Rijeka

(Trsat, 17th July)

Our plan to see the only outdoor concert of José Cura in 2006, in the frame of Rijeka Summer Nights program series in the beautiful spot (Trsat, Rijeka) of the blue Adriatic coast, Croatia, looked very promising. This became more valuable when it turned out that beside the Canio/Pagliaccio role, José Cura bravely stepped into the production of Cavalleria Rusticana (as Turiddu) at the last moment to save the opening night of the Verona Festival. He was also going to undertake both the two roles of Cav/Pag in Verona for all the performances in July. This meant that he had to face the danger and hard pressure of taking three demanding roles within one week period while doing a concert in Rijeka (17 July) between two Arena’s performances (14^th and 19^th July). Trusting in good luck and José’s strength we happily arranged a combined trip to enjoy both the concert (17 July) and opera night (19 July) in these nice locations. We also had the pleasure and chance to meet with other JCx members in both places.

José Cura did a wonderful job in Rijeka, he gave us one of the most passionate and bravura performance of his concerts we’ve seen so far in the Garden of the beautiful Franciscan Cloister of Trsat. About one thousand people gathered on this peaceful place, on the top of Trsat’s hill. The ambitious, well constructed concert (including arias, duets and orchestral pieces) represented a wish-list, a kind of request programme of José’s dramatic repertoire ranging from Cavalleria Rusticana to Carmen. The chilly evening wind of the sea which frightened and froze us during the main rehearsal on the previous night, now appeared gently and successfully calmed down the air of the hot day. The HNK opera orchestra of Rijeka (conducted nicely by Nada Matosevic) surprised us with enthusiastic and noticeable performance during the concert.

 Although there was no room for the singers to move on the stage, José Cura threw himself into the concert with enormous and endless energy and passion. He constantly came round the stage and the musicians when entered to or left the podium from the front while running in and out untiringly and entertaining us with his kind, joking words in Italian. This helped us to be prepared for the next intense emotions as he varied and shaped the different characters with his unique vocal strength, acting ability and power. His warm, beautifully dark voice and natural singing style, fiery temperament and moving empathy together with his elegant and impressive conducting work caught up the whole audience and the musicians from one piece to the other. He also had a good, dramatic partner, the Croatian mezzo-soprano Dubravka Separovic Musovic. Her powerful and dramatic singing also served as a main force for the concert especially in the first part (Santuzza). The audience richly acknowledged the beauty and deep impact of the performances and rewarded José with unquestionably spontaneous and uniform standing ovation for his virtuous work at the end of his last, brilliant encore (Nessun dorma). More TV cameras worked during the well organized evening diligently, so we hope that the result can be enjoyed for a wider audience later.

After the nice introductory music of the orchestra (Prelude of Cavalleria Rusticana), we heard José’s bright, freely soaring voice singing Siciliana from behind the stage. This indicated clearly that he was in good spirits and absolute top form. In Dubravka Separovic Musovic’s solo (“Voi lo sapete, o mamma”) we were witness to a perfect metamorphosis of the Croatian mezzo-soprano. Her slim, broken, but proud Santuzza and dark, delicate voice revived on the stage with amazing dramatic charge and received the first, intense celebration of the audience. His partner’s dramatic power was a further engine for José Cura to guide their next unforgettable quarrel (Santuzza-Turiddu duet) which represented one of the best and most powerful operatic moments of the evening. Santuzza’s words and entreaty became really a matter of life or death for her, but José’s Turiddu remained merciless and behaved with angry and roughness. When Santuzza’s final threat arrived, his Turiddu reacted with such an unbelievable cheeky and sarcastic smile, that he should have deserved a big slap in the face. Great applause granted them. The orchestra did his best in the next nice Intermezzo sinfonico and closed this section effectively.

 José Cura ran to the stage again as Andrea Chénier to sing “Improvviso”, the big and dynamic tenor solo of Giordano’s great opera. I think that his magnificent aria was the real high point of the concert, at least in the first part. He totally attracted our attention when entered into the role with such an intense acting energy and virile voice as if we were in the opera theatre surrounding by the real set. He masterly varied Chénier’s caressing, lyric lines, ardent outbursts and reproachful words during the whole length of the aria. Finally, his passionate voice happily burst with health, freedom and love at the top (ÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁmor). It was an outstanding performance. Lots of bravo cheered him from the many sides of the garden! The Pagliacci block came next before the intermission. We were grateful to the orchestra for taking a rest during the moving Intermezzo. Then José needed only two minutes to boil up the atmosphere again with Canio’s dramatic solo (“Recitar ….Vesti la giubba”). He brought a heavy chair to the stage and immediately sank into the most sorrowful mood and darkest voice you could imagine. He again pulled huge energy on the stage and crowned all the phases of Canio’s agony with his thrilling, brilliant top notes and real tears.

 

 

 

The second part of the concert started with two lovely Cavaradossi solos (Recondite armonia, and E lucevan le stelle) representing José’s fluent, lyrical as well as heartrending singing style. The latter was touching indeed as the preceding, soft cello solo joined to the clarinet and then to the tenor’s tender voice. But José entertained us too when he joked and searched for the prolonged high notes (Toscaaaaaaaa) in the air before dropping the last phrase of his love aria.

We were really fortunate to enjoy Saint-Saëns’s music from Samson at Dalila which usually is performed only rarely in an opera concert. José came to the podium and apologised to Padre Serafino (his host) for playing such a piece at the walls of the cloister first, then directed the musicians with his magic baton in the Baccanale. The musicians literally nailed the audience to the stage with their excellent tempo and rhythm and emphasised all the lovely colours and dynamic changes of the exotic music. There were moments when José used only his nod, a wink of the eye or the swinging movements of his body to indicate the conductor’s waves or the sweet, dancing mood of melodies to his musicians and left them play freely. We were infected with the influence of the overjoyed, unstoppable orgy of the music so much that it was compulsory to produce huge ovation for this impressive production. It was natural that the concert followed with Dalila’s seductive aria (“Mon coeur”). To our greatest pleasure José stayed on the conductor’s podium, so we enjoyed another unique performance. The soprano’s warm, cooing words seduced the conductor’s baton immediately. They stood there side by side, facing one another while José conducted the orchestra almost blindly thanks to Dalila’s tempting glances and loving words using only the soft, elegant waves of his hands. There was an admirable, natural harmony between the singers and the musicians. The magic did not break but increased further when Samson’s sweet voice joined to Dalila’s lines gently and they did not save on the necessary body language either. Great success!

The closing session included four pieces from Bizet’s Carmen. Dubravska Separovic Musovic introduced Carmen who wore black clothes and was demoniac and tragic at the same time during her strong solo (Seguidilla). Her voice blended well with Don José’s balmy timbre at the end of the aria that led to the magnificent Flower song, which is a favourite of mine, especially in José Cura’s performance. He shivered with the chilly wind for a moment while Carmen sat down the steps of the podium in front of him. Then we were delighted in José’s beautifully long phrases, gentle vocal which radiated sincerely emotion, grief and pride toward Carmen as his shining high notes flew faraway over Trsat. It was simple wonderful and earned lots of applause. After the short Preludio of the third Act of the opera, the second greatest high point of the evening arrived with the last piece, the Finale, the long duet of Carmen and Don José. José Cura’s brilliant acting/singing resulted in a rarely intense theatrical experience we would not forget for a while. Carmen had to face up to a desperate, almost mad man and bravely resisted his reviving hopes. But José Cura was able to gain the full sympathy of audience so much that I guess, everybody wished another ending of the opera in these moments. Then tremendous, endless applause granted the singers, the orchestra and the whole concert.

After a while, José came to the stage to stimulate more celebration for the encores. Of course, his words were crowned with success, so he walked back to the harp. We enjoyed a warm, melancholic argentine song (Soneto IV. from his Anhelo album) he sang about the ideal woman only to the harp beautifully. José embraced the young harpist girl for a long time, and then totally conquered us with his second, final encore (“Nessun dorma”). His strong, vigorous voice built up the victorious lines superbly while scored the gorgeous top note with full power and the greatest ease of the voice and almost smiled when held it endlessly long. Then he was eager to indicate the amount of power he lost during this show.

We simple went wild in the next minutes. When an elderly lady stood up in the midst of the frenetic applause to express her admiration for the singer, everybody followed her in a moment producing the most glorious standing ovation you’ve ever seen granting José’s exceptional performance during the concert. He was very happy with the success and nicely passed our cheering toward his partners and the musicians. After this demanding program José Cura still found a little time for us and appeared at backstage to share some words or pose for the photos which became valuable memories of the concert.