Sound files from Cortona Symphonic Concert

Romeo and Juliet (1)

Romeo and Juliet (2)

Encore

 

 

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Cortona!

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Eye-witness Reports

Dear Kira and Deb,

We have just returned from our short trip to Italy.

The concert in Cortona was very good. When we decided to go to Cortona (with combination of two further performaces in Verona), we were looking forward especially for the highlights from Carmen with José and Elina Garanca. Since Carmen 2003/Verona with Marina Domashenko, we consider Don JOSE as another character in which José Cura is second to none!  And because Carmen with him unfortunately has not been recorded yet, we have to catch the chance, if we can!

Unfortunately Elina Garanca (like Anna Netrebko) cancelled her participations in Cortona festival and therefore José had to do a lot in order to save the evening, to offer to the audience promised highlights of Carmen!!!  But with a little bit of help of his friends (artists, who sang with him in Rijeka), HE DID IT!  Thanks to his great efforts, the audience received a very good programme on 16 August, in spite the fact the changes were on a very short notice (we suppose) and he had to find another other mezzo-soprano as a partner for Carmen.

 

 

Festival del Sole - Tuscan Sun Festival CORTONA 16 August 2007

Artists and Programme

José Cura, Tenore

Sonia Peruzzo, Soprano

Daniela Pini, Mezzo-Soprano

Marco Danieli, Bariton

Vasili Petrenko, Conductor

Russian National Orchestra

Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci

Prologue: Si puo? Si puo? (Tonio) Marco Danieli

Intermezzo

Aria Vesti la Giubba (Canio)  José Cura

Mozart - Don Giovanni

Duet La ci darem la mano (Zerlina / Don Giovanni) Sonia Peruzzo / Marco Danieli

Verdi - La Traviata

Arie e Scene E strano! / Sempre libera (Violetta + Alfredo) Sonia Peruzzo / José Cura

Rimsky-Korsakov - Capriccio Espagnol

Puccini - Tosca

Aria E lucevan le stelle (Cavaradossi)

José Cura

Verdi - Don Carlo

Scena e Duet E lui, desso, I Infante (Don Carlo / Rodrigo) José Cura / Marco Danieli

************ Intervallo **********

Bizet - Carmen (highlights)

Prelude (Orchestra)

Atto Uno - Pres de remparts de Séville (Carmen, Don José)

Entr' acte (Orchestra)

Atto Due

Les tringles des sistres tintaient (Carmen) La fleur que tu m'avais jetée (Don José)

Entr' acte (Orchestra)

Atto Tre

Entr' acte (Orchestra)

Atto Quattro

C'est toi? / C'est moi' (Carmen, Don José)

Daniela Pini - Carmen

José Cura - Don José

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Encore- one Argentinean song - José Cura

Finale - Verdi - La Traviatta - Brindisi José Cura (Alfredo), Sonia Peruzzo (Violetta)

+ Daniela Pini, Marco Danieli (as Chorus)

 

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The whole concert started little bit later, because till 20.45 there was a rehearsal.

My husband and I didn't know the location where the concert was given and we planned to have a glass of vine in some restaurant close by, so we came little bit earlier. There was no chance to have a glass of vine, but in spite of the area being closed to the public, we could hear part of the rehearsal and we were lucky enough to hear our favourite (never recorded yet) "Flower song", as well as parts of some other arias.

In the audience was a lot of tourists - families from abroad who came to Tuscany with their big children just to taste vine and learn to cook Italian dishes. They were noisy before the concert started but listened very carefully and offered a lot of bravos to the artists. The ladies - soprano and mezzo - were little bit nervous on the beginning but with a lot of assistance from José they sang their parts very well, trying to act as much as possible. Daniela Pini as Carmen had to look from time to time into the partitura, perhaps because she has not yet Carmen in her repertoire, but she is a young singer with a natural sex-appeal and perhaps we will listen more about her in future...

Of course José was the engine of the evening, he is an outstanding performer, he was in an excellent vocal conditions (all his arias or duets were top class) and he looked quite happy with the response of the audience. We think, few could have imagined how much effort he made to make the evening successful, because of all those changes (in programme, artists, the other conductor - not Karel Mark Chichon). The whole evening José treated all his colleagues as partners, it was clear he consider he evening as a "team work", therefore for "Brindisi" he came with all the singers........

We were also lucky to meet José after the concert but the BS was very short, because his family was there with him and he wanted to be with them at last.

My husband and me would like to say him once more THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS NICE EVENING IN CORTONA and also many thanks for supporting him there - to his wife Silvia and the family!

Greetings (with nice memories in mind)

Hanka and Miro from Prague

 

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Dear Kira

14 August was a very beautiful evening, the Maestro directed Tchaikovsky divinely, with new musical expressions, strong intense! To see José on the platform for me is always a new emotion.  I was happy and touched to be so near the great artist Ernesto Bitetti.

On 16 August something happened that I didn't understand and the Maestro was good enough to organize the concert.  All was right thanks to the Maestro.

The photos are not beautiful but I wanted to send them to you.

Rosanna
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Zsuzsanna's Report

 

Summer Festival with José Cura in Cortona

August  2007

 

 

José Cura’s two concerts in Cortona

 

When the news appeared about José Cura’s two concerts of the 5^th Tuscan Sun Festival, Cortona (14 and 16 August), we knew this would be a great opportunity to unite the discovery of the countryside with nice musical enjoyment in this unique festival location and program.

Both open air concerts had been placed to the hilltop of Cortona, at Piazza della Chiea di Santa Margherita. Although special buses served the audience’s arrival from more parts of Cortona and Camucia, we felt it was compulsory to follow the steep ancient road up to the hill and being heroically prepared for the concerts. There were strict security arrangements that closed the area until the very beginning of the events. Those who arrived a bit earlier could hear the last notes of the rehearsals and enjoy the soft evening breeze and beautiful red sunset over the valley.

On 14^th August we were happy to welcome José Cura on the conductor’s podium in an ambitious and beautifully constructed program. Fortunately the Italian radio (RAI3) broadcasted the concert for a wider audience. Here we had an Argentinean conductor with Russian musicians who played a well selected romantic repertoire from Russian, Spanish and French composers. José successful blended the music with his Latin fire and the deep emotion and elegance of the Russian National Orchestra for a virtuous rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet overture. From the very first bar of the piece, it seemed that the conductor and orchestra knew each other well and were a unified team breathing together and with the music. José Cura was in the centre of the musical waves, his guidance were harmonic and very natural to follow. Their sound was soft and determined at the same time expressing the youth as well the melancholic flavour of the melodies during their masterly choreographed story telling. I’ve never heard this piece and especially the heroic key motive of the strings performed with such a healthy tempo and as unified and recognizable in its entire length as here under his baton. The music captured us with the evoking and whirling emotions. The love motive opened beautifully and they also let us discover the playfulness and dancing attitude of the score until we arrived at the heart-stopping hint of the tragic end. If you want to experience this, José Cura’s next account on Tchaikovsky can be witnessed in Eindhoven, in October.

After this, José’s kind speech (speaking in both Italian and English) introduced his childhood mentor; the word famous artist of his hometown Rosario, the guitarist Ernesto Bitetti. Great applause welcomed them and José did not hide how much he was touched by this opportunity which reunited the two artists and friends, the conductor and guitarist on the stage in a concert they had to wait for 32 years. The perfect choice for this occasion was Rodrigo’s lovely piece, “Concierto de Aranjuez”. Unfortunately an unexpected pain in Bitetti’s arm hampered him playing the entire piece, but we enjoyed a brave 2^nd movement with the big hit and then an Argentinean Milonga song afterward as an encore he played alone with the guitar. We hope there will be more opportunity to enjoy their common musicianship in the future. After the intermission the highlight of the night came with Rachmaninov’s II. Symphony. Although we knew this piece very well in José’s interpretation from the disk, this live performance surprised us again with the freshness and density of the sound and music. José demonstrated again his skill and influence to the orchestra and music. The musicians followed their leader everywhere with great enthusiasm and made the night more triumphal with their perfect and immerse music making in all the four movements. José celebrated the orchestra with another virtuous encore (Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee) while he left the podium and let his people to freely enjoy themselves. Of course, we wanted more and produced great celebration, but there was no other encore in the night.

The second concert on 16^th August contributed with a splendid opera night to the Festival. The rich Spanish and Mexican flavour of the first part of program had changed due to last minute cancellation of two key protagonists (mezzo Elina Garanca and conductor Karel Mark Chichon), while the second part (Carmen highlights) was kept as it was announced in the original program. Four new artists – a young Russian conductor (Vasili Petrenko) and three newly invited singers (Sonja Peruzzo and Marco Danieli from the Rijeka’s Pagliacci team and the mezzo Daniela Pini)  - stepped into the concert to perform with the tenor, José Cura, and the Russian National Orchestra. The redesigning of the first part of the program, the prolonged and hard rehearsal until the very beginning of the concert and the appearance of the new cast indicated that José had a key role and did untiring work to save and arrange the night. The nice program and the artists’ enthusiastic performances ensured our particular entertainment. A musical block of Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci introduced the concert with the vivid Prologue of Marco Danieli. The following beautiful Intermezzo led José Cura’s Pagliaccio to the podium. His heartrending solo (“Recitar! Vesti la giubba”) earned the first bravos from the rows and we knew we were in good hands for the rest of the evening. The next fine duet of Zerlina and Don Giovanni surprised us with Mozart’s music and increased the exciting atmosphere of the concert further. Then another lovely piece, Violetta’s aria and the lover’s duet (“É strano/Sempre libero”) entertained us from Verdi’s La Traviata. Sonia Peruzzo sang it beautifully with great stamina. She also had to bear the amorous glances and timbre of José Cura’s Alfredo who joined to her from behind our back while slowly walking toward the stage. It was time to celebrate our young conductor and the orchestra for a wonderfully painted, colourful Capriccio Espanol of Rimsky-Korsakov. Then José Cura ran to the stage again as Mario Cavaradossi from Puccini’s Tosca. His passionate and very soft farewell “E lucevan le stelle” carried eternal beauty. A fantastic duet from Verdi’s Don Carlo (“E lui, desso, l’infante”) crowned the first part. José Cura and Marco Danieli gave their best here to guide the beautiful music with great dynamic and heat.  Huge applause granted everybody.

The second part represented a wonderful selection of music from Bizet’s Carmen. This became a nice cross-section of the opera including great solos and duets of Carmen and Don José as well as exotic orchestral pieces (overture, three entr’actes) from the four Acts. Daniela Pini’s sonorous, youthful mezzo and flirtatious, wildcat-like performance fitted well to José Cura’s beautiful timbre, handsome and explosive, ardent Don José from their first duet (Seguidilla) through the two great solos (Gypsy song and Flowersong) and last duet (”C’est toi!/C’est moi”). The touching beauty of José’s voice and the way he coloured his confession with burning passion, affection and pride gave an exceptional gift for the audience. Their final, long duet was remarkable as well and made their ensemble more memorable. Carmen’s resistant and cruel behaviour turned José’s heartrending imploring words into wounded, mad aggression and tragedy. Our enthusiastic applause and bravo earned two nice encores. First José Cura granted us with one of his unique, easy flowing Boleros (Manzanero: Esta tarde vi lover), then a cheerful Brindisi reunited the four singers and superb orchestra on the stage. We addressed our intense applause and bravo to all the protagonists, but the concert had to come to an end. We had even more luck to meet José at backstage and returned with great experiences from Italy wishing to visit the plot again in the future.

 

Sound Files:

Tosca

Carmen

Esta Tarde

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More Photos from Zsuzsanna