The Argentine Tenor in Performance at Teatro Ghione in the Italian Capital

 Clarins, 1998

Rome Applauds José Cura

With warm applause and unanimous murmurs of approval from the large audience, the Argentine tenor José Cura, one of the most notable young figures in the current opera field, appeared Sunday evening in the Theatre Ghione in Rome.  Rising in the international sky after the success of his victory in the contest organized by the famous Hispanic tenor Plácido Domingo in Mexico City, José Cura has appeared since then in recitals and in venues of the first order with a repertoire that includes, among other big roles, Otello by Giuseppe Verdi and most of Giacomo Puccini’s works.

The CD that Cura recently recorded [of arias] from the same author of Tosca and La Bohéme has received the most laudatory comments from the international record critics, most notably for the expressive strength he brings to the main Puccini heroes, from Rodolfo and Cavaradossi through Pinkerton and Calaf. The album was directed, from the podium, by Plácido Domingo who in recent years has spent more time conducting, a profession he plans to devote himself to once he has stopped singing.

José Cura approached his successful Roman performance with a diverse program, with works of Argentine composers like Carlos Guastavino, Carlos Lopez Buchardo and songs of Maria Elena Walsh, Neapolitan songs by Paolo Tosti and lyrical pieces by Ottorino Respighi and Gabriel Fauré. In the second half of the concert, the part that, according to the Italian critics and reports from the main agencies, created delirium among the audience for a good part of the presentation, was dedicated to opera arias, listed in the paper, ‘Un dí all azzurro spazio,’ from the first act of the opera Andrea Chénier, by Umberto Giordano, ‘Donna non vidi mai,’ from Manon Lescaut by Puccini, and especially ‘Vesti la giubba,’ from Pagliacci, by Ruggiero Leoncavallo.

The articles reported that Cura communicated with the enthusiastic audience in the Italian capital up to the point of translating into Italian the texts of several songs, especially those of Argentine origin, and also in his interpretation of ‘Somewhere,’ from West Side Story from Leonard Bernstein, with which he had the audience eating out of his hand, in the graphical expression of one article as filled with enthusiasm as a good part of the fans.  

The triumphant performance of José Cura culminated in an endless ovation.