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 artist - 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 relationship 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 aging, 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 Yekaterinburg, 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 drunk 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 mowed 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...