Customer Reviews

Verdi Arias

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was favorably impressed with Cura's debut recital of Puccini arias (recorded June 1997), and on the strength of that favorable impression I bought his Verismo arias CD (recorded July 1999) and his Verdi arias CD (recorded Feb. 2000). I found both disappointing; neither is up to the standard of the Puccini disc. What is alarming is that I believe there has been audible deterioration in his voice in the short period of only two and three years between recording the Puccini disc and recording the next two. He is singing heavy roles usually, and advisedly, taken on by tenors later in their careers (e.g., Samson, Otello), and I hope this promising tenor won't sing himself out prematurely.

In addition, the Verdi arias CD gives poor measure for a full-priced disc, only 11 arias at 54 minutes timing (both the Puccini and Verismo CD's are over 70 minutes).

Above all Jose Cura's singing is fantastic!!! He sounded much much better than he did on his Verismo disc. Jose Cura IS the best dramatic tenor in the business (this includes Ben Heppner, but only because Heppner has stayed away from Italian roles). Cura's sense of Verdi shines through in a brash way. He even includes arias from Simon Boccanegra (that can only be matched by Jose Carreras' version recorded in the late '70's with DG) and I Due Foscari. However, the total running time on the disc is a little over 54 minutes. A very short disc if you ask me. It would have been interesting to hear Jose's Duke from Rigoletto. I know this role is more suited for a smaller lyric voice but it still would have been a treat to hear Jose sing La donna e mobile and Parmi verder le lagrime. To me this is a major disappointment. He also left off Quando le sera al placido from Luisa Miller; another disappointment. But the singing!! He didn't warble and wobble in his top like he did on the Verismo cd (listen to I'mprovviso and you'll know what I mean). He is strong and stable and sings with conviction that, in my opinion, he has lacked since his Puccini disc with Domingo at the helm. I have critized the fact that Cura has directed as well as singing on his last 2 solo discs. However on this recording I found no evidence that Cura can't handle the duo role. Jose's Ah! si ben mio is fantastic but when he goes into Di quella pira it is evident that it is transposed down a hair and it is also slighlty butchered. Overall this is a disc Cura fans must have as well as opera fans of all kind. 4 stars because of the short running time and for the omition of the Rigoletto arias.

Simply put, Cura does not use his powerful voice to great effect. I've listened to his collection of Puccini arias where his strength finds better application. I even liked him in the TV production of La Boehme. But sadly, there appears to be no real interpretation in this recording, just sound. It's like listening to a horn player who can create a great sound from the instrument, but can't make music.

Bravo sr Cura! I have to confess that after conductional faults on Verismo CD (especially in Pagliacci, or O, Lola!) I was not sure to buy this disk or not. My head was saying "Don't do it, it will surely be dissapointing" while my heard was weeping "Buy it, I'm sure it's good" and it appeared to be very good! I was really amazed. I suppose sr. Cura is one of the rare singers who are acting only with their voice, for while listening to the music I imagined what could happend to the character (to my shame I haven't seen all of the operas represented on the disk) and then I read the comment and realized that my guesses were very close to reality! Above all I enjoyed two arias from Otello - they are just wonderful and no more comments!

I'm very satisfied with this CD it shows great improvement...but he has a long way to go....I can see Cura being one of the best tenors of our time.....but he need serious work...first i think he should either choose.....conducting or singing....both is not a good combination at least for now....we can see this from the last CD...and not as much on this one...but still...his timber is great...with a booming quality...his passion for music seeps into his singing!! his alfredo is great!

I've admired Cura's charisma and musicality since he first appeared on the scene, but he's only 47, and I haven't heard from him in a while. The voice is baritonal in coloring, which can make it a bit dull in some registers, but there's plenty of metal on top. cura controls his voice without wobble, and the tone is individual form top to bottom. (The disparaging remarks posted here mostly seem silly to me.) He's also quite ambitious, as witness the feat -- or is it a gimmick? -- of taking over the conductor's duties on this Verdi recital. To be fair, Cura trained as a conductor first and came to singing later.

Sadly, he doesn't seem to be in vest voice here. He's rahter thoaty and always aggressive in his attack. Roberto Alagna has the same fault to a much greater degree but continues to get good reviews (when he's not being booed at La Scala), and frankly, I'd rather hear Cura's honest heroic tenor than the puffed up efforts of Ramon Vargas and Marcelo Alvarez, both fine lyric singers but two sizes too small vocally on their respective Verdi recitals.

In any case, Cura conducts respectably and his singing was enjoyable, even if his real metier is verismo from Cav and Pag through Puccini.

Jose Cura's performance of several Verdi arias is intensely pleasing to the ear and soul. In particular, when Cura flawlessly delivers the psychological drama we associate with the character Manrico.

Cura is accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra and the experience could only be improved by hearing and watching Cura live on stage.

Folks, this is not a conventionally beautiful,boring tenor voice. If you are looking for thrills,excitement,drama and passion, look no further. Jose puts his entire self into his singing and conducting and sings his heart and soul out. This is, I repeat, not pretty,bland background music.

Highly recommended to those that prefer a darker/baritonal dramatic tenor, with the emphasis on drama.

I am still waiting for a DVD opera starring Jose to experience his excellent acting skills.

Mr. Cura's comment on the back cover of the CD booklet is "The Verdi Centenary - My Tribute". I think of Verdi as a man of the theatre, always interested to serve the characters, so this is a terrific match of artist to material. José Cura's approach is to find the characters through the music. He does this on stage and you can experience his ideas for these characters on this CD.

"Celeste Aida" alone offers the aspects of a character that is both a soldier and a man with a romantic ideal in a woman. Manrico sounds like the qypsy-raised mystery man of the plot. There are lesser known arias here, too, to give a listener the chance to hear a character they are not already over-familiar with from numerous other listenings. Mr. Cura onstage is an amazing evening of drama, always the story of different people. This CD offers a visit to his characters. And a chance to hear actual diction on the final notes of "Di quella pira".

Per the review from Mr. Gonzales, it is difficult to judge from listening to a recording that Cura is not a tenor, I believe he definitely is. He does not have the big bottom that a baritone should have. However there definitely are problems with his top. Cura suffers from an aversion to darkening his tone. He makes himself sound quite hooty sometimes. If he would just sing with correct italianate vowels he would'nt have such trouble with his high notes. I believe its that simple. He darkens his vowels, thus pulling down the lift he should have on his soft pallet. Its a beatiful voice in there, he just never received enough training. And I would venture to say that he is not continuing with his training (as the smartest opera singers do). But hey while his voice holds up under his bad technique hes pulling in the bucks. It would be nice if he would take sometime to repair his voice, I believe he would last much longer, and sound much much better. As mentioned previously this disk does demonstrate some vocal damage, it was inevitable with his over darkened tone.