Dubai: There are few among us who fully understand classic Spanish, Italian and German lyrics that separately lay the foundations for all of the great bodies of operatic work, musical dramas penned in quills on manuscripts over the past two and half centuries. If the true meaning of those words elude us, the music itself has endured, enabled most of us to at least recognise, if not fully appreciate, its timelessness and beauty.
But put those most popular arias in foreign tongues into the mouth of Jose Carreras, and those lyrics take on a whole range of emotions.
The 69-year-old Catalan tenor is on a world tour to draw the curtain on a remarkable career, one that has spanned more than six decades. On Tuesday night, he performed at Dubai Opera in the first of two shows here. The second is on Saturday night, and there are limited seats still available (www.dubaiopera.com). Do yourself a favour and do everything in your power to snag a ticket. Given the rich silk- and satin-like quality of his performance on Tuesday, the world will be a quieter and quantifiably lessened place without his mahogany-tinged notes and perfect phrasing bringing emotion to those classic Spanish, Italian and German lyrics.
Emotion? Humour — played to a tee and with a glint in his eye. And the joy of love, in hope, love found and shared. And yes, there is the melancholic despair of love lost, delivered in such quality that these new chambers of the Opera will reverb with Carreras’ notes long after he has left.
But if you do manage to snag tickets or are lucky enough to already have obtained them, do yourself a favour and leave your mobile phone switched off. While there is nothing but positives to report on the performances on stage, it is annoying to be seated around gidgets with gadgets who are intent on WhatsApping through a performance that, had then been listening, would undoubtedly enriched their wireless lives. And no, it’s a waste of time trying to Shazam the arias.
Catalan tenor? Yes, more so than Spanish, given that his first name was changed from Josep in formative school years in Barcelona by representatives of the Franco regime opposed to the very notion of Catalan separatism, ideology or culture.
Perhaps those busy on their phones were operatic purists, holding the belief that his work as part of the Three Tenors amounted to a capitalistic capitulation and a belittling of operatic values. Hardly. Given the ease at which Carreras stood gracefully and almost apologetically, never uttering a word between arias, he let his singing speak instead, and began by enthralling the largely full house with Mercadante’s La Cardillo, and Era de Maggio by Costa.
Joined and interspersed with sopranic interludes from Salome Jicia and Nataliya Kovalova, their enigmatic and magical performances were accompanied by a tight and delightful quintet of pianist Lorenzo Bavaj and a petite ensemble of violists Irene Tella, Andrea Castagna, violist Roberto Molinelli and cellist Massimo Magri. Together and in their separate elements, each was a noteworthy component of a classy classical performance.
Never once did Carreras speak to us, instead directing and projecting a resinous richness of works in a night that highlighted Valente, Offenbach, Puccini, Derevitsky, Mascagni, Barbeiri, de Curtis and Cardillo, Greig, Gardel, Toselli, Satie and Leoncavallo. Together, they provided a Catalan tapas blended and perfectly served up, a treat of the highest quality.
Barely six weeks into its tenure, Dubai Opera is setting the bar high. With Carreras again on stage on Saturday, that bar will be easily reached once more. With that stage and others vacated by Carreras in the future, our collective loss is too real.
