Max Emanuel Cencic and his new solo CD
2018. Third day of March.
250 years since the death of Nicola Porpora.
And here it is, finally, this disc, this new solo album «Nicola Porpora. Opera Arias». In its decoration are whimsically interwoven Baroque opulence, the strict restraint of professional approach and a slight tinge of that very madness, on the brink of which is balancing the technique, required for singing Porpora. A palace chair, mounted in the corner of the boxing ring — and the main hero, who had thrown himself in it, with satisfaction and in exhaustion.
FIN.
That’s done.
Six months earlier.
Monologue.
«Today is the last day of my recording of Arias by Nicola Porpora. My heart is heavy and my whole body hurts. I am still day walking with the past dreams which mix the reality now that I slowly come to consciousness. It took me thousands of pages which my dear friend Renzo put together to read in copied originals (of which he transcribed all my choices into modern notation) hours and weeks to learn this music, hours of effort from Georg and the team at Parnassus to forge an organizational basis to record, sign contracts, and go on tour, and 2 sessions of hours long recordings since march this year with 2 sound engineers involved, and a patient orchestra, Armonia Atenea and George as conductor. (Who were ready to swallow any of my moments of emotional explosions in studio;.
It is hard to explain to someone who has never produced a recording how many people are involved in such a process and with how little resources and support you often have to create something people admire, adore or envy and hate.
I read a lot what is going on in the world: politics, society, science. I studied international relations and through my work as artist I happen to bump into one or other important person who appear here and there in the news. So, of course, one becomes more curious about everything. I observe how the world turns. Bitcoins skyrocks into heaven, talent shows catch attention, anything that sparks and is unobtainable has the full stage the awe and at the same time public jealousy.
This deep feeling of envy is a feeling of injustice. And I can completely understand it. Now you will say: come on you are the last person to be envious of something.
Well, here I am, finishing just another Solo CD with Arias by Nicola Porpora.
Porpora… who? Does he sell millions of CDs? Has Billions of clicks on Youtube? Did he win an academy award? Or was made musician of the universe, world of god knows what other stuff? The answer is always no.
And here I am spending 2 years with Porpora awaiting my last day with a horn aria that is so hard, that the horn player was waiting until the last day hoping we would just not record it in the end.
Me and Georg spoke once to a young singer after the show, who was engaged in our agency. And Georg was giving some points of critique to the singer. At some point the singer asked: if you criticize me, why did you take me? Well, my answer was: I took you because you struggle. Real art does not come just by something seemingly effortless. Art is a struggle and life is a struggle and there lies the chance and the beauty of life.
So, when I got up today in the morning and posed myself the same question. Why am I doing this? I am struggling and I have pain and I just don’t feel I want to go on because who will care about that?
But then I remembered my own words.
Because Struggle is an expression of love.
Struggle is what makes us human.
And this is why I do understand the concept of envy today. Because in our world all is portrayed in an effortless manner giving people the impression that you can obtain any dreams and be happy without struggle.
That is wrong. So let’s stop fool ourselves with the blingbling others try to sell and realize once for all. We make choices to live therefore we struggle. And in this struggle lies the beauty of life, humanity and our civilization. Once we stop to struggle, we are condemned to eternal oblivion and darkness.
And this is why I am one of many millions who add their little piece of stone of civilization which makes a difference and still makes our world a place in which we strugglers struggle everyday for the enlightenment of our souls and hearts.
This is why I and all my friends struggle to obtain a CD as it is our expression of love».
Max Emanuel Cencic. «New Solo Album Porpora Arias. Struggle is an expression of love», published on 12th of September, 2017, FB-site official.
And we are again in 2018, the 3rd of March:
Today Nicola Porpora still is one of «forgotten figures» what really borders with a miracle because the general public can`t get tired of discussing in all ways the life of the most famous Porpora`s student, Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, and does not express any interest to that man who «created» this legendary singer. And besides, in addition to Broschi, that man had other famous pupils, and not only singers but also composers, such as Haydn and Hasse. I think that partly it could happen due to the film «Farinelli» (1994) that very soon became the classic and a «common place»; the figure of Porpora in it is almost invisible and where it is present — looks gloomy and sadistic.
Porpora was known in his time as the singing teacher and as composer; in those days all composers who were famous in one way or another, were writing operas. This genre dominated and the voice, the human voice, was not only the subject of worship but also the subject of very intent and thoughtful studying. Voice was like a Moloch, greedy to sacrifices, and the singers-castrati of the Baroque epoch donating for this idol their own flesh and blood had brought the art of singing up to unimaginable heights that has not obeyed after them almost to no one.
Teaching methods of Nicola Porpora were marked by inexorability, rigidity, even cruelty but at the same time were permeated with such asceticism and selfless devotion which at all times were inherent to ascetics and the saints. His music, as if in counterweight — is luxurious and brilliant, lavishly decorated and full of delights; it is melodious and joyful, it glorifies the very best that only can be in a human creature — the happiness of overcoming, that great «per aspera ad astra».
Today in the Internet anyone can admire the two pages of musical text — an exercise that another great student of Nicola Porpora, Gaetano Majorano who became famous under the name of Caffarelli, according to the legend was cramming for almost 6 years. One of musical historians, Charles Burney, wrote that though Porpora «hated him (Caffarelli — E.S.) for his insolence, he used to say that he was the finest singer that Italy had ever produced», and counted Caffarelli in the ranks of his best pupils.
«The man in black paused at a wooden door, slid a bolt aside, and opened it. The younger man entered behind the older and came to stand before a series of wooden troughs. Each was half the length of a man’s height, and half that wide. One stood on the floor, and the others were arrayed above it, suspended by wooden supports in steps, one above the next, until the highest stood near the height of a man’s head. All of those above had single holes in the end that overhung the trough below. In the bottom trough, water could be heard sloshing, as it responded to the vibrations of their footfalls on the stone floor.
The man in black pointed to a bucket and turned and left the young man in white alone.
The young man picked up the bucket and set about his task. All commands to those in white were given without words, and, as he had quickly learned when he had first become aware, those in white were not allowed to speak. He knew he could speak, for he understood the concept and had quietly tried to form a few words while lying on his mat in the dark. As with so many other things, he understood the fact, without being aware of how he understood. He knew that he existed before his first awakening in his cell, but was not in the least alarmed by his lack of memory. It seemed somehow proper.
He started his task. Like so many other things he was commanded to do, it seemed an impossible undertaking. He took the bucket and filled the topmost trough from the bottom one. As it had on days before, the water spilled from the top down into each successive trough, until the contents of the bucket rested again at the bottom. Doggedly he pursued his work, letting his mind go vacant, while his body undertook the mindless task».(2)
But whatever was dictating the manners and methods of Porpora`s training — they were doomed to resounding success. Of course, his incredible skills were based primarily on the incredible strength and purity inherent to the voices of singers-castrati. And secondarily, it was due to the requirements of his technique included very severe control over the voice and breath.
And moreover you had to think.
To think before doing.
To think while you are doing.
To think when you failed.
To think why you failed.
To think how to make it work.
From Dialogues:
«…If you sing the operas of Hasse or Handel or Vinci, you will find yourself vocally way more comfortable with that music than with Porpora: in fact there’s a certain degree of discomfort about the way he writes for singers. There are always very long vocal lines that you really have to respect, and he writes so densely that you have no chance to breathe in between phrases: you have to seize any chance you have to take a huge amount of air, because the chances are it’s going to have to last you a very long time! That kind of thing is very technical and you have to master it physically: it’s not the kind of music where you can look over the score two weeks before you have to sing it and you’ll have it in your voice, it’s something that you really have to work on for months to get it into the body».
<…>
«Q: Do you ever get the sense that Porpora reacted against the eighteenth-century tendency to cater to the strengths (and even whims) of star singers by deliberately setting out to challenge them with his writing?
A: Yes, I do think he challenged them — in a way to underline his dominance both as a singing-teacher and as somebody who wanted to influence the development of opera seria, which indeed he did for a certain period of his life. But that’s assumption, really, because there is only very scant documentation of his private exchanges with people…» (from the interview Max Emanuel Cencic with Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical, 14.03.2018)
Of course, Porpora challenged his colleagues and contemporaries… If it wasn’t in his nature, he would never have become what he was… but maybe it was something else besides this challenge?
I have no doubt that Porpora was «highly non-indifferent» person. He taught how to sing people who were endowed by God and Nature with the mighty gift, but were mutilated and deprived by the hands of other people. And the only thing he could do for those unfortunate was to cultivate and to perfect that gift they had, to raise their art of singing to an unattainable heights and thus to give them at least some compensation and protection. And he did it — he made Gods of them. And you must worry greatly about your job and about those who were rejected, in order to write for them such music as he did. Poverty and oblivion that marked his last years are the best proof of it. This is how our vain world almost always rewards those who live their lives in the name of the Truth or of true Beauty. But Eternity always equalizes the score leaving these «losers» in her own disposal — for future centuries and generations.
The gift of composer, the genius of a teacher, all his mastery as a vocalist, all his life experience had been given by Nicola Porpora to these poor souls created for the needs and to the delight of the crowd of dignitaries and grandees. He was giving his talent and his skills to those who were worshipped while they were on stage and who were despised, ridiculed and disdained as soon as they left it. Ridiculed because of physical defect for which they could not be blamed and for their pompous, unnatural manners and arrogance that most likely were just a defensive reaction, an attempt to extend their «stage existence» into the everyday life where was no place for them.
And I’m sure that he loved them and bothered and cared for them. For God`s sake, can you answer me, what prevented him from throwing outside that obstinate Caffarelli instead of spending his days and nerves for him during the whole 6 years? Just imagine what incredible patience must you have and how strong must be your faith in somebody to have a deal with him for so long and in such a manner!
One, as if was saying: «Take it back, I don’t want it, leave me alone».
Another one, who was putting the page before the eyes of the first, as if responding: «I know you, I see you, I`m sure, you can do it…».
And so six years passed.
Six years in the crossing of love and hatred — as in the optical sight of the sniper.
Only one step is from love to hatred.
But the opposite is also true.
«…Daily a voice would sound in his head, and his mind’s voice would respond with an answer, while he labored at his endless task. The voice would ask a simple question, and his mind’s voice would answer. Should the answer be incorrect, the question would be repeated. If several wrong answers were made, the voice would cease its questioning, sometimes returning later in the day, sometimes not».(3)
In the books of Raymond Feist, by such methods the experienced mentors were nurturing powerful magicians from their young pupils. But any great artist is a magician, and his gift is a magic in itself and who knows, maybe these demands of Nicola Porpora, the great teacher, composer and perfectionist, were in fact such a questions, which from time to time, from day to day he gave to his disciples and they — if they could and wanted to — had to find in the end the right answer?
Music of Nicola Porpora as a mirror of Love.
Yes, he was cruel in teaching but the hardening of the steel is not the tenderest process. And if to speak about «the blades» — it was necessary to love dearly and passionately what you want or are doomed to do, in order to pass such a school and continue to sing.
To sing despite of all, to become a God, to be the God — and to be infinitely lonely.
It was said that their voices, their mastery electrified and hypnotized the audience. When they were releasing their gift, it collapsed onto the audience and took all as prisoners being supported by the most powerful of all energies — emotional energy of pain and love. While the voice sounded, it reigned, subjecting all around to its unthinkable art and inhuman beauty.
«There is no way one can encompass a composer of such quality in one album, and each piece is a treasure in its own right. Though technical display is everywhere — leaps rapid scales, trills, long phrases — Porpora’s special and utterly captivating melodic gift always shines through».(4)
And today Max Emanuel Cencic — mature, experienced Master, deeply intelligent man with the character and the hardening of a true warrior, excellently transfers all the richness of feelings and nuances hidden in this music, alongside with all that technically transcendent subtleties which, in fact, are only the accents, enriching lively human speech.
In recordings with Armonia Atenea the music written by Nicola Porpora sounds energetically and excitedly, sometimes demanding and sometimes fluidly and languidly. The orchestra is following after the human voice which draws ornaments of incredible beauty and complexity, very similar to the filaments of lightnings in the dense backdrop of clouds.
Music by Nicola Porpora — music of rage and tenderness, struggle and love — here, here it is that one «per aspera ad astra» which has almost completely disappeared today and thereby mutilated us.
«And here I am spending 2 years with Porpora» (Max Emanuel Cencic)
I’m listening to the Aria «Torbido intorno al core» from «Meride e Selinunte» — at first in the live version of 2015 and then in the recording from the disc. In the concert of 2015 the voice is as light and easy as a brook on the sunny spring day, the voice is soft, gentle; the voice is shimmering. There are practically no pauses, it seems to be all as on the one long breath, it is so incredibly smooth; this fluidity is virtuoso but you feel something like a respectful care in it, that one which is more closer to a caution. Here a certain «distance» is evident as if the main task is to sing every note and the whole without shifting, even in a micron, from what is prescribed, and this gentle, smooth lyricism in fact is one of the ways to achieve the technical perfection.
And in the contrast, on the contrary — «the darkening stream» of 2017. Voice that has a color of the buckwheat honey, the voice that is flowing as a molten gold. Brush strokes confident and decisive, clean and accurate lines and absolutely elaborate «rotation» of the next vocal jewel in order to bring under the light that facets of it which right now are going to flash in the most bright way. And the complete freedom of possession of the musical material, free soaring in the borders of a space, that was defined by its creator.
And here the Baroque ornaments — curly, bizarre and fanciful are turning into a lively, decisive and free human speech. Every sound is thought out and deeply felt. Here music acquires both face and character, becomes personalized and we no longer are so much listening to the «voice soaring over the world» as we see a human being, living being, the concrete person with his personal destiny, desires, fears and hopes.
Person who is suffering, struggling, who is not indifferent. Personality.
Genius of Porpora as composer and the teacher were both aimed to forge the genuine Personality. Through the struggle, humiliation and suffering — to the Excellence, which is based on Love, for only Love can give you the strength to go through all the circles of Hell on your way.
Listening to Cencic I began to understand that if you`ll start to pay a real tribute to his art then at least a half of today’s singers (all, not only countertenors) you can send …Where? …To the retraining? To the retirement?
And let me make only one, very simple, in fact, question: why he — can, and the others — cannot?
Where lays the secret?
In an extremely honest attitude to yourself and your business?
In the ability not to be deceived by glory and praise?
In your readiness for self-denial?
Here it is, the daily routine of Porpora`s pupils:
«Before lunch: one hour singing difficult and awkward pieces, one hour practising the trill, one hour practising ornamented passaggi, one hour of singing exercises in their teacher’s presence and in front of a mirror so as to avoid unnecessary movement of the body or facial grimaces, and one hour of literary study.» — NB: Literature on singing, I guess, 5 hours in total.
«After lunch: half-an-hour of music theory, another writing counterpoint, an hour and another hour of literary study». — NB: 3 hours in total.
«Any remaining time was to be taken up with harpsichord practice, and the composition of vocal music, either sacred or secular, depending on the student’s inclination.» (5)
Time that had remained… remained from what?
Eight hours of prescribed time — for singing only.
Well, eight hours for sleeping. But I`m afraid, it was — five. Not more, I suppose.
But the students still relied (I hope) — breakfast, lunch, dinner ...and what else?
Oh yes, general education subjects (reading, writing, history, mathematics) as well, at least in a minimum amount.
«And where find time to live?» — would be the question nowadays.
«But this IS life». — would be the answer.
That`s why — «One aria is enough for not to doubt in the greatness of Cencic. He concentrated in himself all the best what was reached by performers of Baroque music in nowadays. He is standing at the head of new era of outstanding countertenors and sets the standards».(6) Truly it is said — «at the head of». Because in addition to the level of vocal technique that is just staggering and sometimes even downright frightening, here is «even-over-the-tops» level of intelligence. And the well-balanced scientific approach to everyday work: singing, vocal and music materials selection, and to all creative activity in general.
Here we see professionalism — well-mannered, imbibed from the early childhood; professionalism natural as a breath.
Here we see the taste and measure, and their thoroughly verified balance.
More than 30 years of singing career is behind his back but his genius does not extinguish gaining the new breath with every year, gaining new tones, shades and colors, new facets of the vocal excellence.
Max Emanuel Cencic in his interview to Presto Classical in 2012 said that he cannot do everything, but there are certain things that he can do. And if he does them he always tries to do it the best way he can.
That is what we call «good taste». Today it is rarity.
Good taste in what you’re doing means the high-class professionalism multiplied by the sense of measure and by the soul which never had been found by physicians. And the high-class professionalism is the worldview, that is much more than the simple aggregation of sophisticated techniques together with their quantity.
And how would you measure the level of contribution for the soul that burns and hurts, languishing and crying, troubles and loves?
So maybe here lays the secret — in the ability for a true love?
«You have to love another, not yourself in your love».
«Quando s’oscura il cielo» («Carlo il Calvo») from this new CD — the true miracle of transcription performed by Cencic. Following the music and the voice an image of a bright morning meadow full of flowers, under the blue sky, along the grey shoulders of the mountains, in the coolness and gold of the burning day floats before the my mind’s eye. Inexpressible beauty and peace in the world stretched out around us. World, as if it opened anew.
Suddenly remembering that there are lyrics in the booklet, I`m opening it:
When the sky is dark,
And leaves are furled,
The flower begins to wilt
Upon the stem that bore it.
But the new dawn
Brings the fecund dew,
To bathe it, restore its colors
And renew its strength……(7)
In 1957 Theodoro Chelli wrote: «....great Opera composers were great ones, because they were trying to create the drama in music and not just to write a nice music <…>. And of course, they wanted to cooperate with such interpreters, who could not only to sing but also were able to express all the psychological features of their characters by the means of their voices. Such vocal interpreters have always been a rarity».(8)
Is there anything that lives in the kingdom of the pure sound more than an Aria describing very simple natural phenomenon, something like a little picture although it certainly has roots in the plot and in relationships and actions of the heroes? Yes, of course, if I`ll read the lyrics of the Aria and shall follow attentively to the music and to the voice, without any doubts, I`ll manage to see about what they are singing here, but how could the singer manage to cause in my mind the picture so similar to that one, which was the «starting point» for himself and do it before I had read the text of the Aria? Magic, as it often was said in old times… pure magic.
And here it is, the magic of the voice that allows you to see what exists «beyond the borders» of one given specific Aria. And here lies more than just enjoyment with the sound, physical or mental, or both at once. The voice of Cencic brings into existence something that usually is not perceptible by the senses but undoubtedly exists; something that always lies «behind» the voice, the music, the text. And your admiration and surprise here are not the final destination, but only the beginning of the journey. Cencic`s voice exists as a tool, as a clue, following to which you can look into yourself, into the depths of your own soul. Some arias in his performance are similar to the spells and this is not an exaggeration, not a flattery, but the simple statement of the fact.
NB:
1. Quoted from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Germanico in Germania, 2013.
2. Raymond E. Feist «Magician: Master», Ch. IV.
3. Raymond E. Feist «Magician: Master», Ch. IV.
4. Max Emanuel Cen;i;. Quoted from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Nicola Porpora. Opera Arias, 2018.
5. Quoted from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Germanico in Germania, 2013.
6. Cit. from «L`Opera» Magazine.
7. Quoted from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Nicola Porpora. Opera Arias, 2018.
8. Theodoro Chelli, «The Voice From Another Century», from the anthology «Maria Callas. Biography. Articles. Interviews. M., Progress, 1978. Russioan Edition.
12|03|2018
Saint-Petersburg