Maestro Leo Brouwer will once again lead an encounter promoting all kinds of quality music. This year, the Office bearing his name is organizing the World Countertenors Festival, in honor of this particular male register, from September 30 through October 8.
The magnificent theaters and concerts halls of Havana will host this new upcoming event, with an intense program of nine concerts, master classes, and the second edition of the Countertenors Competition.
To learn more details of this innovative festival of music, we spoke to musicologist Isabelle Hernández, director general and producer of the event, at the headquarters of the Leo Brouwer Office in the neighborhood of El Vedado, Havana.
Why countertenors? First a Competition in 2014 and now a Festival…
Last year during the Les Voix Humaines (Human Voices) Festival, we explored all registers and musical genres and that led us to countertenors. This register has experienced a boom in the past four to five decades and Cuba has been oblivious to it. This beginning made us wonder, why not hold a countertenor event. It’s the continuation of the festivals we already hold, the theme is changed but the concept remains the same. Each festival breeds the next and this is very important, which is why we continue to follow our motto of “a perfect blend of intelligent music”. This appeal to the intelligence in music has been appreciated as there must be diversity in order to be culturally richer, and this diversity means listening to everything, but with quality, and that’s where the intelligence plays a part, when it comes to selection.
You mentioned the international countertenor boom…
Today, no contemporary opera is conceived of without this voice. They have already managed to enter the market for musical productions and feature in large concert halls across the world, in the United States, Japan and Europe mainly, where this voice remains paramount. It was there that the castrati were born, in the early Baroque period. There was a time when the practice was eliminated, this voice fell into disuse. It was forgotten for at least a half century, scarcely anyone composed for it.
Why this exclusion?
Baroque opera gave way to the Classical period, the Romantic, in which other roles took center stage, the soprano, the tenor. The roles were displaced. Forty to fifty years ago the English countertenor Alfred Deller, to whom we dedicated the competition last year, recovered this voice type for the twentieth century stage. This year the Second Competition will be dedicated to Rene Jacob on his 70th birthday. Jacob is recognized as a countertenor but he is also an exceptional musician, and has conducted great countertenors such as Phillipe Jaroussky and Andres Scholl, who was here last year and was a sensation for us. This April Jaroussky came for a concert, another dream come true. Others, such as the Croatian Max Emanuel Cencic, were initially going to be at the Festival, but another job came up and he has postponed until next year. But here's the problem, we do not know if we will do it again in 2017. The Office can not be tied to a single project, we are passionate about it, but there are practical budget issues and also the need to present something new, always maintaining unity in the programming approach, which means not presenting what everyone plays.
The Festival celebrates the 260th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-2016), who also wrote for the countertenor register. You have said and I quote “We will approach this genius in a different way.” Can you elaborate on this?
It has precisely to do with what I was telling you before. We are going to begin the Festival with a concert which we have entitled “Humor con clase: Mozart 260”. It’s another vision of this genius. Naturally, the Cuban audience should listen to the countertenors from the beginning, then... we will imagine that Mozart is conducting the casting for his next opera and countertenors, sopranos and even a dance group are parading around. It’s going to be very funny. In 2013 we held the “Concierto para dedo y orquesta” by maestro Leo, completely Mozartian, responding to the classical period. Osvaldo Doimeadiós did it, but this year it will be Rigoberto Ferrera. A humorous look at Mozart and of course his music. The most high-pitched male voice is going to be presented to the public in a very refreshing way. This will be in the Karl Marx Theater.
In addition, on the final day itself, on October 8 but at 11p.m., at the Fábricade Arte, we will host a different Mozart. We asked ourselves, why not dance with Mozart? We will have DJ Ivan Lejardi for four hours of music, with electronic Mozart, we have called the night “Mozart Classical Rave”, due to the scope, the lights, the use of electronic music.
Let's continue with the guests and the nine concerts...
On October 1st in the Teatro Martí we will have “Mozart & Porpora, Il Delirio” with Artur Stefanowicz of Poland, a specialist in Mozart, with an aged and contemporary repertoire. On Sunday the 2nd, Canadian Daniel Taylor, one of the most important (countertenors) in North America with over one hundred albums recorded, will present the beautiful concert “Handel Love Duets”, together with Russian sorprano Yulia Van Doren. On the 3rd Catalan Xavier Sabata, one of the greats of his generation, whose register includes a contralto voice, the deep countertenor voice, also in the Martí, who has entitled his concert “Con che suavitá”. On Tuesday the 4th, in the Teatro de Bellas Artes, Portugal’s Manuel Brás da Costa arrives with “De Purcell a Rousaz”, a very open repertoire but very diverse, baroque, songs of the 19th and 20th centuries and with Portuguese music. On the 5th, Italian Riccardo Angelo Strano will offer “Héroes y amantes”, pieces by Strozzi, Fago, Handel, Monteverdi. On the 6th we will return to the Martí with Darryl Taylor of the U.S., a judge at last year’s Competition and its chair this year, coming to play a concert of North American music “Alove letter from a brother”, he will also offer a master class and on Friday the 7th Brazilian Rodrigo Ferreira presents “Saudades do Brasil”, a journey through 19th and 20th century Brazilian music.
The Festival is also dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla (1876-2016)...
That’s how we will close the Festival on October 8 at the Teatro Martí. The importance maestro Falla had for Spanish music in the transition from the 19th to 20th century, his relevance, and the contemporary sound of many of his works, is needless to say. Falla did not write for countertenors and so all the adaptations needed to be made, many works needed to be transposed from one pitch to another and when you’re working with an orchestra this is problematic. The register is lowered to a countertenor to make it more comfortable for the voice, but this does not work for all instruments, for example the harp, the wind instruments. Here maestro Leo has had to lend a hand, to re-orchestrate. Falla’s Siete canciones españolas, so well-known in the original for piano, will be performed, but with an orchestra. This version has not been performed in Cuba, maestro Leo conducted it in Spain, when he was conductor of the Orquesta de Córdoba. It will be sung by the Cuban Frank Ledesma, who won the First Countertenor Contest. Ledesma will also perform “Soneto a Córdoba”, with lyrics by Luis de Góngora, for harp and voice, originally for soprano. In addition to these works with vocalists, that same day we will present the Concierto para clave y ensemble de cámara by Falla, which has not been heard in Cuba for many years. We will present it with the Orquesta de Cámara de La Habana, the harpsichord will be played by Roman Khalil of France, who has accompanied Sabata and Ferreira, and it will be conducted by maestro Leo.
Let’s turn to the Second Competition for a moment…
We already have contestants from Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Panama and Cuba. The mandatory pieces measure many styles, periods, from the Renaissance onwards; in fact we began with Thomas Campion, English poet and Renaissance lutenist who wrote for countertenor; three French songs; Baroque with Porpora and a freely chosen piece. For the top-ranked Cuban we have a trip to Barcelona in January 2017. He will be at the Liceu Theater, with its more than 130 years of history and solid voice coaching. He will have a few days of master classes, lectures, study.
I heard that something on Michael Jackson would be done...
I’ve said previously that Michael Jackson had countertenor registers and it is true, his high-pitched voice classified as a countertenor. In popular music there are many high-pitched voices that people do not recognize as countertenor, it is a term that is associated with the classical repertoires. Maestro Leo and I will present a talk entitled “Michael Jackson de la filantropía al narcisismo” (Michael Jackson: From philanthropy to narcissism). It will be on Friday 7, in the Submarino amarillo.
On the subject of the audience. Are there any fears regarding half full theaters?
We have tried to ensure a variety of repertoires, seek the programming, therein lies all - What are you going to present so that people listen? A balanced program is required, oh, and also, lots of publicity.
The World Countertenors Festival, organized by the Leo Brouwer Office, is sure to be another “perfect blend of intelligent music” in Havana.
