The Voice

"She was the first singer I ever loved - and those first passions remain raw and tender things, difficult to assess objectively."

Rupert Christiansen was writing about Joan Sutherland. But sometimes I feel the same way when I write about Jose Carreras. So, my musical impressions of the evening are partly formed by my ears and partly by my heart.

Because this was a miked concert, I cannot tell you how powerful his voice was. I'm talking about sheer volume here, not about his power to move an audience, which in my view is undiminished. However, my impression was that he was 'husbanding' his vocal resources somewhat. He tended to sing many of the higher notes in a 'head voice' (the Denver critics called this a falsetto), whereas in the past he would have sung them in full voice. At the beginning, before his voice had warmed up he seemed a bit under pitch, especially in 'Adeste Fidelis', which requires some quite loud high notes.

That said, his singing was overall quite beautiful, and in some places, extraordinarily beautiful. I will tell you here about the two pieces that moved me the most.

My ears tell me that the duet from La Boheme was very good. My heart tells me it was extraordinary. I feel very privileged to have seen and heard it. It was very poignant to see this duet being sung by a charismatic tenor, now nearing the end of his operatic career, and an equally charismatic young baritone, at the peak of his. But what was even more poignant, was how Carreras seemed to lose any consciousness of the time and place where he was actually singing. Suddenly, he was no longer singing a Christmas concert in the Royal Albert Hall. He was back in the world of his youth and back in the world of Rodolfo and Mimi. His face and whole posture changed and even his voice. The years seemed to fall away both for him and for us. I was spellbound. Many in the audience were moved to tears.

I simply cannot be objective about 'Core 'ngrato'. Not only is it my favourite song, it was the song that made me fall in love with Carreras' voice. Before last night, I had never heard him sing it live. To be sure, it was not sung with the voice of the 33 year old on my Philips recording. But the passing years had made it even more powerful, even more moving. He seemed lost in thought for a brief moment before he began. He gathered his strength. And then out of that throat poured a song that really seemed to come from the depths of his soul. When he sang the most passionate parts of this song, he produced that beautiful messa di voce of old, where a single note swells and grows in power almost like a living thing.

The Atmosphere

It had started to rain, so I grabbed a cab..... "So who are you going to see then?", asked the cabbie. "Jose Carreras", I said. "No kidding!", he said. "I like him the best of the three. He sings kind of gentle like. Not like the other two". When he left me off in front of the Royal Albert Hall, he told me to have a wonderful time. I knew I would.

The Royal Albert Hall is an enormous oval shaped building. It was packed to the rafters. The corporate entertainees were happily munching their smoked salmon and sipping champagne in their boxes. The Bryn Terfel fans were carefully testing their Welsh flags, resplendent with the red dragon, which they were to unfurl during the performance. Everyone was looking at their programmes and smiling - we knew we were in for a treat. Because there was no choir this year, even the back of stage stalls were filled. Two large Christmas trees, twinkling with white lights decorated the huge organ pipes behind the concert platform. The coloured house lights were used, as they always are at the Christmas Concert, changing colours to reflect the mood of each song.

The concert opened with the overture from I Vespri Siciliani. Then Carreras appeared for his first piece. As he walked out, weaving his way carefully through the BBC Concert Orchestra to the singer's platform, he was greeted with an ovation. When he turned to shake hands with the conductor, his nephew, David Gimenez, the two profiles were almost mirror images of each other. The family resemblance was striking. Carreras looked well and he looked confident, although his cufflinks received their customary attention before Gimenez brought down his baton to begin 'Adeste Fidelis'.

Terfel and Carreras alternated solos until the final piece before the interval - the Act IV duet from La Boheme, where Marcello (Terfel) and Rodolfo (Carreras) sing of their lost loves - "Ah, Mimi, tu non torni" (Ah, Mimi, you won't return). When they came out to sing this, Carreras stood on the singer's platform. Bryn, did not. They gestured and joked about how they looked the same height, whereupon Bryn briefly got up on the platform to show 'the real picture'. Needless to say, the audience loved it.

After the final song of the official programme, Carreras singing 'Core 'ngrato', the customary RAH 'We want more!' began. Wild clapping and foot stomping reverberating through out the huge hall. The Royal Albert Hall has uncovered wooden floors, and the effect of hundreds of stamping feet is amazing.

Bryn Terfel gave the first encore, and again he and Carreras alternated singing until the final piece, a duet. Yes, what would an RAH Christmas concert be without 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'?

Before his first song of the evening, Terfel told us how this was his first time singing in the Royal Albert Hall. During the encores, he looked both bemused and delighted at the ensuing fan-o-mania. Throughout the encores, women and little girls repeatedly approached the stage bringing flowers and gifts to Jose, and some just to gaze up at him. At times the ushers had their hands full. The 'official' flowers from the house were two huge 'manly' bouquets of winter flowers and berries tied with raffia. The 'unofficial' bouquets ranged from single roses to a pile of Teddy Bears. Bryn picked up a lone Teddy Bear remaining after Jose had left the stage, smiled, gave it a cuddle, and left the stage still clutching the bear.

The house lights went up. The orchestra filed off the stage. And out I went into the rainy London night.

Concert Programme

1. Orchestra - Overture I Vespri Siciliani
2. JC - Adeste Fidelis
3. JC - Pregaria
4. BT - My Little Welsh Home & Ar Hyd y Nos
5. Orchestra - Carmen, Prelude, Act IV
6. JC - Cancion Hungara
7. BT - Torreador Song (Carmen)
8. JC & BT - Duet from La Boheme "Ah, Mimi, tu non torni"
   --INTERVAL--
9. BT - It might as well be spring (State Fair)
10. JC - Little Drummer Boy
11. JC - La Virgen lava panales
12. Orchestra - Intermezzo: La Boda de Luis Alonso
13. JC - Pel teu Amor
14. BT - How to Handle a Woman (Camelot)
15. JC - Malinconia d'amore
16. JC - Core 'ngrato

ENCORES

1. BT - Wolfram's Aria, last act of Tannhauser
2. JC - Musica Proibita
3. BT - Ombra Mai Fu (Handel, Serse)
4. JC - All the Things you are
5. JC - Granada
6. BT - Non piu andrai (Mozart, Marriage of Figaro)
7. JC - Voce e notte
8. JC & BT - White Christmas