Listening to Cencic

Max Emanuel Cencic and his new solo SD.
About Porpora, love and Struggle


Year 2018. Third day of March. 250 years since the death of Nicola Porpora
Here it is,  finally, this disc, this new solo album… 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…
Year 2017. September
Monologue…
“Today ist the last day of my recording of Arias by Nicola Porpora. My heart is heavy and my whole body hurts.I am still daywalking 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 organisational basis to record, sign contracts, and go on tour, and 2 sessions of hours long recordings since march this year with 2 soundengineers 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 recources 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, sience. 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, Talentshows 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 spening 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 citique to the singer. At some point the singer asked: if you critisize 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 struggeling and I have pain and I just dont 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. Stuggle is what makes us human.
And this is why I do understand the concept of envy today. Because in our world all is protrayed in an effortless manner giving people the impression that you can obtain any dreams and be happy without struggle.
That is wrong. So lets stop fool ouserlves with the bling bling 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 civilisation. Once we stop to struggle, we are condemed to eternal oblivion and darkness.
And this is why I am one of many millions who add their little piece of stone of civilisation 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)
*****
Today Nicola Porpora is one of  "forgotten figures" and this fact 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 (Farinelli), and does not express any interest to that man, who "created" this singer.  By the way, in addition to Broschi, there were other famous pupils, not only singers, but also composers, such as Haydn and Hasse.  Maybe it happened due to the film "Farinelli", 1994, that became now the classics and a "common place", because in it the figure of Porpora is almost invisible, and where it is present - looks gloomy and sadistic.
Porpora was known in his time as a singing teacher and as a 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 a Moloch, greedy to sacrifices, and the singers- castrati of the Baroque epoch, donating for this idol their own flesh and blood, brought the art of singing up to unimaginable heights, which were not conquered after them almost by 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 the ascetics and the saints. His music - as if in counterweight -  is  luxurious and brilliant, lavishly decorated and full of delights; 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 Internet, anyone can admire the two pages of musical text – an excercise that another great student of Nicola Porpora,  Gaetano Majorano ,  who became famous under the name of Caffarelli,  was cramming for 6 years ( according to the legend). 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 Italy had ever produced"(1)  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 other, 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. 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.
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”.(2)

By such methods in the books of Raymond Feist, experienced mentors were nurturing powerful magicians from their young pupils. But any great artist - is a magician, and his gift –  the same magic, and who knows, maybe these demands of  Nicola Porpora, the great teacher, composer and perfectionist,  were simply such 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 correct answer?

But whatever was dictating manners and methods of Porpora`s training – they were doomed to a resounding success. Of course, his incredible skills were based, first of all, on the incredible strength and purity inherent to the voices of singers-castrati. And in the second, it was due to the requirements of his technique, that included very severe control over the voice and breath. And you had to think. To think before doing. While you are doing. To think when you cannot obtain. To think why it was not obtained. To think how to make it to happen, at last.

*****
“  -    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 of 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 may be it was something else  besides the challenge?......
The time of Nicola Porpora, the time of Baroque epoch was very severe. The reality captured in the great novel of Victor Hugo "The Man, who laughs", had not yet became an antiquity, and the tales about  "comprachicos", "buyers of the children",  whose art was based on the lost art of torture, has not yet moved into the category of "scary fairy tales". "Comprachicos" were the  community of vagrants and criminals of all kinds and for a long time they were almost on legal position and were delivering freaks, jugglers, dwarfs and acrobats  on the whim of the Royal courtyards,  as well as eunuchs  for Sultans and castrati for Papal palaces.
I have no doubt that Porpora was "highly non-indifferent" person. He taught singing 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,  at least,  some compensation and protection.  And he did it - he made Gods of them. And it was nessesary to worry greatly for the job  you are doing and for 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 rewards - as a rule - those who live their lives  in the name of Truth or of true Beauty. But Eternity always levels the score, leaving these "losers" in her own disposal - for future centuries and generations.

The gift of composer, the genius of the teacher, all his mastery as a vocalist,  his life experience had been given by Nicola Porpora to these unlucky, 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 for the physical defect for which they were not to blame,  and  for their pompous, unnatural manners and arrogance, that most likely were just a defensive reaction, an  attempt to extend their "stage existence" in to the everyday life, where  they had no place.

And I'm sure that he loved them, and bothered and cared for them.  In the end, what had been prevented him to throw outside that obstinate Caffarelli, instead of spending his days and nerves during the whole 6 years? Just imagine what incredible patience must you have and how strong  must be your faith in somebody in order 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 a 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 a sniper.
From love to hatred – is one step.
But after all in the backwards - also.

“How can we emulate the great castrati? That is hard to pin down, but these voices were the very soul of Porpora’s music.”(3)

Music of Nicola Porpora as a mirror of love.
Yes, he was cruel in teaching, but the hardening of a steel – is not a most tender process. And if to speak about the «blades" - it was necessary to love dearly, 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 stay the God – and to be infinitely lonely.
It is claimed that their voices, their mastery were electrifying and hypnotizing the audience. When they were releasing their gift  it was falling down onto the audience and took her as a prisoner, being supported by the most powerful energy - the 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, intelligent, deep person, with the character and hardening of a true warrior,  excellently  transfers all the richness of feelings and nuances that are inherent in this music, alongside with all technically transcendent subtleties, which, in fact, are only the accents enriching lively human speech.
In recordings with Armonia Atenea music of Nicola Porpora sounds energetically and excitedly, sometimes demanding, sometimes fluidly and languidly.  The orchestra is following after the human voice, which draws ornaments of incredible beauty and complexity very similar to the filament of lightnings in the dense backdrop of clouds.
Music by Nicola Porpora, made of rage and tenderness, of struggle and love , that's it, this it is -  "per aspera ad astra", that has almost completely gone today and thereby mutilated us.

“And here I am spending 2 years with Porpora” (Max Emanuel Cencic)

I'm listening to "Torbido intorno al core" ( from Meride e Selinunte, Nicola Porpora) .
At first to the live version of 2015, then - to the recording from the disc. In the concert of  2015 – the voice as light and easy as a brook on the sunny spring day,  voice soft, gentle, voice shimmering.  There are virtually no pauses, it seems to be all on one long breath, incredibly smooth, this fluidity is virtuoso, but a respectful care is evident  - that  one which is closer to a caution. Here is a certain "distance", as if the main task now is to sing without a shifting in a micron from what was prescribed.  And the lyricism here is one of the ways to achieve the technical perfection.
And in a contrast, and on the contrary -  «stream that darkens" of 2017. The voice of color of the buckwheat honey, flowing as a molten gold... Confident brush strokes, clear lines and a absolutely elaborate thoughtful «rotation" of  the next vocal jewel in order to  bring under the light those facets of it, which just now have to flash in the most bright way.   And the complete freedom of possession of the musical material - the free soaring in borders of the space, that was defined by its creator.
Curly and bizarre Baroque ornaments are turning into a lively, decisive and free human speech. Every sound is percepted, thought out and deeply felt. Here the music acquired both face and character, becomes personalized, and we hear not the "voice hovering over the world" but see a living, concrete person with his personal destiny, desires, fears and hopes. 
A person suffering, struggling, not indifferent. Personality.
It is the personality that was forging by the music and genius of Porpora, both as a composer and as a teacher.
Through the struggle, humiliation and suffering - to the Perfection, which is based on Love, for only Love can give you the strength to go through all the circles of the hell on your lifeway.

*****
Listening to Cencic, I began to understand that if you start paying a real tribute to him, so as it really proper to be, then, at least half of today's singers (all, not excluding countertenors) you can send .......where to? To retrain?  To the retirement?
And such, a simple, generally-that, question: why he can, and the others - no? 
Where is the secret? In a very honest respect to himself and his deed? In the ability not to deceive himself with glory and praise?  In 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.”
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”.
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.
Let's say - eight hours for sleeping.  But I`m afraid, it was – five. 
But after to all pupils still relied (I hope) - breakfast, lunch, dinner ...and that still?
And "general subjects" reading, writing, history, mathematics - well, at least to some extent.
"And what about the time just to live?"-  would be the question nowadays.
"But this IS  life." – would be the answer.

That`s why - "One aria is enough 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). Precisely - "at the head of". Because, in addition to just staggering and at times downright frightening level of vocal technique " here is an "slightly over-the-tops" level of intelligence and the scientific approach - to the singing, to vocal and music materials, and indeed to all creative activities in general. Here is the professionalism, well-mannered, imbibed from early childhood, professionalism, natural as breath.  Here are the taste and measure, and their verified balance.
Over 30 years of singing career and his genius is not extinguished, gaining the new breath every year, new paint and colors, new facets of vocal excellence.

Max Emanuel Cencic (From interview to Presto Classical, 2012) : “ I can`t do everything but certain things I can do.. And if I do them I always try to do it the best way I can… “
This is the good taste. Today it is rarity.

Good taste in what you're doing is high-class professionalism, in conjunction with the sense of measure, where the soul is a third component, a component  that was never found by physicians. And professionalism here is not so much the sophistication of techniques and their quantity, but the view of the world.
And how would you measure the level of contribution for soul - that burns and hurts, languishing and crying,  and loves.
So maybe here is the main point? The ability for a true love?
"Love another, not yourself in that love."

***
"Quando s'oscura il cielo"  from “Carlo il Calvo” from this new CD – the true miracle of  transcription performed by Cencic. 
Following to the voice and music, as a in reply, in my mind an image is born:  the bright morning meadow, full of flowers, in coolness and golden light of intensifying da. Blue sky and gray shoulders of the mountains.... An ineffable beauty and peace of the world stretched  out around me. World, as if opened anew.
Suddenly remembering that there are lyrics in the booklet, I open 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 colour
And renew its strength……” (7)

In his article about Maria Callas, 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, almost none of them are now, and so the Opera as a form of artistic comprehension of the world is slowly but inevitably experiences declines..." ("The Voice from another century" (published in: "Maria Callas", M., Progress. 1978)
Callas was and still remains such great vocal interpreter, because " ... Maria Callas musicality is based on her capability to fill all musical accents with the internal content – so she is able to breathe the life into her heroines, who are far from the everyday prototypes, heroines, who are immersed in a romantic atmosphere, living in the realm of pure sound."(ibid.)
But is there anything that lives in the "kingdom of the pure sound" much more than an Aria, describing just a natural phenomenon, a little picture (though it certainly must have roots in the plot of the Opera, in the libretto, and in the psychological relationships and actions of its heroes)?
Yes, of course, if I`ll take the lyrics of the Aria in Russian ( or in another language that I know)   and afterwards I`ll follow attentively to the music and to the voice, without any  doubts, I`ll 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 to do it before I had read the text of the Aria? ..
Magic, as it could be said in old times... pure magic.

Here it is - the magic of the voice that allows you to see what exists "beyond the borders" a given specific Aria. And here lies more than just enjoyment of the sound, physical or mental, or both of. The voice of Cencic brings into existence something that usually is not perceived by the senses, but, undoubtedly exists; something that always lies "behind" - the voice, the music, the text. Your admiration and surprise here is not the final destination, but only the beginning of the journey. The voice as a tool, clue, following which you can look into yourself. Some arias in his performance are similar to spells - and this is not an  exaggeration, not a flattery, but the simple statement of the fact.

*****
An afterword

Recently God gave me a familiarity with the voice which has become for me a true pleasure. I listen to Cencic, being absolutely fascinated, well as with my one and only, incomparable Goddess, Maria Callas; and before my eyes is the same image, which always has been associated for me with her singing - a sparkling stream, flowing as one continuous wave. Entire, inseparable - but each note in it looks like a faceted diamond, and all of them could be heard clearly, and everyone is perfect and appropriate. After Callas all others were - wrong. The second Deity became for me Franco Corelli, and after that, for a long-long time I could not find anyone else to compare with them and at last - I succeeded.
Sometimes it seems to me that such people are very peculiar, may be, even more than just people - creatures of the Demiurge, Elects of something Supreme and unfathomable, coming into the world to remind all mankind about the Divine Spark, invested in original substance at the dawn of Creation.
I admit, never had I been a great fan of countertenor`s singing. Somehow, it always lacked in the wealth of the sound for me. It lacked the breadth, depth, feeling of warm breath - as well as softness, and tender, reverent internality. And besides, I prefer lower tessitura for male voices. Light lyric and lyric coloratura sopranos, mellifluous tenors leave me uncaring. No, I certainly admire them, but only with the mind. And I miss all the in-depth feelings awfully, while listening to them.
Countertenors always troubled me with ever-whiny notes and the metallic sound, inherent to their voices, which left an impression of something lifeless, artificial, and even mechanical.
The phenomenon of Cencic  lies in the fact that for him, Impossibility is merely an apparency of the reality. Here - simultaneously and at once – you have it all. The unique combination of softness and strength, warmth and brilliance, depth and extraordinary lightness; here are exquisiteness and passion, the accuracy of phrasing and continual fluidity of sound. And in addition - absolutely incredible, filigree technique and expressiveness, which at times seems to be almost non-human. When I listen to him, he makes me laugh, and this reaction is absolutely natural one, because you always want to laugh when you are faced to a great human success. Here is an actor`s talent, brutality, intelligence, great taste and sense of humor and, above all mentioned - as the consequence and the result – the ability to be both modern and authentic, by following the inner spirit and sense - of the music, of the era, of the plot.
The astonishing mix of incredible energy that charged up in his voice and of equally incredible chariness in the manipulation of the sounds. Sometimes it seems to me that I see magician, in whose hands are little heads of dandelions - instead of small colored balls. Light, volatile, aerial lumps, which he juggles and they are dancing, obeying to the movement of the hand and losing nor one of their fuzzes.
Listening to Cencic, sometimes I feel myself as Phoenix, who dies and is born again – a delightful perception, to tell the truth.
Maria Callas, Franco Corelli and Max Emanuel Cencic...
Their singing is something not so much to hear, but rather to live, as a small, but completely independent life, filled with its own beauty and meaning. And I enjoy it not mentally, not even emotionally; I perceive it in some electrical way, by the sixth feeling, as some say, with my solar plexus. And It is that rare case when, in a single Aria, the whole Universe opens up to you.
***
23/06/2017 - 12/03/2018 – 25/03/2018
***
In the work on the text were used: 
Materials of booklets Parnassus Arts Productions: Germanico in Germania, 2013  and  Nicola Porpora. Opera Arias, 2018
Raymond E.Feist “Magician: Master”

________________________________
   (1) - Quoted  from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Germanico in Germania, 2013 
   (2) - Raymond E.Feist “Magician: Master”, chapter 4
   (3) - Max Emanuel Cen;i;, Quoted  from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Nicola Porpora. Opera Arias, 2018
   (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) - From “L`Opera”
   (7) - Quoted  from the booklet Parnassus Arts Productions: Nicola Porpora. Opera Arias, 2018