Old Friend Returns to Cincinnati

(first published in The Cincinnati Post March 2, 2004)

When Jesus Lopez-Cobos conducted Donizetti’s opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" at Chicago Lyric Opera in January and February, it was like "seeing an old friend after so many years," he said.

It hasn’t been that long – Lopez-Cobos stepped down as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in May, 2001 – but his return to the Music Hall podium this weekend is kind of like that.

Lopez-Cobos celebrated his birthday with friends in Cincinnati Sunday, some of whom made the trip to Chicago to hear him conduct "Lucia" (he turned 64 on Feb. 25).

Now music director emeritus, he leads the CSO and the May Festival Chorus in Brahms’ "Schicksalslied" ("Song of Destiny") and "Nanie" ("Threnody") at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday at Music Hall.

Guest artist is Russian violinist Vladimir Spivakov in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 ("Turkish"). Also on the program is Benjamin Britten’s "Matinees Musicales."

Lopez-Cobos conducted 11 performances of "Lucia" in Chicago with acclaimed French soprano Natalie Dessay and the hot new Argentinean tenor Marcelo Alvarez. It was his first visit to the U.S. since he closed the CSO season last May. It was also his first to Chicago Lyric Opera since 1976 and his first "Lucia" in 25 years.

The opera was a triumph, earning rave reviews from the critics, who called it "dazzling" (Chicago Sun-Times) and "fortunate in having Jesus Lopez-Cobos" (Chicago Tribune).

"Lucia" was performed in Lopez-Cobos’ own critical edition, prepared for Italian publisher Ricordi and premiered by Lopez-Cobos with soprano Montserrat Caballe and tenor Jose Carreras at London’s Covent Garden in 1976. The performance was recorded by Philips and re-issued on CD in 2002.

Lopez-Cobos looked relaxed, even exhilarated, as he discussed "Lucia" and life after the CSO in his dressing room before the Feb. 4 matinee.

"I am feeling fantastic now, much better than 10 years ago," he said.

Life after the CSO has meant opera – and in a big way. He became music director of Madrid’s historic Teatro Real in July, 2001. He has conducted at the Paris Opera every year since leaving the CSO, including Massenet’s "Manon" with soprano Rene Fleming and Alvarez in July, 2001, a performance that was recorded for Sony on CD and DVD.

He will conduct "Manon" at New York’s Metropolitan Opera with Fleming and Alvarez in September, 2005 and has a date with Chicago Lyric in 2006 for Verdi’s "Rigoletto."

The Spanish born conductor is feeling "more relaxed," too, he said. "Maybe because of more experience, everything becomes easier. I did opera for so many years" (he was principal conductor of Germany’s Deutsche Opera Berlin from 1981-90).

Most people do not know it but Donizetti did not write "Lucia" for a coloratura soprano, he said. Nor did he write the lengthy cadenza in the opera’s "mad scene" with its florid flute accompaniment. Lopez-Cobos restored the work to its original form for lyric soprano and excised the many errors that had crept into it over the years.

"The highest note in the whole score is a C. Tradition started to change the role for a coloratura and they transposed it after his (Donizetti’s) death to allow them to go to the high notes."

Because audiences (and coloratura sopranos) have come to love the transposed version, it is still largely performed that way today, he said. Dessay sang a mixed version, with her first aria in the original key and a mad scene cadenza of her own choosing.

"There were many wrong things" in the versions after Donizetti, he said, including a copyist’s error assigning an important instrumental solo to the oboe instead of the original clarinet. Lopez-Cobos also restored cuts that are traditionally taken. In Chicago, "we did only three little cuts," mostly repeats in order to rest the singers’ voices.

Lopez-Cobos will take up his Madrid post full time in the fall (he has been too busy thus far with prior engagements). Because of that – it is a six-month season - and because of the difficulty of international travel since 9-11, he will not conduct the CSO in 2004-05. He will return, however, in October, 2005 following his visit to the Met in New York.

Lopez-Cobos’ commitment to symphonic conducting remains strong despite his busy operatic schedule. He recently guest conducted at architect Santiago Calatrava’s spectacular new hall in Tenerife, the Canary Islands (featured in an eye-catching cover story in the New York Times Oct. 26).

He doubts that he would ever accept another music directorship, however. "You need 10 years at least to get really acquainted with an orchestra. To go for three, four years makes no sense. Of course, it all depends how healthy you are."

Lopez-Cobos is a builder by nature. The CSO "became recognized as a truly major American orchestra" under Lopez-Cobos, said his successor Paavo Järvi. He is building his orchestra at the Teatro Real, having added 15 new positions and begun a Sunday morning chamber music series.

Lopez-Cobos, who founded the CSO Chamber Players, hopes it will enrich his Madrid players as it has done at the CSO.

So far so good.

"The first concert was now in January. They told me the house was packed, 2,000 people," he said.

Tickets for this weekend’s CSO concerts are $13-$54, $10 for students, at (513) 381-3300, or visit the CSO web site at www.cincinnatisymphony.org.