Javier Camarena, Tito, Lucia, Paris…
Hi there!
This week was really special to me. I continue with rehearsals of Lucia, they are going really well, I get along with the stage director which makes always things better cause although we may have different points of view he is always open to ideas and other way of seeing things, so it is always nice to have someone who is flexible but without compromising their vision. On Wednesday I had another performance of Tito, it was number three and I really enjoyed that performance, I felt really well vocally, very free to do what I wanted with my voice and the way I wanted the phrases go and the way my body follow my mind.
On Thursday morning, I took the train around 7:30 am towards Stuttgart and then changed trains to Paris. The reason was to see Javier Camarena who was rehearsing this week in Paris Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Bastille. He had the general rehearsal on Thursday evening and premiere on Saturday. I also managed to see the premiere on Saturday and it was great both times.
Javier Camarena is one of the most prominent tenors right now singing at a great level. He is very well known for his belcanto roles and his brilliant squillo in the high register, or best say the high notes, he is a master when it comes to those upper notes, that are not only powerful but they have beauty and feel so secure and stable. He is so expressive with his singing as well, a very smart artist.
To tell you the story of how I was able to see his rehearsal and premiere, as well as how I managed to meet him privately in between would take me pages and pages, but I will try to make it as simple as possible and of course for privacy purposes I will have to omit many details. So, here we go...
I met Javier Camarena back when I was at the Opernstudio in Zurich 2012 and he was singing around that time already in the ensemble there, he was singing Ferrando and doing freelancing already in big places. Through the years I have followed his career and occasionally met in Mexico when he was giving a talk at the conservatoire where I studied. I also saw a concert he gave in Bellas Artes. Few months ago I contact him and mentioned to him that I will sing Edgardo in a couple of months here at Wuerzburg Theater and I asked him if he could advice me about this role that he has now performed in several productions, at Metropolitan Opera House, I think at Teatro Real in Madrid, to mention some, and now at La Bastille in Paris. He kindly replied and said it would be possible perhaps if I send him a recording and he could give me a feedback and perhaps to talk more about the role and the music rather than the technique things. Around two weeks ago when I finally started rehearsals of Lucia here, I contacted him again, and he mentioned that he would have this Thursday his general rehearsal and that he could get me a ticket to it. So, that was all he had to said for me to make the impossible to try to go all the way to Paris to see his rehearsal and hopefully meet him privately at some point to talk about the role and literally just to meet him and talk to him, it did not matter to me how little time he would give me I would take it. I know how busy and focussed someone like him must be and to give time to me, which I am obviously a sort of stranger to him, let us not forget is me the one following his career so I am the one who knows about him, not the other way around.
I managed to get 3 days free from the theater thanks the the stage director and the operndirektor, which happens rarely, so for this opportunity am forever grateful. To my surprise Javier was able to meet me before this general rehearsal and we got lunch together at The Marché des Enfants Rouges which is the oldest covered market in Paris, we got there some Japanese food. I also had the opportunity to meet him on Friday morning for coffee and breakfast at a local coffee and La Carré Pain De Mie which is a Japanese style bakery were they sell incredible Shokupan with Japanese flour, we both had their special Tonkatsu sandwich and it was just so delicious. On Saturday as a present Akiho invited me the ticket for the premiere. I was not planning neither staying until saturday evening nor planning on going to the premiere. Last minute decision, I go to the theater and there are no tickets left which I checked online and there were sitll tickets but they sold out. At the ticket office just 5 minutes before the show some tickets were returned and I got one ticket ( a very expensive one) and managed to see the incredible premiere. After the performance I just wanted to go back stage to get an autograph from Javier and possibly someone else from the cast. I waited not long, and Javier came out and I asked him for it. Then he said "let's go for a beer", I just wanted the autograph and I did not want to take his time cause he had already been really kind and already we had severals hours of chatting in Paris, so I replied that I did not wanted to bother him and his time with his colleagues. To that he replied it was not a bother and so we went for drinks in a bar right across the opera. We spent again few hourse talking. I have just one word to describe the several meetings and that word is "great".
We met three times, we got food, coffee, did some walking together through the amazing city of Paris. The experience for me was so inspiring and did lots of learning about him. I really enjoy learning about the person behind the artist, and the opera star. I guess we spoke around 10 hours in total. During this time we spoke of course of Edgardo, aobut the rehearsals, how he felt in both rehearsal and premiere, we spoke about the entire role, the way he approaches the music, the challenging phrases, how to plan the role, so that one gets to the end still with good voice, we talk about certains positions, how to keep the height of the sound in some places, how to manage or drive through the music. We spoke about technique, I had some very crucial questions that if I did not meet him I would have never been able to ask him. I explain my current situation vocally speaking, my situation at the theater here, my private life, my wishes, etc. We spoke about our families, about his career and challenges and moments of great joy as well, about roles, repertoire, about tenors, conductor, stage directors, theaters, etc. We also spoke some jokes, about series on Netflix, or series like the Mandalorian, The last of us, etc... Just random stuff, I loved it.
It was at least for me, such a natural connection, so simple and so easy to talk to him (a star), we were just both very easy talking to each other, and because of that I was really surprise, and I am really grateful that he opened to me a complete stranger and specially that he took the time to meet me. For me the one of the most important things in life is time, cause is it never comes back, so for me to be able to spend time and learn from him for several hours is something I will treasure all my life and I am really without words to describe the sense of motivation, inspiration, and I am full of admiration towards him. I admired him already before we met this time in Paris, now afterwards I feel so much more admiration, not only because the artist he is, but for his human kindness and just the way he is.
Normally, I learn about the stories of great tenors through interviews I see in youtube or documentaries, but to have the expererience to actually talk to one of them and learn from them directly over some coffee or lunch is just incredible, and in Paris, what a feeling.
The rest of the time I had to wonder in Paris I walked so many kilometers every day, for example on Friday I walked 23 Kilometers, I just wonder in differet neighborhoods, like Le Marais, Saint-Germain-des-Près, Montmartre, The Latin Quarter, among others. I also marked on google maps several specialty coffees, and bakeries, also cheese shops. Among the coffee places I visited my top 2 are Kawa Coffee and KB coffee, from Bakeries my favorite were Aki (Japanese bakery), La Carré Pain De Mie ( Japanese bread), Pain Pain near Sacre- Coeur, The French Bastards, although I must say I think there are so, so many great bakeries in Paris, but these are some that I tried I loved. The Japanese bakery called Aki also has a Coffee place and a Restaurant. The restaurant is just in front of the bakery and I went there for lunch one time and I got a delicious Okonomiyaki Osaka style, and they told me at the restaurant also the Soba noodles are a great option. To mention, there are also incredible Passages hidden in the streets of central Paris, I found several of them, also there are several enchanting streets with lots of specialty shops, one of those is a cheese shop called TAKA & VERMO - Artisans Fromagers, definitely great cheese and they were so friendly, I brought some back to Wuerzburg. This time I was not able to visit museums, this was my fourth time in Paris and in my previews visits I made museums and historic places and monuments a priority and this time my priority was Opera, Javier Camarena and get lost in the city and wonder its streets and it was just great, however I did a whole planned morning around Sacre- Coeur, and loved it. I wanted to go to Orangerie Museum but I changed the plan to meet a pianist friend of mine with whom I studied at the Royal Academy in London. We met for coffee Sunday morning before I came back to Wuerzburg and we went for a walk and grab some lunch at a very local bistro. She is french so I was happy she could choose where to have lunch. It was great to meet her and catch up in life. She is a very good pianist who in recent years has done lots of opera.
Anyways, I stop here otherwise I keep writing, I am sure I am missing places I visited and things I saw in Paris, but I think is enough for this blog, if I do remember something important I will write it down on my blog for next week. For now I say goodbye to you and I hope you have a great week ahead of you.
