In On Opera and Other Herbs, we talked with Josué Cerón –a member artist of Escena Digital– about opera, art and the Latin American panorama of the performing arts.

 

Belcantista-style Mexican baritone, Josué Cerón has sung in different venues ranging from the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Conrad Prebys Music Hall in San Diego and the Lunenburg Academy of Music in Canada, to various international venues in the United States. , Italy, Japan, among others. This artist has performed both traditional repertoires and contemporary music of the 21st century.

 

You can check his profile in Escena Digital HERE

 

Did you always wanted to be an opera singer? Why?

Not always, at the beginning of my musical studies I had the objective of studying orchestral conducting. But soon after I discovered singing and fell in love with it for all that it offered as preparation and professional projection. Every day that I spent in the conservatory I got more and more involved in that field until I decided to stay there permanently.

 

What do you like the most about this art?

The learning and rehearsal process for a new montage, since it is the most challenging and satisfying part, because it means discovering a new world; it doesn’t matter if I’ve sung the title before, there is always something to discover in the score and in the libretto.

 

What is your favorite show?

The opera without a doubt. There’s so many titles that I could not listed them all. However, my favorites are those where theatre is so closely linked to music that they transport you to that fiction as if it were reality.

 

What songwriter or songwriter could you listen to every day?

Johann Sebastian Bach who, although he did not compose opera, does have a lot of vocal music. In it I find a perfect balance between beauty and technical perfection. His works are of a high complexity in the musical, full of counterpoints, risky harmonies, ornaments; however, they are constructed in such a way that the aesthetic never detracts: the beauty of these melodies are exemplary.

 

 

Can you mention works from the Latin American repertoire?

I love Daniel Catán’s operas. The maestro had a highly developed intuition to select attractive librettos, with stories that could be perfectly adapted to his musical language, resulting in highly successful titles such as Salsipuedes, Florencia en el Amazonas and La Hija de Rappaccini.

CC: América Iber Música

What Latin American artist has been a good ambassador of our continent in the world?

In my opinion, Juan Diego Flórez has been one of the most relevant. He left his homeland Peru very young to carry the name of his country and his continent high up in the world. He has been an uninterrupted international career for more than 20 years at a superstar level but always recognizing his origins: there is no concert or recital where he does not include pieces in Spanish, where he accompanies himself and feels proud of being Latino.

 

 

What Latin American work would you like to perform?

There is an opera that from the first time I listened to it caught my attention a lot. It is called The Visitors, composed by the Mexican Carlos Chávez. I witnessed the definitive premiere in 1999 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. For me it was a discovery because of the musical language that Chávez used. I did not believe what he was hearing, they were new sounds for me but that amazed me with each passing measure. Since then it has not been replenished, so there is a good area of ​​opportunity for opera companies there.

 

What is your favorite theater?

La Scala in Milan for me is the most emblematic theater not only in Italy, but also in Europe. Emblematic operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini, etc. were premiered there. that are part of the traditional repertoire of today. The energy that reigns in its walls is full of all that tradition. Being there means knowing and living the genesis of romantic lyrical art in all the extension of the word.

 

What do you consider to be your greatest professional achievement?

Having been able to make his professional debut very young (at 22 years old) in a leading role, which was the staging of La Hija del Regimiento at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (2004). The invitation came a few months after I won second place in the “Carlo Morelli” National Singing Competition. It was a dream come true; an event that, without waiting for it, arrived and makes my days happy until today. Just in February 2020 we made a concert replacement of these functions, with the original cast.