And so, when at the end of a performance, I cannot spend an hour signing autographs because I have an obligation, I announce it at the end of the spectacle.
And then, it is not an office job: I build my production teams, I follow the beginning of the rehearsals, the dress rehearsal, the premiere, which leaves me time to go and attend other opera performances, to find new singers for my future seasons... and to go on with my own career.
Another thing is that I am a good pianist and this allows me to save a lot of energy.
Between parts I was too old for and roles that were too overwhelming, out of reach then for my voice. I carved out a niche with the Wagnerian repertoire since I am attracted by its theatrical intensity.
But enough joking. I am singing. This is all my life.
But I won't deprive myself of singing opera as long as my voice follows.
But, when you are confronted with an opera, you have to keep an eye on everything: the musicians, the chorus, the ballet, the singers, the staging.
Don't you think it astonishing that, at 58, I am still working at improving my career?
Every three days on average, I am alone on stage, facing the public.
Honestly, if the public still wants to hear me in some works, I have to go down a half step.
I am looking for ways of merging my voice with the orchestra, of tuning it with a clarinet, a tenor oboe, a violin.
I am never wrong when it comes to my possibilities.
I attended less than two years of Conservatory in Mexico City.
I feel at home in an orchestral score.
I feel like a little boy who is constantly offered new toys.
I have always studied my parts with the orchestral score and not with the piano reduction.
I immediately made a living as an accompanist, coaching a chorus or taking part in tv shows.
I then realized that I could never be satisfied again with the mere natural charm of my voice, that I had to constantly paint when singing, melting all the colors, expressing reds and blacks that had to be less primary but bursting with subtly colored combinations.
I was married at 16, a father at 17 and divorced at 18.
I will prove that a great conducting career is expecting me.
I would like the public to follow, and not to go to the opera simply because they are attracted to the same big names.
If a problem is undermining you, the smallest performance becomes an insuperable obstacle. You dread it. Then, miraculously, you clear the hurdle.
If Don Giovanni does not possess low notes rich enough, then the balance is broken, and, as a consequence, all the work that preceded falls to pieces.
If money was my only motivation, I would organize myself differently.
In 1973, when I started conducting orchestras, everybody was waiting for my fall, thinking I would never be able to have two irons in the fire.
In the last century, everybody was singing lower.
It is strange, but nobody is shocked when pop singers make a fortune in the space of two years.
Let us be clear: I take ten times more money for a concert than for an opera performance.
My strength is my enthusiasm.
Not only do we sing too high but, even more, if you want to respect the spirit of the technique that the composers had at their command in the 19th century, you would have to use the head voice.
On the other hand, I have devoted so much energy to reach the top that I accept the stress of being there.
Others can afford it but do not know about the beauty of the genre and are asking to be seduced.
Resting becomes a discipline in itself.
Should it happen tomorrow, I would fall to my knees to give thanks to God for such a career.
Singing becomes a form of therapy.
The atmosphere of the theater is my oxygen.
The high note is not the only thing.
The lied does not ask for an especially high tessitura, but only for a normal one.
The press regularly proclaims my ambitions and my financial demands.
The public is a part of my real life.
The public made me and then encouraged me for many years, and my future even now depends upon it.
The voice collects and translates your bad physical health, your emotional worries, your personal troubles.
Then, starting from 1990, maturity asked for watchfulness in my choices.
There are two big categories of people that do not go to the opera. Some who will never have the financial or cultural means of doing it.
This circus games aspect has existed since the beginning of my career.
This season, over eight productions, I am presenting four young tenors.
To stay at my best, I have to stop talking during the preceding day.
We all have a destiny in accordance with the breadth of our shoulders. My shoulders are broad.
When a young artist is ready, one has to bring him into the limelight.
When facing symphonic orchestras which have played some works five thousands times, you have nothing to do.
When I was a young man, I was a baritone, very far from possessing the whole range of the tenor then.
When working with an orchestra, you never spend more than 20 minutes per recording session.
With my personal preparation at the piano, I can afford to hum at half voice.
Yes, with Pavarotti and Carreras, we make a lot of money through them.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow, I will always have to prove that I am not, at the worst, taking part in an advertising coup, and at best, that I do not indulge in a pastime.
Young singers are much better educated musically, much better informed, through discs and videos, than I was.
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