Randolph Magri-Overend

JOSE CARBO – FROM BANDONEON TO OPERA SINGER

Jose Carbo is sitting in a café drinking black coffee.  His partner, coloratura soprano Jenna Robertson is with him.  She is drinking black coffee as well. They are both gluten-intolerant.

Carbo discovered he suffered from the ailment the hard way.  On Easter 2007 just before he was due to sing the opening night of Rossini’s Barber of Seville in Melbourne he found himself unable to speak.  The day before he’d sung with what seemed to be a congested throat.  

Fortunately it was diagnosed as not being cancerous…nor was it laryngitis.  On further examination the surgeon (after the usual Easter holiday period) discovered that the bottom of his right vocal chord had almost disintegrated.  He was advised to consider another career. After seeing an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist he was relieved to find that the biopsy revealed the sample was benign and that he was suffering from a build-up of gluten in the blood which was ‘eating’ away at the focus of greatest stress – his vocal chords.

Within 12 days of the operation and having avoided all gluten food and dairy he was back at the Sydney Opera House rehearsing the Sydney season of Barbiere.

Never, in his wildest dreams had Carbo ever entertained an operatic career.  Born in Santa Fe, Argentina to a building labourer father, he was surrounded from an early age by music (and tangos) which his maternal grandfather would play on the bandoneon (a South American version of the accordion family).  Those were the days when politically and economically Argentina had disintegrated into a basket case. The Dirty War was just around the corner. In 1972, fearing for what his family would suffer if they stayed in Argentina, Jose Carbo Sr. packed up his tools and set sail for Australia with his wife and 2 sons.  The alternatives were the United States or Canada but Australia won out.

Carbo Jr worked as a carpenter for 16 years and even headed his own construction business before a chance social gathering.  It was a barbecue, and as usual songs were sung. A friend convinced him to take singing lessons. He was 24 and this led to him receiving a diploma for operatic studies from the Sydney Conservatorium.  He was now 27.

His operatic debut in 2002 with Opera Australia was in Richard Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos and that was followed with Barbiere in which he sang the title role.  He won the Australian Singing Opera Award in 2005 and that led to more studies and more operatic work in Europe and the United States.  His 2005 operatic debut in Rome saw him sing in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro followed by another Barbiere in Madrid.  In 2009 he made his La Scala debut singing in Il Viaggo a Reims and in 2011 in another Barbiere in Seattle.

Carbo has just finished a season singing Sharpless in the Opera Australia production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly a role he debuted in China earlier this year.  He also made his debut as Scarpia in Tosca in Brisbane prior to coming down south.  Next is another Barbiere at the end of the year with the Victorian Opera and he is also scheduled to sing Giorgio Germont in the OA’s open air Sydney performance of Verdi’s La Traviata in March 2120.

In between Carbo is keeping himself busy preparing for his second CD, this time with his own trio comprising himself and guitarists Andrew Blanch and Ariel Nurhardi.  The album will feature music by Schubert, Faure, Debussy, Verdi and others.  The CD is expected to be released early next year. Carbo’s initial album, My Latin Heart, included a lot of music from his South American roots, and was recorded with The Grigoryan Brothers reaching number 1 on the Limelight Classical Music charts.  

Originally domiciled in suburban Sydney, he and Jenna now live on the Gold Coast.  Jenna herself is no slouch as a singer. She has sung in many a recital; and is currently being tutored by a master tutor.  Jose himself.

 

Published by Randolph Magri-Overend

One of the questions Randolph hates to answer is “Where do you come from?” Why? Because the answer can be so time-consuming and, in a way, also gives away how old he is!! Plus the questioner has to wrestle with the wish he hadn’t asked the question!! He was born in Cairo, Egypt, many moons ago of British parents although he can trace Maltese and Croatian ancestry in his lineage. Educated in a Jesuit college in London his wander lust for things unorthodox drove him to embark on a seafaring career with both Canadian Pacific Steamships and Shaw Savill. That in itself dates him because both lines have been redundant for many a year. One of his boasts is that he was the Purser on the “Gothic” which ten years previously had been Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Yacht soon after her coronation in 1953. One of the objects imported on the ship by HM and left behind was a tape player which Randolph utilised on many a memorable Sunday evening with a classical concert for his passengers. Thus began a journey that not only awakened Randolph’s love for good music but also eventually led to his extensive knowledge of music in all forms. That he loves the era of Sinatra, Crosby, Armstrong, Dorsey (both) and many many more exponents of the post-war music scene is also part and parcel of his appreciation of the music of many an era. These days Randolph is retired but still reviews CDs and DVDs and has written articles on such diverse personalities as Yvonne Kenny, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Alexander Briger, the late Sir John Tavener, Sir James Galway, Dawn Upshaw and countless probes into the music of Gustav Mahler, Elizabeth Shwarzkopf and her husband Walter Legge, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein and many many more he regrets to admit he has lost track of! Before emigrating to Australia, Randolph spent a number of years as a Flight Dispatcher in Canada. Since arriving in Australia, Randolph has written for The Weekend Australian (especially in their travel pages), The Sydney Morning Herald, Opera Opera and Fine Music magazine as well as some jazz magazines. If you require an extensive coverage of your music to a public that, at last count, reaches the best part of 818,000 please contact David Kary on editor.sydneyartsguide@gmail.com or email me directly on ibmar@bigpond.com. This also includes advertising any forthcoming shows by promoting featured artists. Cheers and thank you.