Roberto Alagna (; born 7 June 1963) is a French operatic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

. He obtained French citizenship in 1981, while also retaining his previous Italian citizenship.

Early years

Alagna was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, outside the city of Paris, in 1963 to a family of Sicilian immigrants. As a teenager, the young Alagna began busking and singing pop in Parisian

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...

s, mostly for tips. Influenced primarily by the films of Mario Lanza and learning from recordings of many historic tenors, he then switched to opera, but remained largely self-taught. He was discovered by Gabriel Dussurget, the co-founder of the

Aix-en-Provence Festival The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental ...

Career

After winning the

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numero ...

International Voice Competition, an initiative backed by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, that started in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label= Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and '' comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. A town, and seat o ...

in 1988, Alagna made his professional debut as Alfredo Germont in ''

La traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on '' La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his ow ...

'' with the Glyndebourne touring company. This led to many engagements throughout the smaller cities in France and Italy, mainly again as Alfredo, a role he would eventually sing over 150 times. His reputation grew and he was soon invited to sing at major theatres such as

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

in 1990,

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

in 1992 and the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

as Rodolfo in 1996. His performances of Roméo in '' Roméo et Juliette'' by

Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

at Covent Garden in 1994 (opposite Leontina Vaduva) catapulted him to international stardom. Alagna opened the 2006/07 season at La Scala on 7 December 2006 in the new production of ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

'' by

Franco Zeffirelli Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post-World War II era, ...

. During the second performance on 10 December, Alagna, whose opening performance was considered ill-at-ease, was booed and whistled from the ''loggione'' (the least expensive seats at the very back of La Scala), and he walked off the stage. The tenor's reaction to his public criticism was denounced as immature and unprofessional by La Scala management and Zeffirelli, who said, "A professional should never behave in this way. Alagna is too sensitive, it is too easy to hurt his feelings. He does not know how to act like a true star." The role of Radames was taken over successfully for the rest of the performance by his

understudy In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to a ...

Antonello Palombi Antonello Palombi (born 7 July 1968) is an Italian operatic tenor. Palombi joined the Carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police force, when he was 20. (His father was also in the Carabinieri). While stationed in Perugia and Florence, he also sang ...

, who entered on stage wearing jeans and a black shirt. In 2007 while at the Metropolitan Opera singing the role of Pinkerton in ''

Madama Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story " Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Lu ...

'', Alagna replaced the indisposed tenor Rolando Villazón as Romeo in ''Roméo et Juliette'' opposite soprano

Anna Netrebko Anna Yuryevna Netrebko (russian: Анна Юрьевна Нетребко; born 18 September 1971) is an Austrian operatic soprano with an active international career and performed prominently at the Salzburg Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Vienn ...

for two performances in September and two performances in December. Alagna was also engaged by the Metropolitan Opera at the last minute to cover for the indisposed in a 16 October 2007 performance of ''Aida''. After the performance, the audience gave him a standing ovation. The 15 December performance of ''Roméo et Juliette'' starring Alagna and Netrebko was broadcast by the Met into 447 theatres worldwide in high definition and seen by about 97,000 people. In recent years, Alagna has been an advocate of restoring to prominence neglected French operas – Alfano's ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

'', Massenet's '' Le jongleur de Notre-Dame'', Lalo's ''

Fiesque ''Fiesque'' (''The Genoese Conspiracy'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Édouard Lalo. The libretto, by Charles Beauquier, is based on Schiller's 1784 play, '' Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua'', an account of the conspir ...

'', and new works – Vladimir Cosma's ''

Marius et Fanny is an opera (''opéra comique'') in two acts composed by Vladimir Cosma. The libretto by Michel Lengliney, Jean-Pierre Lang, Michel Rivegauche, Antoine Chalamel, Michel Arbatz and Vladimir Cosma is based on Marcel Pagnol's stage and film trilogy ...

'' and his brother David Alagna's ''Le dernier jour d'un condamné''. He has also recorded light music with an homage album to

Luis Mariano Luis Mariano Eusebio González García (13 August 1914 – 14 July 1970), also known as Luis Mariano, was a popular tenor of Spanish origin who achieved celebrity in 1946 with "La belle de Cadix" ("The Beautiful Lady of Cadix") an operetta by ...

, ''Sicilien'', and ''Pasión''. Alagna was scheduled to make his debut at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

on opening day, 25 July 2018, in the title role of a new production of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's '' Lohengrin''. Alagna withdrew from the festival on 29 June 2018 citing failure to learn the role in time.

Personal life

Alagna's first wife, Florence Lancien, died of a brain tumour in 1994; they had one daughter, Ornella, who was born in 1992. In 1996, he married Romanian

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880& ...

Angela Gheorghiu Angela Gheorghiu (; ; born 7 September 1965) is a Romanian soprano, especially known for her performances in the operas of Puccini and Verdi, widely recognised by critics and opera lovers as one of the greatest sopranos of all time. Embarking h ...

. The couple announced a divorce in 2009, but had reunited by 2011. However, in January 2013, the couple mutually agreed on a formal divorce. Alagna and Polish soprano

Aleksandra Kurzak Aleksandra Kurzak (Polish pronunciation: ; born 7 August 1977) is a Polish operatic soprano who has an international career primarily in Europe and the United States. In her earlier career she was a specialist in lyric and coloratura soprano role ...

had begun a relationship, and their daughter, Malena, was born on 29 January 2014. Alagna and Kurzak married in 2015. Alagna has worked together on several projects with his brothers Frédérico Alagna and the stage director and composer David Alagna. The three brothers recorded an album of light music, ''Serenades'', and worked together on the younger brother David's opera based on

Hugo's Hugo's Family Marketplace is a family-owned chain of supermarket grocery stores located in the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota. It was founded by Hugo and Dorothy Magnuson in 1939. Hugo's is headquartered in the city of Grand Forks, Nor ...

''Last Day of a Condemned Man''. Alagna has often sung Alfano's Cyrano opposite his sister-in-law

Nathalie Manfrino Nathalie Manfrino is a French soprano. For UNIVERSAL- DECCA, She recorded her first disc, "French Heroines" with The Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, DECCA label, which received the Golden Orpheus and the "Georg Solti prize". Her second solo re ...

as Roxane. The government of France named Alagna Chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in 2008.

Opera roles

* Alfredo, ''

'' (Verdi) * Manrico, ''

Il trovatore ''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...

'' (Verdi) * Don José, ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...

'' (Bizet) * Rodolfo, ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...

'' (Puccini) * Roméo, '' Roméo et Juliette'' (Gounod) * Edgardo, ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...

'' (Donizetti) * Edgar, '' Lucie de Lammermoor'' (French adaptation) (Donizetti) * Fritz, '' L'amico Fritz'' (Mascagni) * Hoffmann, '' Les Contes d'Hoffmann'' (Offenbach) * Mario Cavaradossi, ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramati ...

'' (Puccini) * Macduff, ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' (Verdi) * Nemorino, ''

L'elisir d'amore ''L'elisir d'amore'' (''The Elixir of Love'', ) is a ' (opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's ' (1831). The opera pre ...

'' (Donizetti) * Paolo, ''

Francesca da Rimini Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (died between 1283 and 1286) was a medieval noblewoman of Ravenna, who was murdered by her husband, Giovanni Malatesta, upon his discovery of her affair with his brother, Paolo Malatesta. She was a co ...

'' (Zandonai) * Roberto, '' Roberto Devereux'' (Donizetti) * Cyrano, ''

'' (Alfano) * Don Carlos, ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

'' (Verdi) * Don Carlo, ''Don Carlo'' (Italian adaptation) (Verdi) * Werther, ''

Werther ''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel '' Th ...

'' (Massenet) * Le Chevalier des Grieux, ''

Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was firs ...

'' (Massenet) * Jean, '' Le jongleur de Notre-Dame'' (Massenet) * Faust, ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'' (Gounod) * Ruggero, ''

La rondine ''La rondine'' (''The Swallow'') is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and . It was first performed at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo (or the Thé� ...

'' (Puccini) * Orphée, ''

Orphée et Eurydice ' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an ...

'' (Gluck) * Pinkerton, ''

'' (Puccini) * Turiddu, '' Cavalleria rusticana'' (Mascagni) * Canio, ''

Pagliacci ''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, "Clowns") is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who ...

'' (Leoncavallo) * Duke of Mantua, ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...

'' (Verdi) * Fiesque, ''

'' (Lalo) * Marius, ''

'' (Cosma) * Radamès, ''

'' (Verdi) * Rodrigue, '' Le Cid'' (Massenet) * Ulysse, ''

Pénélope ''Pénélope'' is an opera in three acts by the French composer Gabriel Fauré. The libretto, by René Fauchois is based on Homer's '' Odyssey''. It was first performed at the Salle Garnier, Monte Carlo on 4 March 1913. The piece is dedicat ...

'' (Fauré) * Enée, ''

Les Troyens ''Les Troyens'' (; in English: ''The Trojans'') is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem the ''Aeneid''; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. ''Les T ...

'' (Berlioz) * Nadir, ''

Les pêcheurs de perles ' (''The Pearl Fishers'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances ...

'' (Bizet) * Riccardo, ''

Un ballo in maschera ''Un ballo in maschera'' ''(A Masked Ball)'' is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, '' Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué''. Th ...

'' (Verdi) * Calaf, ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...

'' (Puccini) * Chevalier des Grieux, '' Manon Lescaut'' (Puccini) * Samson, '' Samson et Dalila'' (Saint-Saëns) * Otello, ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play '' Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. ...

'' (Verdi)

Discography

Albums

Singles

Videography

* ''

James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala ''James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala'' was a concert, lasting (including intermissions) approximately eight hours, that the Metropolitan Opera staged in 1996 in honour of its then principal conductor and artistic director. Exc ...

'' (1996), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, B0004602-09

References

External links

Roberto Alagna
at universalmusic.fr (French) * *
Reviews, articles, photos and future schedules from The Opera Critic

Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
*

Alagna, Roberto (Tenor)
performance record from MetOpera database {{DEFAULTSORT:Alagna, Roberto 1963 births Living people People from Clichy-sous-Bois French operatic tenors French buskers French people of Sicilian descent Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur 20th-century French male opera singers 21st-century French male opera singers Deutsche Grammophon artists EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists Sony Classical Records artists Erato Records artists Singers from Paris