Roberto Alagna

REVIEW | Concert PHILHARMONIE of Paris (06/22/2015) | By Patrice Henriot for OPERA MAGAZINE | "A demonstration of valiance, vocal freshness and style"

 

"The 2014/2015 season of the Great Voices brilliantly ends at the Philharmonie de Paris, with this recital, featuring alternating arias and duets by Verdi in the first part and, after the intermission, from the French opera. Above all, its eclectic program confirms the indisputable place of Alagna - in a dazzling shape - serving these two repertoires. [...]

 

The duet Federica /Rodolfo from Luisa Miller shows all the promises of the Ukrainian mezzo and the suprem ease of the French tenor. Radames's replies facing Amneris (from Aida, Act IV) as well as the dialog between Samson and Dalila (Act II), are for Roberto Alagna an opportunity to demonstrate his valiance, vocal freshness and style : sustained tone, flexibility, projection, long sentences, diction.

 

The monologue "Non, je ne suis pas un impie" from "The last day of a condemned man" reminds what can and must be the French lyrical declamation. In the final scene of Carmen, the tenor, as a worthy heir of the very greatest, built a real progression and offered a perfect range of nuances in the opposition of the two "Tu ne m'aimes donc plus?" by Don José: a first C in pianissimo reflecting his anxiety, then a fortissimo G reflecting his desperate conclusion.

 

The generous encore are revealing in Boris Godunov the true vocality of Iryna Zhytynska as a seductive Marina, opposite Roberto Alagna as a glorious Dimitri. After an Ukrainian song, a Neapolitan melody and the duet of La Périchole, performed very stylish, the soloists resumed the first of these encore once more."