Roberto Alagna

Programm

TOSCA

Duo - Mario, Mario...    

Piano Solo - Recondita Armonia

Aria - Vissi d'Arte

Aria - E Lucevan le Stelle 

MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Aria - Un bel di Vedremo

Aria - Addio fiorito Asil

Piano Solo - Coro Bocca Chiuso

Duo - Vogliatemi Bene

ENTRACTE

MANON LESCAUT

Aria - Donna non vidi mai

Aria - In quelle Trine

Piano Solo - Intermezzo

Duo - Tu, tu amore tu

ADAGIO EN LA MAJEUR

Piano

LA BOHEME

Aria - Che gelida Manina

Aria - Si mi chiamano Mimi

Duo - O Soave fanciulla

Performances

Grand Théâtre de Genève

26th of may 2024

Cast

Aleksandra Kurzak - Soprano

Roberto Alagna - Ténor

Marek Ruszczynski - Piano

Press Review

Resmusica - Jacques Schmitt - 29 May 2024
 

In 2018, Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak recorded an album with the evocative title of ‘Puccini in love’. Dedicated to the music of Giacomo Puccini, this CD was a great success with both critics and audiences. The two opera singers used the same title for the recital they presented at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. With the most emblematic arias and duets from Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Manon Lescaut and La Bohème, the programme is mouth-watering. The Geneva public will be delighted to see Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak for the first time on the stage of the Grand Théâtre de Genève, as well as having the unique opportunity to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the death of Giacomo Puccini. Indeed, the Geneva opera house has not programmed any opera by the master of Lucca on its stage. Not this season, nor the next!

So it was to enthusiastic applause that the immensely charismatic Roberto Alagna and the smiling Aleksandra Kurzak made their entrance. From the outset, they attack the duet from the first act of Tosca in which Floria Tosca utters her sonorous "Mario! Mario! Mario!" with a superbly controlled voice, free of stridency and astonishingly powerful. Alagna-Cavaradossi responded with a magnificent ‘Son qui’ that immediately demonstrated the tenor's absolute mastery of diction. We are transported. You think you're about to witness a great moment of lyrical art. But after a few lines, the tenor's voice becomes uncomfortable. The voice needs to warm up. But the unease persists. Perhaps a temporary lack of energy? However, with each of her interventions, we sense a slight difficulty in getting the voice to flow. For her part, Aleksandra Kurzak, apparently more at ease, remains attentive to the extreme while taking care not to be thrown off balance by her partner's slight vocal difficulties.

After a ‘Recondita armonia’ played with exaggerated delicacy by Marek Ruszczynski's piano, Aleksandra Kurzak offered a very beautiful ‘Vissi d'arte’ initiated by a pianissimo attack of the most beautiful effect. The Polish soprano demonstrates an excellent sense of theatrical phrasing. In this aria, she embodies the character of the wounded woman without the whining emphasis so often heard. In these few notes, she is a proud, womanly Tosca, and the soprano shows, if proof were needed, that the intelligence of her singing is enough to describe the intimacy of her character.
Then Roberto Alagna returned for Cavaradossi's famous aria ‘E lucevan le stelle’. Once again, his singing raises questions. As long as the sound remains piano, we find the tenor voice we know. The only difference is that it no longer has all the colours we once admired. But as soon as the tone rises, the volume amplifies, and the high notes are approached, his voice becomes hoarse and loses its clarity, with frequent and constant mishaps with the pitch, however slight.

This is how the whole recital unfolds. Between Alexandra Kurzak's impeccable restraint, forcing herself to an intelligent vocal approach to maintain the balance of this recital, and Roberto Alagna's frequent struggle to keep up with his companion, the audience of amateurs suffers from this situation. Admittedly, this aridity in the upper register is not catastrophic, but it is still annoying. In ‘Addio ,fiorito asil’ from Madama Butterfly or in ‘Donna non vidi mai...’ from Manon Lescaut, for example, the high notes are shortened, leaving the listener hungry for the vocal exaggerations typical of Italian opera singing.

If we want to explain the difference felt here compared to the recital Roberto Alagna gave a few months ago in Gstaad, we can no doubt say that the dimensions of the church in Saanen require much less vocal power than that needed at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva. What's more, it's Roberto Alagna's current high notes that stand in the way of his beautiful singing. The lower and middle registers remain magnificent, as in his superb “Hai ben raggione” from Il Tabarro, which he sang as an encore after Aleksandra Kurzak's beautiful “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi.

To return to the recording mentioned above, it is important to say that an orchestra was used to accompany the singers. At the Grand Théâtre de Genève, they were accompanied by a single piano, thus exposing the voices. What's more, the Polish pianist Marek Ruszczynski was excessively discreet on the piano, so much so that you might have imagined his instrument was made of crystal, as his light touch on the keyboard sometimes gave the impression that the singers were speaking a capella.

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