CONCERT - SAINT ETIENNE
Programm
Guillaume Tell - Rossini - Ouverture
Eugène Onéguine - Tchaikovsky - Kuda, Kuda
Sadko - Rimski-Korsakov - Chanson Hindoue
Mignon - Thomas - Elle ne croyait pas...
Le Roi d'Ys - Lalo - Vainement ma bien aimée
L'Attaque du Moulin - Bruneau - Le jour tombe...
Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné - David Alagna - Intermezzo
Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné - David Alagna - Non, je ne suis pas un impie
La Gioconda - Ponchielli - Cielo e Mar
Lohengrin - Wagner - Prélude
Lohengrin - Wagner - In fernem land
La Danse des Heures - Ponchielli
BIS
Granada
Funiculì, funicula
Performance
Grand Théâtre Massenet of Saint Etienne
15th of May 2022
Cast
Press Review
Olyrix - Pierre Géraudie - 15 May 2022
ALAGNA RADIATES AND SHINES FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER OF THIS DELIGHTFUL RECITAL
Allowing us to appreciate the full extent of the talent of an artist whose charisma and generosity are as undeniable as ever... Ardent and expressive timbre, sonorous singing, powerful and long voice, suave and delicate legato, perfect diction, refined sense of prosody, seraphic mid-tones and high notes, permanent brilliance, expressive power, stamina, dramatic strength, powerful sense of embodiment, remarkably well-groomed German... The French tenor regaled and conquered the public of Saint-Etienne who came in great numbers to the Grand Théâtre Massenet to attend this recital with a programme that was, to say the least, eclectic and demanding, mixing genres and languages
READ MORE (EXTRACTS): "Just back from Berlin for a revival of Lohengrin by Calixto Bieito, Roberto Alagna stops by Saint-Etienne for a "carte blanche" recital with a rich content. This recital does not only feature hits from the French or Italian repertoire in which the tenor is always so brilliant, but also gives us the chance to hear works that are often less well known. Conceived as a real journey through the ages and languages, the concert sees a succession of Russian, French, German, Italian... and even [Spanish], Corsican and Neapolitan repertoire during the multiple encores. A programme defined as "demanding" by the tenor himself during a speech between two arias, and which once again allows us to appreciate the full extent of the talent of an artist whose charisma and generosity are still undeniable.
With his timbre that remains so ardent and expressive, recognisable among a thousand others, Roberto Alagna radiates from the outset in Eugene Onegin's Lensky ("Kuda Kuda"), [...] where his powerful sense of embodiment and his concern for perfect diction assert themselves in this instance. Already the voice is sonorous and long, rich in a suave and delicate legato, full of the poetic melancholy that is the subject of this work. A refined sense of prosody which is also valid for this "Hindu Song" from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko, sung in the language of Molière, which gives the artist the opportunity of a ready-made transition to this French repertoire that he loves so much [...] [with] a sequence of poetic and lyrical arias: "Elle ne croyait pas", from Ambroise Thomas' Mignon, "Vainement ma bien aimée" from Edouard Lalo's Roi d'Ys, or the aria "Le jour tombe tombe", from the opera L'Attaque du moulin composed in 1893 by Alfred Bruneau after the work of Emile Zola.
The embodiment of passionate love and elegiac nostalgia in the face of the fading day is translated by the voice, as well as the hands, sometimes closed on the chest, sometimes projected forward, the head turned upwards but the gaze never lost (because always expressive). The singing is sonorous and yet sensitive, the mid-tones culminating in seraphic high notes, while the brilliance is permanent in her singing line and intelligibility. From the opera composed by her brother David Alagna, Le dernier Jour d'un condamné (from which the beautiful Intermezzo is also performed), the aria "Non je ne suis pas un impie" calls for more power and stamina in a voice that is not lacking in them, and which carries this role with such dramatic force and ardent lyricism.
Before a short incursion into the Italian repertoire ("Cielo e Mar" from Ponchielli's La Gioconda), there is finally Lohengrin, whose "In fernem land" [...] Roberto Alagna serves here in remarkably careful German, [...] with great expressive power. The embodiment of the knight, whose flame burns as much in the darkness of his tone as in his very dynamic gestures, fully touches the audience, which asks for more, and which obtains, by the strength of his Chimène's eyes and his hearty applause, several encores, starting with the fiery "Granada", which warms up the whole hall in one go. Strolling all over the stage, and with a sunny smile, the showman also takes a communicative pleasure to make the audience sing (which does not deprive itself of it!) on the well-known refrain of "Funiculì, funiculà" with the air of a joyful popular festival, before concluding on a Corsican song much more intimate serving him, dixit the singer, "to put his daughter to sleep". But the audience, so delighted by this recital concluded with a long ovation, obviously avoids any beginning of sleepiness. [The star guest of the day shines from one end of the joyful recital to the other.