Roberto Alagna

Programm

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

« Ogne pena cchiù spiatata » - (Lo frate 'nnamorato)

André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry

« Du moment qu'on aime » - (Zémire et Azor)

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Arrangement pour piano de Giovanni Sgambati Wq.30 (Orfeo ed Euridice)

Étienne Nicolas Méhul

« Vainement Pharaon » - (Joseph en Égypte)

Gaetano Donizetti

« Adina credimi te ne scongiure » -  (L'Elisir d'amore)

Gioachino Rossini

Hachis romantique - (Péchés de vieillesse)

Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski

« Kuda, kuda » - (Eugène Onéguine)

Giuseppe Verdi

« Niun mi tema » - (Otello)

Pietro Mascagni

Intermezzo - (Cavalleria rusticana)

Giacomo Puccini

« Parigi ! È la città dei desideri » - (La Rondine)

Franco Alfano

« Sa lettre ! … N'aviez-vous pas dit qu'un jour, peut-être » - (Cyrano de Bergerac)

Nikolaï Rimski-Korsakov

Chanson hindoue - (adapté de l'opéra Sadko)

Eduardo di Capua et Alfredo Mazzucchi

« 'O sole mio »

David Alagna

« Non, je ne suis pas un impie » - (Le dernier jour d'un condamné)

Performance

Salle de l'Unesco à Paris

Monday 17th  of January2022

Opening "Son Week"

Cast

Roberto Alagna - Ténor

Morgane Fauchois-Prado - Piano

About...

Roberto Alagna has been asked to sponsor the 36th "Week of Sound" organised by Unesco 

Press Review

Forumopera - Jean-Michel Pennetier - 01/17/2022

❝After his dazzling concert in Gaveau, Alagna returns to us in an equally remarkable form with a programme spanning over four centuries of opera, served up with an equal felicity ... impeccable diction from the French singer, perfectly understandable in all his inflections ... his voice developed in width, with a powerful and darker midrange, without losing its brilliance in the high register ... touching Nemorino, great and sober interpretation of Lenski, beautiful interiorised death of Otello, without artifice ...  a frank and sonorous voice ... a remarkable feat in Cyrano's deeply moving death ... O sole mio rightly sunny, authentic emotion in the aria of the Condemned man ... In symbiosis with his audience - reduced in this pandemic time to 200 people scattered around the large auditorium - the tenor yet succeeded in the challenge of creating a listening experience of quality❞ 

FULL TRANSLATION (from French) : « A month ago, Roberto Alagna delighted the audience at the Salle Gaveau with a dazzling concert devoted to theatrical characters. The tenor returns to us at the UNESCO in an equally remarkable form, and in an almost totally different programme spanning over four centuries of opera. The eleven pages are given almost in the order of their composition, beginning with 'Ogne pena cchiù spiatata' from Frate 'nnamorato (1732). The aria is usually given to a soprano but is commonly sung by other vocal types. Here Roberto Alagna sings the original Neapolitan version, not the usual Italian version "Ogni pena più spietata". "Du moment qu'on aime", from Grétry's Zémire et Azor (1771: a variation on La Belle et la Bête), allows us to appreciate the French singer's impeccable diction, perfectly understandable in all its inflections. "Vainement Pharaon', from Méhul's Joseph en Égypte (1807) has been quite regularly in the tenor's repertoire for almost 30 years. This listening allows us to measure the vocal evolution of Roberto Alagna, whose voice has developed in width, with a powerful and darker midrange, without losing its brilliance in the upper register. "Adina credimi te ne scongiure' from L'Elisir d'amore (1832) is a bit of a curiosity in a recital, since on stage it is a quartet between Nemorino, Adina, Belcore and Giannetta accompanied by the chorus of villagers. This page reminds us for a moment of the touching Nemorino that Roberto Alagna knows how to portray on stage. The tenor would undoubtedly be an ideal Lenski on stage, but this prospect is unfortunately unlikely: we can console ourselves with his beautiful and sober interpretation of 'Kuda, kuda' from Eugene Onegin (1879). On the other hand, we are familiar with the French tenor's Otello (1887). Here he offers us a beautiful, interiorised death, without artifice. A radical change of atmosphere with the extract from La Rondine (1917) performed with a smile on his face. Another change of atmosphere with Cyrano de Bergerac. This character is certainly one of the singer’s most personal and intimate dramatic embodiment. Here he gives us a rather heartrending death, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that he is accompanied by the piano. The Song of India was adapted for violin, piano and, of course, for non-Russian singers. It is the only page from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko to have achieved such a popularity. The work was first performed in 1898: the programme strays here from the  chronological progression, which was perhaps only by chance (and anyway, it's an encore!). Roberto Alagna tackles it with a frank and sonorous voice, and one might prefer more idiomatic interpretations by Russian tenors using the mixed register.  After a rightly sunny 'O sole mio', Roberto Alagna once again defends Le dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man), composed by his brother David (2007), with a genuine emotion. The eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries are thus served up with equal felicity. At the piano, Morgane Fauchois-Prado demonstrates a beautiful musicality. Her solo performances are of great sensitivity (in the transpositions of Orfeo ed Euridice and Cavalleria rusticana) and of the necessary virtuosity for the romantic Hachis which seems to parody Franz Liszt. We know the symbiosis that Roberto Alagna knows how to create with his audience. As a result of the COVID, the large UNESCO hall was only open to 200 spectators scattered around the auditorium. The challenge was not small but the French tenor succeeded in creating a listening experience of quality. The mobile phones, which were quite audible during the various preliminary speeches, had finally fallen silent for the occasion! »

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