Roberto Alagna

REVIEW - CYRANO DE BERGERAC at The Metropolitan Opera (05/02/2017) | "Finesse, delicate quality, ease, strength and intensity. Alagna leaps into the vocal stratosphere with no sign of difficulty, blasts through the orchestra with unbridled enthusiasm; At his most dynamic dramatically, Alagna continually amazed the viewer, unraveling newer layers of Cyrano, sweeping up into the whirlwind emotions of his character" by @David Salazar for operawire.com

 

EXCERPT: "Cyrano’s first entrance is off-stage [...]. Here Alagna, despite being nowhere to be seen penetrated the Met auditorium with lush sound, announcing himself as a force to be contended with. [...]. Cyrano comes onstage and takes out the actor, proceeds to defeat an opponent in a sword fight while singing one of the famous passages in the work, the aria “Je jette avec grâce mon feutre.” Here Alagna showed off his finesse, every note connected in fluent legato and confident tone, hinting at the ease with which Cyrano dispatched poetry and swordplay. This aria employs a lot of leaps into the vocal stratosphere (as does the entire role), but at the start, Alagna dispatched those ascents with no sign of difficulty. But at each reprise of the main melody, his tenor seemed to grow in strength and intensity, the vibrato stronger, the sound more potent and jumps into the upper range more accentuated, wrapping up a portrait of a fearless and dominant man.[...] Back to his vibrant self at the act’s conclusion, his voice, in the high range, blasts through the orchestra with unbridled enthusiasm before going off to fight. The ensuing act showcased Alagna at his most dynamic dramatically. Jumping from anxiety as he awaited Roxane and wrote her a letter, to hilarious stupefaction as she described her lover (and he continually responded with intensifying “Ahh’s,” to audience laughter and delight) to fierce loyalty as he swore protection for her lover, Alagna continually amazed the viewer as he unraveled newer and fresher layers of this hero. [...]

 

[In the balcony scene] his singing had a delicate quality but slowly growing in intensity. We could feel the sound blossoming into a brighter timbre, the oscillations quicker and the volume spilling into the auditorium with greater weight. As the orchestra grew in its own assertion, so did Alagna, sweeping up in the whirlwind emotions of the character. [...]

 

But the crowning moment of the performance perhaps came at the very end of the opera. 15 years after the previous events, Cyrano appears injured and hurt. Alagna imbued him with a hobbled walk, his vocal color darker and restrained to provide a sense of the character breaking down. [...] As he read the final letter back to her, he sounded rejuvenated, the brilliance of sound from that balcony scene returning and his sound growing in potency. Right before dying, Alagna pushed his vocal resources to their limits in one final act of heroism that brought the opera to a powerful close. In just two hours, we truly felt that we had gotten to immerse ourselves in the psyche of this character and Alagna is the reason why."