Roberto Alagna

Roberto Alagna

OTELLO - Verdi - Vienne

Opera

opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi

to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello.

It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887
 

Performances

Wienerstaatsoper

12 March 2018

15 March 2018

18 March 2018

22 March 2018

 

 

 

 

Casting

Desdemona : Aleksandra Kurzak

Otello : Roberto Alagna

Iago : Dalibor Jenis

Lodovico : Alexandru Moisiuc

 

 

 

Production : Christine Mielitz

Set and Costumes Designer : Christian Floeren

 

 

 

Conductor : Graeme Jenkis

Orchestra and Chorus "Wienerstaatsoper"

 

Press Review

 Onlinemerker.com - Renate Wagner - 03/12/2018

« A performer of high intelligence and persuasive power, who never declines and always captivates and grabs the attention. An intensity and despair that don’t fail to give goose bumps » 

 

EXCERPT (from German) : « It was not Roberto Alagna's first Otello, he sang it in Orange (where he was the star of the Roman Theater Festival for many summers), but that is a role to be taken with care. If one believes Operabase, Vienna is his first attempt in a big house. And of course he can sing the role, he has the necessary substance in his throat - however, from the "Esultate" to the crazy duet with Iago at the end of the second act and otherwise a few times Verdi demands an insane singing pressure, which probably few tenors can render without forcing. Not even Alagna, who always stays on top in the higher range and at most in the Mezzavoce let the effort out (but that's a role where Verdi did not think about bel canto anyway).

But as always, even in this misery staging, he is a performer of high intelligence and persuasiveness, who never runs dry and always captivates and grabs the attention. Incidentally, not a naive Mohr, who simply falls into the trap, but a more intelligent torn-character, who can only be brought down by a superiorly bad guy. […] When, in the end, Roberto Alagna said farewell to his Desdemona and killed himself with such an intensity and despair that don’t fail to give goose bumps, the lady next to me sobbed into her handkerchief. I could empathize with her.”

 

 

 

Die Presse - Wilhelm Sinkovicz - 03/12/2018

"Brilliant victory. Alagna came, saw, conquered: the birth of the new Otello of our time. As soon as from the ‘Esultate’ which he sang calm and confident, he was already triumphing, obviously at the height of his Stentor’s craft" 

 

EXCERPT (translated from German): "A brilliant victory. Roberto Alagna alongside Aleksandra Kurzak in her first appearance in Otello: the dreaded heroic role by Verdi could well become the new signature role of the spectators’ darling, who as usual, without sparing himself, bet all his chips on one card - and triumphs as soon as he enters the stage.

Last Monday at the Vienna State Opera we witnessed the birth of the new Otello of our time: Alagna came, saw - succumbed to jealousy, killed, died - and conquered. As pathetic as it may seem, on the one hand, excellent tenors who master this role are still rare. On the other hand, Alagna remains true: his audience knows he does not spare himself anything as a singer and a performer. Sometimes, indeed, he ignites his powder so generously, that he can forget in the fury of the scene the more subtle details of the characterization. In the case of Otello, of course, this can not happen to him. Here, he must give everything from his first appearance on stage. And as soon as from the Esultate, which he sings calm and confident, he is already triumphing, obviously at the height of his Stentor’s craft. And if he leaves the pianissimo of the duo with Desdemona to the philharmonic cellist, he has that in common with all Otello’s major performers.

By the way, he succeeds - especially in the third act monologue - in rendering incredibly delicate, introverted sounds, which in any case always integrate seamlessly into melodic phrases. Really a valuable card by Alagna. This Otello sings, he never roars.

In this way, he manages to express the slow extinction of the personality of this anti-hero and to make it oppressive as well on the musical level. And Aleksandra Kurzak endowed with a tangy (but ultimately fine and delicate) soprano is an ideal partner alongside him: thanks to the total commitment of the two performers, their deadly confrontation appeared as an high point of musical Theater ‘par excellence’: finally, once again, all the power of the show comes from the singers."

 

 

 

 Kronen Zeitung -Florian Krenstetter - 03/12/2018

« An impressive portrait » 

 

EXCERPT: “A good amount of tension and intensity.Roberto Alagna  shows the impressive portrait of permanent self-renunciation. It does not take much for Iago's poison of mistrust and suspicion to rise in him like yeast. Alagna fully lives the physical violence, delusion and intoxication of his character as much as his solemn singing is equally able to express soft desperation and brokenness. Alongside him is Aleksandra Kurzak as Desdemona: The fragile touch of death-premonition that she exudes in the "Willow Song" and in the subsequent Ave Maria, becomes an enthralling introspection."

 

 

 The Opera Critic - Moore Parker - 03/12/2018)

« Clever technique, grain, well-projected tone, natural stage instinct » 

 

EXCERPT: “In the title role, the French-Italian tenor proved the surprise of the evening - staying the testing course and never appearing to economize. On the contrary, he slightly over-sustained the occasional high note in full forte - as if to prove his mettle to all. If remaining essentially lyrical, Alagna’s clever technique, and ideal amalgam of grain and ring to his well-projected tone - combined with a natural stage instinct - absolutely won the day. »

 

 

Opera Slovakia - Terézia Ursínyová - 15 of March 2018

« Otello was the best. Beautiful vocality, sparkling top notes issued effortless, clear and strong tone »

 

EXCERPT : « As the title of the review suggests, the best among the singers in the Vienna production was Otello by the 54-year-old French tenor of Sicilian parents Roberto Alagna. He masters the technique of genuine Italian belcanto and at his age, he has still a clear, strong iron spinto tenor - undamaged by his career- with which he without difficulties creates a smooth cantilena (in the first act the declaration of love and consequent duet with Desdemona), but also keeps the power and aesthetics of tone (without any parlando-doing), even in the angry dialogue with Iago or in the final scene of Desdemona’s murder. He sings mezzo-voce with a beautiful vocality, his top notes are sparkling, issued without the slightest effort. He has also an attractive and slim face, running counter the common idea of a thickset, absurdly blackened Otello (in Boito’s text Otello is a Moor – Arab or Berber of North Africa). Roberto Alagna is such a man, not only victorious against the Turks and general in the Venetian Army, but also a handsome partner for the gentle Desdemona. »

 

 

Östereich Daily - E. Hirschmann - 22 of Marsch 2018

"Triumph! The new dream couple of opera thrilled in Verdi’s Otello – Cheers." 

 

EXCERPTS (from German): “Famous Frensch-Italian star tenor Roberto Alagna and sweet polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak - considered as the new dream couple of opera - thrilled in Verdi's "Otello" at the Wiener Staatsoper. Otello is one of the most difficult tenor roles in the repertoire, a Moorish and foreign war hero who, manipulated by the evil Iago, holds his beloved Desdemona for unfaithfulness and kills her. In a boxing ring setting by Christine Mielitz, the two favourites of the public performed for the first time together as the very dramatic title role of the Venise Moorish and his beloved wife Desdemona in the penultimate tragedy by Verdi after Shakespeares.
 
A triumph! Under the baton of Graeme Jenkins, Alagna delights the audience from the beginning with a victorious ‘Esultate’, then alongside Aleksandra Kurzak in the glorious love duet ‘Già nella notte densa’, the frightening ‘Ora e semper addio’, the monologue of despair ‘Dio! Mi potevi scagliar’ and the final ‘Nium mi tema’ leading him to his death. Cheers.”
 
 

DerNeueMerker (April 2018)

Evviva Alagna ! 

 
"I have never heard Roberto Alagna sing so well, so unexcelled, natural and brilliant! Otello seems to have been composed for him. From the beginning, when hearing his 'Esultate!' sung so easily, so long sustained, with a so beautiful tone, you already know that he owns this role. It is so rare to have as here the impression that the tenor does not produce any effort, does not struggle at all! Even the love duet does not represent any problem for him vocally. All he could do on his own, he did it. The fact that he did not receive any support from the staging is another matter. [...]
 
The harshness with which Alagna’s Otello faced Desdemona when she awoke at the end of the fourth act was impressive in the vocal expression. [...]. He sang the scene of the murder just as marvelously as Aleksandra Kurzak was able to perform the willow song, her Ave Maria, and finally her death in the face of Otello's accusations. [...] The protagonists were widely applauded at the curtain call.”
Sieglinde Pfabigan
 
❝ A fantastic Otello ❞ 
 
"I must admit - I was very skeptical about attending this performance of Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece after William Shakespeare's major drama. I really appreciate Roberto Alagna - the French tenor with Italian “roots" - in the intermediate dramatic repertoire (from Don José to Don Carlos). But as Otello? Will he have the appropriate vocal resources, required primarily in the second act? In any case, I attended a "stupendous" Otello, which reminded me of Dimiter Usunow and James McCracken. It begins with a sonorous ecstasy: Graeme Jenkins unleashes a genuine "storm - hurricane" with the Wiener Staatsoper Orchestra, the National Opera chorus (directed by Thomas Lang) gives all he has! Then a triumphant "Esultate": Roberto Alagna at his best! (Ed .: in English in the German text)
 
His voice seems larger than before, his top notes are robust. Then follows a neat Toast duet with Dalibor Jenis’s Iago. And finally a marvelous love duet between Otello and Desdemona: Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak - also husband and wife in life - scorch all the stars in the sky: love and passion - how fast this "flow" can tip into its opposite. And as a continuation comes the famous Act 2, in which so many great stars reached their limits. Well, Roberto Alagna as for him is growing from scene to scene. Apart from some deep passages where one could have heard better, he is an ideal Otello: he conveys convincingly the raging jealousy, the countless outbursts of anger and in his fury his self-doubt. We believe. [...] In the fourth act, Otello’s death gives the thrill. The whole deserves great praise! [...]
 
The demonstration is made: Prima la musica and all this results in a brilliant run of "Otello”, which justly deserves the qualifier of "stupendous" and a tenor who found in this score a dream role for him.”
Peter Dusek
 
❝ A very nice surprise! Very convincing vocally, surefire impeccable top notes, his poignant singing is literally gut-wrenching ❞
 
" I must admit it honestly, I did not imagine Roberto Alagna very well as Otello and I admit that I was wrong. Not only does he bring tremendous dramatic tension on stage as a performer (I have never experienced it from him as intensely as in this role), but also on a musical standpoint does he prove very convincing. In terms of singing, he almost always performs one hundred percent and in full swing, and the current status of his voice responds very well to the tessitura of the role, not that high. Impeccable, his top notes are surefire, only a little more piano would be desirable in some places. But in the final scene, or even in "Dio mi potevi", his poignant singing is literally gut-wrenching.”
Elena Habermann

 

 

Gallery (foto's Michael Pöhn) 



16/03/2018