Roberto Alagna

GRAND ENTRETIEN | Philippe Bilger a rencontré Roberto Alagna
et vous invite à découvrir la vidéo de leur échange. Près d'une heure de discussion filmée avec "un ténor fabuleux, une personnalité chaleureuse et irradiante", à découvrir en suivant ce lien ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85fNvNBQhu0&feature=youtu.be

 

 

GREAT INTERVIEW | Philippe Bilger met Roberto Alagna and invites you to discover the video of their discussion session. Enjoy a one hour dialog with "an amazing tenor, a warm and lively personality", following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85fNvNBQhu0&feature=youtu.be

SOME EXCERPTS TRANSLATED in English for non-French speakers:

"I remember exactly all my performances since I started, every note I sang is recorded in my memory, like a footballer who remembers all his matches by heart. When I read a very harsh critic, I often say that it is nothing compared to my own criticism, which is much harder, but one is simply satisfied with oneself when one can say: I gave the maximum, I was sincere , I was generous, I could not do better than that at that time "

"It is not at all a disgrace or a forfeiture for opera when a tenor also sings popular songs, on the contrary. All the great tenors of the past have put their voices at the service of popular music. This is precisely the tenor's mission. I mean, not the opera singer but the tenor's one. Tenor is a very special voice, a popular voice, and the tenor - of all times - has always been turned to the people. Gigli was called "the tenor of the people", Caruso was one of the first to sing all these melodies, he made the Neapolitan songs known all over the world, and even before, famous tenor Manuel Garcia - the father of La Malibran and Pauline Viardot, one of the greatest technician and master of belcanto - was composing popular songs for his daughter and himself. Just because it is important. We cannot create a kind of musical apartheid. We can not do that. Music is made to touch the heart of everyone and with this vocal instrument which is the tenor's voice, we have the possibility to direct to and move everybody. The voice is the instrument of this divine art which is Singing. All the more so that we have also the words, in addition to the music, to share in order to convey a moving text".

"I am a lover of diction, I am a lover of declamation, I am a lover of the music of the word."

"At the opera continuously, the tenor is always in equilibrium, as walking on a fine line, of which he can fall at any moment"

"In my opinion, the most difficult role to perform is Cyrano de Bergerac by Franco Alfano, in the original version ... The version adapted in Italian has been re-translated into French and has endured over years, with its aberrations: Roxane can not say the words of Cyrano! What we tried to do with my brothers in the version we created is to restore the 1935 original version."

"A perfectly successful performance is like a miracle of alchemy between the singers, the stage director, the conductor but not only ... also the machinists, the props crew, the make-up artists, the costumers, everyone, and even the audience ... All this comes into play, is taking effect in harmony. A successful show is when ALL works out."

"In politics I am rather an observer, and as I travel all around the world, I can see what is changing in people's mindsets. Politics today has almost become a "soap opera". We never saw so many politicians on TV, in TV shows etc. than today... It's as if politics has become an entertainment, and politicians almost actors who are observed in relation to their posture and behavior, with their betrayals, reversals, remarriages, etc. The political world appears to be completely desacralized, and perhaps, even the politician himself no longer considers his function as sacred. It works both ways: people no longer regard politics as something important to be respected, and politicians themselves have lost the sense and importance of their mission. Something has changed."

"I like people, and I always have a great respect for my neighbor, whoever they may be. When you are going toward the other and when you are tolerant, you are quickly accepted. ... I enjoy to be close to people, close as per Pagnol ... I mean with noble feelings. When someone makes a gesture, and one realizes that this gesture is really done with the heart... "