Roberto Alagna

Roberto Alagna

SAMSON ET DALILA - Saint Saëns - Paris

opera

 
 
 
 

Performance

 

Théâtre des Champs Elysées - Paris

June 12th 2018

June 15th 2018

 

 

 

Cast

 

Samson : Roberto Alagna

Dalila : Marie Nicole Lemieux

Le Grand Prêtre : Laurent Naouri

 

L'Orchestre National de France

sous la drection de 

Mikhail Tatarnikov

 

 

 

Press Review 

ForumOpera.com - Christian Peter - 12/06/2018

 
Still crowned with the success of his debut at the Staatsoper Vienna last April, Roberto Alagna comes to propose his Samson on the stage of the TCE [...]. Is Samson the role of his life as suggested by the critics who highly praised his performance in Vienna? The triumphant ovation that greeted him at the end of the concert seems to confirm it. So many roles yet have marked the career of the singer. Samson comes at the right moment. The tenor deploys a solid and perfectly projected medium, with delicately ambered colors, crowned by an incredibly easy top range. His character - torn between his faith and his loyalty to his God on the one hand and the irresistible magnetic force exerted on him by Dalila - is a hero in turns robust and fragile. His entry to the first Act "Arrêtez, O mes frères" sung in full voice with an unwavering determination contrasts with the Aria of the millstone at the beginning of the third Act, charged with sadness and emotion, where the tenor allows himself some welcome nuances. In the second Act, he gives in to Dalila’s whim in small steps, with subtlety. " 
 
 

Le Monde - Marie-Aude Roux - 12/06/2018

 
A radiant vocality, sunny and powerful top notes, mediums at full vocal output, a sustained deep range. Roberto Alagna‘s singing amazes by the incredible health of a voice with unspoiled resources. [...] A second Act of all splendor, an aura, an exaltation and a gift for stagecraft that have always been a feature of his art. [...] His Aria of the fallen nazir, "Vois ma misère, hélas", at the beginning of Act III, would get stones in tears. " 
 

Operagazet.be - Max Yvetot - 12/06/2018

Rock-solid, the power of his singing, combined with an impeccable diction, is perfectly suited to the warrior dimension of the leader of the Jews. [...]" 
 
 

Teatro.persinsala.it - Fabrizio Migliorti - 

« Alagna unique and key reference ; a powerful, spatial, deep voice materializing a palpable presence on stage, a haunting level of intensity » 
 
EXCERPT: “Once again, Roberto Alagna has proved what makes him unique and an essential reference. During the first act, solitary presence among the soloists on the stage, the tenor delights the audience with the power of his instrument, whose voice with age seems to deepen and enrich with new tessitura. His singing becomes spatial and stands out as the absolute protagonist of the evening, going beyond the confines of the physics of sound to materialize in a palpable presence on stage. The tenor goes well beyond only taking place when his role requires it, but dramatizes the action through his simple body. He listens to the lamentations of the people of Israel, hears its complaints, and stays on stage to attend Dalila's betrayal and his own forthcoming downfall. If the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées was proposing a concert version, the tenor has contributed by his side to set the work out in space, reaching a haunting level of personal intensity.”
 

Altamusica - Gérard Mannoni - 12/06/2018

 
❝Alagna at the top, unrivaled on these heights, singing with an incredible easiness, hovering over the others as do those of this exceptional breed of performers to which he undoubtedly belongs❞ 
 
EXCERPT: "Roberto Alagna at the top... or at his very best, if you want. The French great tenor largely dominated this concert version of the difficult Samson and Dalila by Saint-Saëns. [...] He appeared in a sumptuous vocal form, overcoming all the difficulties of this challenging role with an incredible ease: power, clarity of the diction and intelligence of the text, quality of the tone over the entire range. At this stage of his career, he is fully suited to these great works he is tackling and mastering, Otello, Samson and soon Lohengrin in Bayreuth. We are hardly seeing any challenger to rival him on these heights, all the more so as he managed to keep the good-looking silhouette of his twenties! In spite of all the merits of others, he really hovered over them, as do those of this exceptional breed of performers to which he undoubtedly belongs.” 
 

Resmusica - Vincent Guillemin - 15/06/2018

❝ Roberto Alagna delivers a reference performance as #Samson, a true lesson of French singing❞ 
 
EXCERPT: "Back from Vienna, where he has been embodying Samson for a month, Roberto Alagna offers a true lesson in French singing for two nights in this concert version at the TCE. The question of recognizing him as the best current Samson was clarified a month earlier, when a shower of praise took back any doubt about that, while he was making his debut in the staged version in Vienna. On the stage of the TCE, the tenor’s entrance is at least five minutes before he has to open his mouth, but already a ravishing charisma operates and although in concert version, Alagna acts the biblical hero as if he were at the opera. [...] In Paris, Roberto Alagna delivers a real lesson of singing, an irreproachable diction of each word in addition to a phrasing and an art of the connections that only a lover of the French language can master. His warm voice from the first words "Arrêtez, O mes frères" colors throughout the first Act, to an Act II of a sublime commitment in the duet and a final scene showing all the power reserve available to the artist, who could have held for an extra hour without any problem if he had not chosen to knock down the pillars of the temple too soon."
 
 

Diapason - Vincent Agrech - 15/06/2018

 
❝ Triumph, an historic concert version, bright tone, remarkable homogeneity to the extremes of a perfectly controlled tessitura, valiance and nuances serving each other, generosity, musical probity, genius of diction …❞ 
 
EXCERPT: " Roberto Alagna was eagerly awaited after the triumph of his Viennese Samson on stage, before New York next season. […] The homogeneity of this bright tone is remarkable to the extremes of a perfectly controlled tessitura, demonstrating both valiance and nuances, serving each other and a character in which the tenor is whole-hearted invested with all the generosity, the musical probity, the genius of the diction we know him. What an artist, once again! What a fulfillment in this role! A new milestone in a prestigious career, an outstanding path to where we look for a debut in Bayreuth as Lohengrin [...] The microphones, of course, were there, and a record would be welcome! " 
 
 

Gallery

 



28/01/2019