Roberto Alagna 60. Morphing Chamber Orchestra / Giorgio Croci. © 2024 Aparté

Spotlight

An Enchanting Recital

GERALD FENECH listens to a new recording by Roberto Alagna, celebrating the singer's sixtieth birthday

'... immaculately sung.'

 

Like any singer with such a long career, Roberto Alagna (born 1964) has enjoyed heady, star-making success and the attendant plaudits of both audiences and critics. Across more than four decades, the Franco-Sicilian tenor has proven not only his operatic staying power; he has also demonstrated a still young-at-heart passion for music, balancing artistic evolution with an infectious joy in singing.

This album, as its title of '60' proclaims like a banner of pride, commemorates Alagna's trip around the sun, and with gusto. The programme ranges far and wide, incorporating arias and songs in an extraordinary array of languages and styles, with most of the pieces recorded by Alagna for the first time.

Listen — Riccardo Drigo: Sérénade (Les millions d'Arlequin)
(AP351 track 14, 0:33-1:08) ℗ 2024 Aparté :

Alagna, born just outside Paris into a family of Sicilian immigrants, began singing in the cabarets of the city as a teenager influenced by the films of Mario Lanza. Although mostly self-taught as a singer, Alagna won the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition in 1988. Within a couple of years he was accepting invitations from Milan's La Scala, London's Covent Garden and New York's Metropolitan Opera, singing Verdi, Puccini, Gounod and a host of other composers with great success.

To underscore a continued artistic vitality, the programme for 'Alagna 60' runs from Pergolesi, Verdi, Leoncavallo and Riccardo Drigo to Charles Gounod, Meyerbeer, Flotow, Adolphe Adam and Ambroise Thomas, as well as - perhaps surprisingly - Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and a nineteenth century Polish rarity by Stanisław Moniuszko.

Listen — Moniuszko: Szumią jodły na gór szczycie (Halka)
(AP351 track 7, 0:29-1:17) ℗ 2024 Aparté :

There are also lighter songs in Spanish, Italian, English and French (including a piece composed by Alagna's brothers David and Federico, with whom he often collaborates).

Listen — David and Federico Alagna: L'Andalouse
(AP351 track 18, 0:00-0:37) ℗ 2024 Aparté :

This ambitious tenor recital ends with 'Sognare', an Italian song written by the singer himself.

Listen — Roberto Alagna: Sognare
(AP351 track 20, 2:55-3:36) ℗ 2024 Aparté :

This is undoubtedly an enchanting recital which amply demonstrates that, despite his age, Alagna's voice still has that magical allure to excite and uplift. An anthology of passionately romantic music, flawlessly produced, recorded and, above all, immaculately sung. Glorious sound and a deeply informative essay complete this special issue that should be immediately snapped up by all opera buffs, especially by that legion of Alagna's admirers who have followed the flowering of his career from the outset.

Copyright © 2 September 2024 Gerald Fenech,
Gzira, Malta

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