John Hooper in Rome
Wednesday December 13, 2006 The Guardian The tenor Roberto Alagna, who walked out of La Scala in mid-opera after being booed, claimed yesterday he had been under physical risk from the audience.
"What if they had thrown stones at me, or some crazy person had attacked me?", he told Reuters. "La Scala should have protected me. The show should have been suspended. Instead they carried on as if nothing had happened. After all, John Lennon ended up being killed." |
John Hooper in Rome
Tuesday December 12, 2006 The Guardian The so-called "fourth tenor", Roberto Alagna, was yesterday facing the biggest crisis of his glittering career after storming off the stage of La Scala in mid-performance - one fist lifted towards a booing, whistling audience.
What followed during Sunday's performance of Franco Zeffirelli's production of Aida is thought to be without precedent in the tempestuous history of the celebrated Milan opera house. As the Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ildiko Komlosi gamely launched into what was intended to be a duet - singing the line "Such unwonted joy in your glance!" to a conspicuously absent Alagna - the stage manager grabbed the tenor's understudy and propelled him on to the boards dressed in jeans. |
Martin Kettle
The Guardian December 13, 2006 It is the perfect grand opera story. A superstar tenor sings underwhelmingly at the world's most exacting opera house and storms off stage with a shake of the fist amid a torrent of booing. An understudy in jeans is thrown on in his place and has a night of triumph. Roberto Alagna's walkout from La Scala's season-opening Franco Zeffirelli production of Verdi's Aida is an opera story with everything - and with the bonus that it confirms all our prejudices about the art form, too.
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Martin Kettle
Guardian 12 Dec 06 |
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