Roberto Alagna

Roberto Alagna entered the operatic firmament through an atypical route, largely self-educated by repeated listening to historic tenor recordings and the screen performances of Mario Lanza. His emergence as a lyric tenor led admirers to label him the “Fourth Tenor.” A decisive victory in a major competition in 1988 launched his international stage career, while his subsequent discs drew consistent critical esteem.

Born to Sicilian parents on June 7, 1963, in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, outside Paris, he cites the recordings of Beniamino Gigli and Nicolai Gedda as his strongest formative influences. His naturally bright, ringing lyric tenor can acquire a harsh edge when forced. Early notice arrived through street performances in Paris; first prize at the 1988 Luciano Pavarotti Competition followed, opening the door to his stage debut as Alfredo in La Traviata with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera Company and subsequent appearances in Montpellier, Monte Carlo, and, at Riccardo Muti’s invitation, a celebrated Teatro alla Scala production of the same opera alongside Tiziana Fabbricini that was broadcast worldwide.

The role of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème, which he first assumed in 1990, became one of his signature parts and served for his debuts at Covent Garden in 1992 and the Metropolitan Opera in 1996. Another early mainstay, the title character in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, brought acclaim in Paris, London, and New York; performing it with Angela Gheorghiu initiated a personal relationship. Following the death of his first wife after a long illness, the new partnership infused his singing with renewed warmth. Their joint accounts of L’elisir d’amore, La Bohème, and Werther won particular admiration, turning the pair into one of opera’s rare authentic double attractions. They separated in 2009 and divorced in 2013. In 2015 Alagna married soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, once more forming an onstage and recording duo.

He is noted for inserting acrobatic stage business into L’elisir d’amore that few other tenors attempt. His 1996 performances of Don Carlo in Verdi’s original French version at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Covent Garden helped restore that edition to prominence. Additional roles that have served him well include those in Rigoletto, Macbeth, Lucia di Lammermoor, Roberto Devereux, L’amico Fritz, Carmen, and La Rondine. He has also championed alternative readings, employing a rarely heard variant of “Una furtiva lágrima” in his London recording of L’elisir d’amore, adopting the new critical edition of La Bohème for Decca under Chailly, and singing the French Don Carlo for EMI. During the 2000s he moved freely through the central repertoire on stage and in the studio, recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics, and Sony Classical; the last of these labels issued his album Caruso 1873 in 2019.