Roberto Alagna CARUSO 1873

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt an almost visceral love and admiration for Enrico Caruso,” writes Alagna. He honours his legendary predecessor with a selection of repertoire drawn from Caruso’s own recording career, which stretched from 1902 to 1920. Alagna’s aim was to celebrate Caruso, while retaining his own vocal identity: “I respected the Caruso ‘style’ when making this recording, just as one would respect a composer’s style.”

Accompanied by the ORCHESTRE NATIONAL D’ÎLE-DE-FRANCE and joined for two numbers by soprano ALEKSANDRA KURZAK and for one by bass RAFAŁ SIWEK, Roberto Alagna worked with his longstanding accomplice, conductor, pianist and arranger YVAN CASSAR. Together, they committed to find a way into Caruso’s world, as accurately as possible. Theyrecorded not only in the original languages and keys that Caruso used in his recordings but also tried to match his tempos, his variations, his breaths… They even did everything to recreate the original orchestrations, for instance by including heavier brass, in order to reproduce the atmosphere of the early recordings.

The music chosen is a journey back in time through Caruso’s eclectic repertoire. It showcases his personality, blended with Alagna’s own favorites, “so the programme reflects me too,” Alagna explains. The album opens with Lucio Dalla’s “Caruso” – a modern song– then turns the clock back to finish with the earliest records. The selection offers many surprises and stretches from Handel and Pergolesi to verismo composers including Cilea and Leoncavallo, contemporaries of Caruso who wrote music for him. Puccini is represented by “Vecchia zimarra”, the bass Colline’s aria from La bohème which – as legend has it – Caruso once sang on stage standing in for an ailing colleague in perfect subterfuge.

“Caruso is part of my life, part of my roots even,” writes Alagna. “My great-grandparents knew him in New York. I feel as if I’d known him”. This recording has brought the two tenors closer still: “I was so immersed in the sound of Caruso that I started hearing his voice instead of mine inside my head during the sessions.”

Enrico Caruso was born in 1873. Almost a century later, in 1963, it was Roberto Alagna’s turn to come into the world. “His voice has been with me ever since,” Alagna adds. “The singers of the past have left us their legacy. I hope this recording will help younger generations to discover or rediscover Caruso’s unique artistry. That way his flame will burn forever.”

Aleksandra Kurzak / Roberto Alagna MASSENET La Navarraise

With his red-blooded, action-packed opera La Navarraise, Massenet provided a French response to the Italian-driven vogue for verismo in the 1890s. This recording of this rarely-performed work stars Roberto Alagna as the Spanish solider Araquil and Aleksandra Kurzak as Anita, the titular girl from Navarre who is prepared to kill for love. Alberto Veronesi conducts the Opera Orchestra of New York.

Roberto Alagna / Aleksandra Kurzak PUCCINI IN LOVE

Puccini In Love is the first album by award winning operatic tenor superstar Roberto Alagna and his wife, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak. Puccini In Love showcases some of Puccini’s most emotive and passionate operatic work. The album features some of Puccini’s greatest love duets including Madama Butterfly, Manon Lesca and La Bohème as well as lesser-known duets such as Il Tabarro and La Rondine. Both Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra are accomplished opera singers and Puccini In love showcases the exceptional talent, musicality and charisma that makes Alagna and Kurzak the golden couple of the opera world.

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Mikko Franck DEBUSSY L'Enfant Prodigue - RAVEL L'Enfant Et Les Sortilèges

Recorded live in Paris, two contrasting music dramas on the theme of an errant child, written by two supreme French composers and performed by a starry line-up of francophone singers. Mikko Franck, in his role as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducts Debussy’s L’Enfant prodigue, starring Roberto Alagna and Karina Gauvin, and Ravel’s L'Enfant et les sortilèges, with Nathalie Stutzmann and Sabine Devieilhe among the singers surrounding Chloé Briot in the role of the Child.

Complementing the two vocal works is the world premiere recording, made under studio conditions, of British composer Colin Matthews’ orchestration of Debussy’s Symphony in B minor. The work, which survives only as a manuscript for piano duet, was composed even earlier than L’Enfant prodigue, when Debussy was just 18, but it was not published until 1933, 15 years after his death. This orchestration of the Symphony in B minor was first heard in 2009. Colin Matthews is something of a Debussy specialist, having made admired orchestral transcriptions of all the composer’s piano Préludes, some of which have been recorded by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker. (Warner Classics)

Roberto Alagna PASIÓN

 . . . he's channeled his immense musical charisma into an authentic Latino sound, with plenty of sexy swing for a new recital disc . . . Alagna turns to some of Mariano's Spanish specialties in a revelatory tour of Central and South America, with enough Brazilian bossa novas, Cuban boleros and Argentine tangos to set your hips swaying and feet tapping faster than you can say "Salsa Class" . . . he brings a loose rhythmic ease and a variety of colors to each number. Open-throated power, supported tone and long breath provide vocal class without distancing him emotionally, and he throws in a few high notes with good-natured bravura . . . even in its tearful moments the entire disc exudes a sunny charm . . . Yvan Cassar's inventive and beautiful arrangements keep a straightforward nightclub feel. The mix of intimate accompaniments with exuberant big-band numbers always keeps the focus on the voice, and Cassar's instrumental choices and the versatility of the band highlight Alagna's musical urgency . . . One of the best numbers is the traditional Mexican song "La Llorona," in which Alagna's soft, plangent sobs paint the chorus effectively. The guitar improvisation in double time is especially witty, and the spare instrumentation highlights the song's expressive simplicity. Another superb understated performance is "El día que me quieras," in which Alagna's old-fashioned sound, replete with quick vibrato and little vocal turns, pays homage to the song's creator, Carlos Gardel . . . There are thrills aplenty in Alagna's full-throated "Piensa en mí," which opens the recital, and in his smoky-to-blazing delivery of "Bésame mucho" . . . [a] bold and spicy concierto.

Record Review / Judith Malafronte, Opera News (New York) / 01. February 2012