There is a bit of history behind
this DG issue. It first appeared on EMI in 1998 (CDC 5
56567). A few months later Alagna went back to Berlin and
recorded an admired sequence of Verdi duets with his wife
Angela Gheorghiu, again with the Berlin Phil but recorded
in the Jesus Christus-Kirche. At that stage Gheorghiu,
a Decca contracted artist, was in process of transferring
to EMI and the duo subsequently made a series of studio
opera recordings together for that company including Carmen,
Il Trovatore and a Puccini series under Pappano. With
the prevailing view in EMI that studio audio recordings
of opera were due for imminent demise, Alagna’s contract
was not renewed and after a period in the recording wilderness
he signed for DG. This repackaging of the Verdi arias issue
has the original introduction by John Steane, a narrative
on each excerpt and all the words with translations in
English, French and German. Whilst Angela Gheorghiu’s brief
contribution as Leonora during Di quella pirra (tr.
22) is credited, I can see none for the singers of Iago
and Cassio in the Otello excerpts (trs. 11-13).
In
his early works Verdi did not make excessive demands on
his tenors and a good lyric voice with heft and an open
tone can encompass the vocal requirements with comfort.
Certainly from the role of Manrico in Il Trovatore onwards
a lyric voice, however capable of heft, is often not sufficient
to give a rounded and characterful portrayal. The demand
is best met by at least a spinto voice as is required for
Radames in Aida. A spinto tenor will encompass Alvaro
in La Forza del destino if taking care, for this
is a role really requiring a tenore de forza, a step up
in vocal weight and strength from spinto. In his penultimate
work, Otello, Verdi wrote the title role for the
strongest Italianate tenor fach, the heroic tenor. It is
often beyond the limits of many tenors who can and do sing
Radames and Manrico with ease. That summary of Verdi’s
demands on the tenor voice applies for singers taking on
complete roles in an opera house, not a recital in a recording
studio. So how goes Alagna here?
In
the opening of the Luisa Miller extract he shows
a good sense of Verdian style (tr. 10), but as the aria
proper develops (tr. 2) some of his limitations begin to
show. As he puts pressure on the voice it constricts rather
than opens out. This characteristic I find a major limitation
in Alagna’s singing in the Italian repertoire as distinct
from the French. This is not merely a question of language
but rather of style. This is best evidenced by Alagna’s
singing in the aria La mia letizia infondere from
Verdi’s fourth opera, I Lombardi, (tr. 3) compared
with Je veux encore entendre the equivalent from
his re-write of the work in French for Paris as Jérusalem (trs.
19-20). In both extracts his voice tends to squeeze as
the pitch rises. This compares unfavourably with his rendition
of the Flower Song in Bizet’s Carmen in the
complete recording when he rises to the climactic note
with unforced tone and vocal elegance (see review).
By contrast in this recital and on the complete Il Trovatore (see
review) his
approach and realisation of the high note at the conclusion
of Di quella pira (tr. 22) leaves much to be desired.
All is not so negative however; Alagna’s concluding note
at the end of Radames’ Celeste Aida (tr. 5) is taken
on a heady diminuendo, an ending that is eschewed by many
more notable Verdi tenors who can only sing it at full
and rising voice. Perhaps surprisingly, his Niun mi
tema from the conclusion of Otello (tr. 13)
is sung with good tone, characterisation and sense of style.
Of course Verdi’s writing at this point is not heavily
orchestrated. For those who know their Verdi and
love his writing, it is a pity that DG did not set out
the tracks on this disc in compositional sequence instead
of skipping between the composer’s different stylistic
periods.
When this recital was first
issued it split critical opinion between those who hailed
Alagna as the finished Verdian article and others, like
me, who look to Bergonzi’s collection for the ultimate
in elegance of style and meaningful vocal characterisation
(Philips). Since the time of the first issue of this recital,
DG has also featured Domingo singing all the Verdi tenor
arias. That four CD set is derived from Domingo’s complete
Verdi opera recordings for the company with gaps filled
in conducted by Gergiev. Both those collections show what
Verdi singing is about in terms of open-toned, elegant
phrasing, characterisation and well-supported even vocal
emission. I regret to say that far too often in the present
collection Alagna fails to bring out the innate qualities
of Verdi’s vocal writing. I cannot derive much pleasure
from his uneven, often forced, vocal emission (for reviews
of two other recent releases by Alagna on DG, see Bel
Canto and
Nessun Dorma).
Robert J Farr
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Roberto
Alagna (tenor) 
