Bel Canto

Roberto Alagna was born in France of Sicilian parents. Following musical studies in Paris he won first prize in the 1988 Luciano Pavarotti International Competition in Philadelphia, USA, and made his stage debut, as Alfredo in La Traviata, with Glyndebourne Touring Opera in the same year. As a result, he was immediately engaged for that role by several major opera houses, and it was in a new production of La Traviata that he made an outstanding debut at La Scala in April 1990.

Rodolfo from La Bohème has also been a major role for Alagna which he has played for The Monte Carlo Opera, La Scala and the Liceo in Barcelona, and he made his debut as Rodolfo at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in April 1992 and at the Metropolitan Opera House. Since then, Alagna has gone on to appear in the most prestigious international opera houses in Verdi's Rigoletto, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore, Lucia di Lammermoor and Roberto Devereux, Gounod's Faust and Roméo et Juliette, Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz, Bizet's Carmen, Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, Puccini's La Rondine and Tosca, Massenet's Werther, and Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Verdi's Macbeth, Il Trovatore and Simone Boccanegra.

The remarkable critical acclaim received by Roberto Alagna following his performances as Roméo at Covent Garden in November 1994 (in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette) confirmed his status as the finest lyric tenor of his generation. In March 2000 Alagna appeared alongside his wife, soprano Angela Gheorghiu, as the title roles of Roméo et Juliette at the newly re-opened Covent Garden Opera House. The production received rave reviews: The Evening Standard described Alagna's Roméo as "uniquely special, in a class of its own" and his French "crisp, fresh and forceful, bright and understandable: one of the ways he lives inside the role". The Times said that the "best thing about Alagna's Roméo was palpable evidence of the advances he has made as an artist since he first sang the role six years ago". In April 2000, he made a triumphant debut playing Gabriele Adorno in Verdi's Simone Boccanegra at the Salzburg Easter Festival in Austria under Claudio Abbado and the BPO, in August 2000 he played Canio in I Pagliacci by Leoncavallo at the Santander Festival in Spain, and in September 2000 he performed the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. In November 2000 he performed as Don José in Bizet's Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Future performances include Verdi's Il Trovatore in Monte Carlo in March 2001 and in Florence in May where he will play the role of Manrico.

In April 1993 Roberto Alagna signed an exclusive recording contract for solo repertoire with EMI Classics; this was extended in February 1998 to include albums of duets and complete operas, joined in this repertoire by Angela Gheorghiu. A debut disc of both well-known and lesser-known tenor arias, released in September 1995, had outstanding international success, and was followed by an album of Duets and Arias with Angela Gheorghiu and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Richard Armstrong.

Alagna's discography on EMI Classics includes La Bohème, with a cast which features Leontina Vaduva, Thomas Hampson, Simon Keenlyside, Samuel Ramey and Ruth Ann Swenson, conducted by Antonio Pappano; and, following triumphant live performances in Paris and London, a recording of Verdi's Don Carlos with Thomas Hampson, Karita Mattila and José van Dam, again under Antonio Pappano. November 1996 saw the release of Our Christmas Songs for You, a seasonal album with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Thomas Hampson, and a disc titled Sacred Arias with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Michel Plasson.

In March 1997 EMI Classics released Puccini's rarely recorded opera La Rondine (conducted by Antonio Pappano), on which Alagna was joined by Angela Gheorghiu. Since its release, the recording has received widespread critical acclaim and a great number of awards including two Gramophone Awards for Best Opera Recording and Record of the Year, a French Choc du Monde de la Musique, two Diapason d'Or awards, the Belgian Cecilia Prize, the German Deutsche Schallplattenkritik, the Italian magazine Musica e dischi Foreign Lyric Production award and the USA Critics' Award. In October 1997 EMI Classics released Alagna's album Serenades, on which he is accompanied on the guitar by his two brothers. The disc features a collection of romantic Neapolitan and Sicilian songs as well as serenades from operas, arranged for voice and guitar by David and Frédérico Alagna.