With a life that reads more like a libretto, 53-year-old French-Italian opera star Roberto Alagni has triumphed over adversity and built himself a fan base more usually associated with the world of rock music or movies. Born in a garage and largely self-taught, he has come from imitating his Sicilian father’s mates singing the old homeland songs on building sites, later graduating to pop songs in pizza parlours and Parisian cabaret clubs until a meeting with Luciano Pavarotti at a record signing set him on his way to an audition and the world of opera.
His personal life has been dramatic – his first wife died at 29 of a brain tumour, leaving Alagna with their baby daughter. His second marriage, to Rumanian soprano Angela Georghiu, was tempestuous and the couple was famously dubbed “the Ceausescus” of the operatic world. Alagna is probably best remembered for walking off the stage in the middle of Verdi’s Aida after the La Scala audience booed him, all captured on YouTube. No wonder he titled one of his best-selling albums My Life is an Opera. 
So with a backstory like this what was the Hamer Hall audience to expect from the superstar tenor’s visit to Australia? If they thought it would be like German star tenor Jonas Kaufmann’s concert two years ago at the Sydney Opera House, in which he performed favourite after favourite from the Italian, French and German repertoire they would be disappointed. Alagna eschewed all other languages for Italian, but even then the only Verdi or Puccini we heard was from the Australian Sinfonietta, conducted by Stefano Miceli — with two Verdi overtures beautifully performed.
Roberto’s voice has a lovely resonance, and I was wanting to hear some classic opera numbers from him. I was disappointed with the latter. Instead, he took his audience to Naples and, for the best part of two hours, he delivered a series of popular light classics — Santa Lucia, O sole mio, Return to Sorrento and Core ‘Ingrato — sometimes accompanied by the orchestra, and sometimes by the often jazz-infused mandolin effects of pianist Giovanni Turcio. All fabulously performed, but not what I was wanting. Pity that performance programs are not released at the time of ticketing….sort of…I have been fabulously surprised in other concerts. Oh, I just need to suck it up. It was an expensive ticket purchase…next time, I’ll research artist a bit more.
I loved his Australian side kick, the ‘coloratura’, Siobhan Stagg, who was a standout. The young singer from Mildura (Victoria) has been creating a sensation in Europe. She gave us a superb rendition of O mio Babbino Caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. I found some of her duets with Roberto somewhat awkward in manner (understand they had only 3 days of rehearsal) and requiring much greater practice, but their sound was great overall.
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