Top tenor breaks down on live TV

Top tenor breaks down on live TV

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norman lebrecht

January 15, 2021

Appearing last night on the France 5 show C à Vous, moments after the prime minister announed a tightening of the curfew, Roberto Alagna broke down during the Marcel Moulodji number ‘Mon pote le gitan’, apparently overcome by emotion for a late friend.

‘Excusez-moi,’ he said, stepping back from the mike.

Read more here.

 

Comments

  • yujafan says:

    Was he ever really a top tenor? True, he showed promise early on in the Gheorghiu golden couple years and his recordings from then are decent. But it’s been more ‘can belto’ technique of late than bel canto, I’m afraid.

  • A.L. says:

    Or because he was so out of tune.

  • Marcel Moulodji a great singer to discover for the people who like the old french singers like Gainsbourg

  • IP says:

    No, that was Alagna. The top tenor who broke down while performing was Alfredo Kraus.

    • Robin Worth says:

      Didn’t know that
      Can you tell us more?
      He was famous for never cancelling a performance, equally, he would never stand in at short notice
      But a great tenore di grazia

  • Jack says:

    The Alagna haters are out in force.

    • JoshW says:

      There are so many kind and compassionate people on this site . . . .

    • CRogers says:

      Yes it’s very sad all these abrasive comments, because he’s well know and has been very successful? The ‘haters’ might want to take a look at the motivation for their words; none if them add anything to the discourse, except bile and hot air.

  • Karl says:

    He’s an emotional guy. I remember when he stormed off stage at La Scala after getting booed.

  • Jane says:

    The general lack of empathy for real human emotion disturbs me. Professionals in any field are also humans, and fallible too.

    Can’t bear listening to the chap myself, but that’s beside the point.

  • Richard says:

    What incredibly bitchy comments. No wonder opera snobs are so easily detestable.

  • Anthony Sayer says:

    Alagna’s a good singer and a very nice bloke. His diction is unparalleled, it has to be said.

  • Edgar Self says:

    Another pro-Alagna vote here. I thought his Otello excerpts very promising, and Iremember an enjoyable CD with his two younger brothers of folk songs,playing guitars, and oothers of French arias. At the same time I was surprised by the excellence of Jonas Kaufmann’s French, and even his English as Huon de Bordeaux in Weber’s “Oberon”, the language of the original. I liked the German version with Karl Liebl even better. Domingo also sang it, but I forget in which language,or whether as Oberon or Huon, though I suspect the latter.

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