It's perfectly normal to complain about concerts of Wagner's music as being made up of 'bleeding chunks', where audience and performers lose track of the music's dramatic context. Here, Roberto Alagna and the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Ion Marin made it clear that it's rare that any opera composer benefits from this sort of treatment. Although this concert at the Barbican had, rather perfunctorily, been given the subtitle 'Viva Verdi', only rarely did one get the feeling that the composer was being served. Away from the stage and from the dramatic requirements of an operatic production, Alagna's interpretative choices seemed mainly to have their origins in the desire for maximum vocal display rather than anything else.
The short published programme – supplemented, in the event, by three encores – was made up of arias from Macbeth, La forza del destino, I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Aida, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Luisa Millar and Otello. Interspersed were preludes (Forza and Nabucco) and choruses ('Patria oppressa' from Macbeth, 'Va pensiero' from Nabucco and the 'Anvil Chorus' from Il trovatore), along with, in the second half, Johann Strauss II's Quadrille on motifs from Un Ballo in Maschera.
Although the orchestral and choral interludes were performed with relish (the brass in particular were on fine form, and the chorus ably delivered the goods in their big numbers), it was Alagna that the audience had come to see. Making his appearance dramatically just as 'Patria oppressa' came to its close, he launched straight into Macduff's 'O figli... Ah, la paterna mano' with assurance. It was immediately apparent that he was in fine vocal health and the voice, heard too rarely in London, showed a thrillingly ringing top, was rich and beefy in the middle and had a pleasantly oily timbre down below. Alagna seemed relaxed and although this did result in some intonation problems with some rather too casually approached top notes throughout the evening, the results were still hugely impressive, reflected in the audience's immediately enthusiastic response.
Although the Macduff aria was given a reasonably straight reading, I started to worry about the actual interpretations more in his next aria, Don Alvaro's 'La vita è inferno' from La forza del destino. Probably not helped by Marin's excessively giving conducting, the recitative alternately rushed and dragged and the aria itself was slow and indulgent. Long notes were held longer than necessary (for example on the final 'pietà') and little was done to maintain the mood beautifully set by Andrew Marriner's clarinet solo. The succeeding cavatina from I lombardi had the feeling of a filler; its performance was unstylish, laboured and suffered from some poor intonation.
Surprisingly, since it's a role he's sung recently on stage , albeit in a famously truncated run, Alagna's performance of Radamès's opening aria from Aida was equally unconvincing (read our review of the DVD of Alagna's La scala Aida here). Things were not helped, either, by a wildly sharp A flat on 'vinto!' at the end of the recitative, or the unsure accompaniment of the orchestra. Throughout both this and the Forza aria, stock expressions of hand-wringing and breast-clasping only served to give the impression of a singer showing what his voice can do than trying to serve the drama.
After the interval, in two roles with which Alagna made his name, the tenor was far more convincing. He brought such charm and effortless vocalism to 'Lunge da lei… De' miei bollenti spiriti' from La Traviata and 'Questa o quella' from Rigoletto that it was natural to regret his move to the bigger Verdi roles for which his voice doesn't seem so ideally suited. However, the frustrating mix of vocal allure and self-indulgent interpretation returned in Rodolfo's aria ('Oh! Fede negar potessi… Quando le sere al placido') from Luisa Millar. The admirable attempt to sing the second verse pianissimo didn't quite come off and there was some messy and under-rehearsed work from the orchestra, particularly in the transition between recitative and aria.
After a rousing if rushed rendition of Il Trovatore's 'Anvil Chorus', we moved on to the greatest tenor role in Verdi's (or probably anyone's) output: Otello. When Alagna strode on and whipped off his jacket to the inevitable wolf-whistling from the audience, I began to worry. However, it actually proved quite a striking image as he delivered 'Nium mi tema!' clasping the red-lined jacket and, although doubts about the suitability of the role for his voice remained, he sang movingly and with nobility. That is until the pianissimo G on 'or morendo nell'ombra' which, impressive enough vocally, was held for such a tastelessly long time that it broke not only the dramatc spell but confirmed the feeling of self-regarding indulgence that had crept into several of the other arias.
This impression was cemented by the choice of first encore, the 'Esultate!' from Otello. It struck me as a breathtaking display of vanity as we had to sit through the first five minutes of this great opera – obviously with only the chorus and orchestra, and without the other parts that are required to set the scene – just to watch Alagna deliver half a minute's worth of top notes at the end. It was at this point that 'Viva Verdi!' finally became the Roberto Alagna show, something it had threatened to become throughout much of the concert. Most of the audience loved it but I just hope that on the Royal Opera's stage, where he's due to sing Manrico next season, this singer's considerable talents will be employed more judiciously.
By Hugo Shirley