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Just before Roberto Alagna takes the stage, the singer merges with his role.

The tenor sits in the wood-paneled cloakroom of the Vienna State Opera and transforms into Canio, the clown from Ruggiero Leoncavallo's “Bajazzo”.

"We all know the laughing comedian who is not allowed to show his real pain," says Alagna.

“I've been on stage for 37 years.

How often have I gone out there, laughed, played and sung - although it looked very different inside me. "

Roberto Alagna is not a tenor like many others, not a singer who is constantly nibbling or clearing his throat to test his vocal cords.

Roberto Alagna is a force of nature.

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“I just have to sing,” he says, “as a child I sang while I was eating, and my mother had to keep telling me: 'Robertino, stop singing for a second, then you can at least eat a little.'” For him singing is like breathing.

At some point it is unimaginable for him to no longer be able to stand on stage.

He thoroughly enjoyed the lockdown

"It's absurd how long I've been living as an artist," says the singer, while he smears white paint on his face.

“What I did without for singing!” A thought that he often had in lockdown.

Suddenly the globetrotter was sitting alone with his family in his apartment in France.

Contrary to expectations, he thoroughly enjoyed the situation.

“The lockdown showed me what I had long forgotten,” he says, “what is really important in life, what really makes an artist: the support, satisfaction, happiness and support of the family.

I was often afraid of the end of my career.

Before not being able to sing anymore.

Now I know that I can enjoy it - being at home, cooking, reading, laughing and playing. "

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The clown that Roberto Alagna gave in lockdown, for example in his legendary livestream for the Metropolitan Opera, when he sang the Nemorino from Donizetti's “Love Potion”, with a guitar, mock drunkenness and climbing on his bookshelf, this clown who Side appeared on his wife, was not wearing a mask.

It was the unvarnished Roberto Alagna.

The artist as a person.

“The opera is not an easy business,” says Alagna, while he looks in the mirror, “and it's getting harder and harder: Agents, artistic directors and conductors need superlatives and take little consideration of the fragility of the voice.” Six-hour rehearsals, night trips or the cancellation of performance-free days are the order of the day.

“It is our own responsibility to say 'No!' In this game.

accept.

This is important."

Few tenors have had such a long and consistent career as he does.

Because Roberto Alagna took his time.

The operas by Richard Wagner

he has waited until today.

Alagna actually wanted to make his debut in “Lohengrin” at the Bayreuth Festival, but the chemistry wasn't right there.

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But now the time has come, he will play Lohengrin for the first time at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.

Matthias Pintscher conducts, Sonya Yoncheva sings Elsa, and an old friend directs: the ingenious theater enfant terrible Calixto Bieito.

Alagna has already sung “Carmen” in Bieitos, and unlike some of his colleagues, he loves new, provocative readings of old operas.

"For me it is not important whether the director is old or new," he says, "for me the only question is whether it makes sense."

"I am interested in the person in the man"

While Alagna puts on the clown tie, he explains: “Bieito's productions usually make a lot of sense and are fun.

They are physically and intellectually challenging.

I like that."

But what connects the sensual person Alagna with Wagner's moral knight of the Grail Lohengrin?

What interests the tenor about the divine joke, about Wagner's swan knight, who forbids his future wife to ask him about his origins and his name?

Roberto Alagna slips Bajazzo's yellow clown jacket on: "I am interested in the person in this man, his longing for love, his moral turmoil, but above all the musical design of the role fascinates me."

And then Alagna tells how many roles he thought were unattainable, especially the characters he loved in Wagner operas.

“I love Wagner, even if he always seemed so far away.

Today I feel ready for Lohengrin. "

Then he looks again in the mirror, checks his costume and leaves the cloakroom towards the stage.

"The clown and the knight of the grail," he says as he walks, "they are more similar than you might think: both are not able to show their true colors."

Arte will broadcast Wagner's “Lohengrin” from the Berlin State Opera on December 13th from 10:20 pm.

It is available in the Arte media library until January 12th.

We took this portrait from Arte magazine.

Arte will broadcast Wagner's “Lohengrin” from the Berlin State Opera on December 13th from 10:20 pm.

We took this portrait from Arte magazine

Source: arte magazine