Renowned Paris-born tenor Roberto Alagna returns to Covent Garden for his 100th Royal Opera performance, singing the eponymous hero in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (1896) in the first revival of David McVicar’s spectacular 2015 production.
Alagna has sung leading roles with the Royal Opera for 27 years, making his debut in 1992 as Rodolfo in La bohème (The Bohemians, Puccini, 1896). He has also performed extensively at the world’s leading opera houses, singing such coveted roles as Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata (The Fallen Woman, 1853), Don José in Bizet’s Carmen (1875) and Faust in Gounod’s 1859 opera of the same name.
Italian composer Umberto Giordano’s verismo opera is loosely based on the life and tragic death of the French poet André Chénier, who was beheaded for his controversial political poetry during the French Revolution. David McVicar’s production evokes the profound social changes in late 18th-century Paris.
Alagna will be joined by a stellar cast including American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Maddalena di Coigny, Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias as Carlo Gérard and English mezzo-soprano Christine Rice as Bersi, all regular performers for the Royal Opera. Israeli conductor Daniel Oren, another Royal Opera regular, conducts.
Performances start on 20 May and run till 9 June. See the Royal Opera House website for more details.
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Anita Rachvelishvili and Roberto Alagna in Carmen at the Royal Opera House in 2013 (Catherine Ashmore).