Roberto Alagna

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Roberto Alagna is a French-Italian opera tenor born on 7 June 1963 in Clichy-sous-Bois, near Paris. He grew up in a family of Sicilian immigrants and, as a teenager, sang in Paris cabarets. Self-taught in opera and inspired by Mario Lanza, he trained by listening to recordings and gradually moved into professional singing. He was spotted by Gabriel Dussurget, co-founder of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and after winning the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, he made his professional debut as Alfredo Germont in La traviata with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

Alagna soon appeared at major opera houses: La Scala in 1990, Covent Garden in 1992, and the Metropolitan Opera in 1996. His big breakthrough came in 1994 when he sang Roméo in Roméo et Juliette at Covent Garden, opposite soprano Leontina Vaduva. He has been dedicated to reviving neglected French operas and has also made recordings beyond the opera stage, including light music.

In 2006 he opened La Scala’s season in a new production of Aida, but was booed and walked off during the second performance, with his understudy finishing the role. In 2007 he performed Pinkerton at the Met, and later that year a Roméo et Juliette with Anna Netrebko was broadcast to theatres worldwide in high definition. He had planned to debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2018 as Lohengrin but withdrew before the opening.

Personal life has included several marriages. His first wife, Florence Lancien, died in 1994 and they had a daughter, Ornella, born in 1992. He married Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu in 1996; they separated and divorced in 2013. In 2015 he married Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, and they have a daughter, Malena, born in 2014. Alagna has worked closely with his brothers Frédérico and David Alagna on projects such as Serenades and Le dernier jour d’un condamné. In 2008, France named him a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.