ROBERTO ALAGNA - All'opera - Complete Opera Recordings [CD]

A singer of passion, elegance and dynamism, excelling equally in Italian and French opera, Roberto Alagna has numbered among the world's leading tenors for more than 30 years. Born near Paris to Sicilian parents, he won the Pavarotti Competition in Philadelphia in 1988 and was subsequently declared "the Italian tenor of the new generation" by Opera magazine when he sang in Puccini's La bohème in London. His idiomatic phrasing and diction have consistently attracted praise. Alagna's recorded catalogue is substantial. In the judgement of the authoritative Grove Book of Opera Singers his recordings document "the plangent lyricism of Alagna's tone and the appealing ardour and inner fire of his style". Referring to his interpretation of the title role of Verdi's Don Carlos, in the recording conducted by Antonio Pappano, the New York Times wrote, "His intensely lyrical yet refined singing was a genuine revelation". This 33CD box contains complete operas - by Bizet, Donizetti, Gounod, Massenet, Offenbach, Puccini and Verdi - recorded between 1992 and 2017 and originally released by EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, Warner Classics and Erato. The box notably documents Alagna's productive artistic partnerships with the soprano Angela Gheorghiu (his wife from 1996 to 2013) and the conductor Antonio Pappano. Among the other artists appearing on the recordings are: sopranos Natalie Dessay, Mariella Devia, Sumi Jo, Alexandra Kurzak (Alagna's wife since 2015), Karita Mattila, Ruth Ann Swenson and Leontina Vaduva; mezzo-sopranos Larissa Diadkova and Waltraud Meier; baritones/bass-baritone Gabriel Bacquier, Thomas Hampson, Simon Keenlyside, Ludovic Tézier and José van Dam; basses Samuel Ramey and Ruggero Raimondi, and conductors Kent Nagano, Evelino Pidò, Michel Plasson, Alberto Veronesi and Marcello Viotti. The 33 CDs are presented in wallet covers based on original artwork and there is a trilingual booklet, illustrated with numerous photos, containing a biographical article on Alagna by French opera expert Sylvain Fort.