Roberto Alagna

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand nine.

Presenter0:28

My castaway this week is the singer Roberto Alagna. He is one of the most celebrated tenors in the world. He is never in greater demand, and, he says, never happier, than when he is singing alongside his wife, the soprano, Angela

Presenter0:43

They are opera's it couple blessed with dazzling talent, beauty, and huge success.

Presenter0:49

Yet his is not a voice that was honed through early years in a conservatoire. He was brought up in Paris, part of a large, poor, immigrant family. He learned to love music in sing alongs at home.

Presenter1:00

His career started when he was discovered singing in nightclubs. Um, Roberta Olanya, I want to talk first of all about your operatic debut. It was in Britain round about twenty years ago. You were part of uh the Kleinbourne Touring Production.

Roberto Alagna1:11

The the Kleinborn tutoring product

Presenter1:14

Now I'm you were around about twenty-five years old. One would think that

Roberto Alagna1:17

I was twenty four in that moment, but okay, uh turning to to twenty five, yes.

Presenter1:21

I want to ask you about your preparation for that great night, because you would think maybe spending some time alone, possibly in your hotel room it didn't quite work out that way. How did you spend

Roberto Alagna1:30

No, no, no, in that time, you know, for me it was something very natural, because uh sure in that time I was a little bit ignorant because I sang in Cabaret before, you know. For eight years I sang uh each night on Cabaret. And for me it was a normal life. I had a normal life during the day and each night singing on Cabaret. And it was the same when I started to sing opera. And during the day I was with my family in Plymouth, I I remember, and I I went to the sea and uh yeah, I had a very good time, you know, with them. And uh after uh six o'clock I said, Okay, now I I'm going to the theater to sing Traviata, Alfredo. And I I remember the baritone asked me, uh, did you rest uh all day without speaking, everything?

Presenter1:38

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna2:14

I said, Yeah, no, it was nice. I was to the beach with my family. And he said, But you are crazy And then but a after that I start to understand he was right. But I sang well in that night. I was very happy because in fact it was my debut, and uh I made my debut without rehearsing with the orchestra.

Roberto Alagna2:33

And uh I remember.

Roberto Alagna2:34

At the end of the the show, my manager came to me and said, Oh, you made a miracle tonight.

Presenter2:40

So we have eight of your desert island discs here today. Some very beautiful music. Um what I notice is that your wife is not among your choices. Is that going to be a bone of contention, do you think?

Roberto Alagna2:49

No, because uh my wife, she's all the time in my brain, in my all the time in my soul, and uh I have my wife with me all the time. I think now it was very important also to show my my taste in music. It's too common to to put Angela or maybe another colleague of today. It was important for me to do uh something uh more unusual. Tell me then about your first choice today. Yes, my first choice is La Dame Blanche with Nicolae Geda, tenor, and uh Hern Spurmberg. Because uh of Geda.

Roberto Alagna3:22

For me I have a a very big admiration for this singer. Very, very talented. He can do every everything with his voice. And for me it's a great, great maister.

Speaker 43:31

Let's hope, let's go there to see the sweetness of us all.

Presenter4:32

Ernest Borenberg and Nicolai Gedda singing Ceb Min si Jolie, This Hand So Pretty, from Boyaldieu's La Dame Blanche, with the orchestra of Radio Hilverson, conducted by Jean Fournet, and you were moved the

Roberto Alagna4:42

Yeah, yeah, yes, because it it's uh something uh amazing, you know, and so beautiful in the sound. And uh it's a live recording, you know, it's not a trick or something like this. No, it's uh it's amazing. It

Presenter4:54

I I have read that music ran through your family, you've said, like a core. It was always there when you were growing up. Tell me about the music and the performance in the resolute.

Roberto Alagna5:04

It was a little bit uh like like a wild chor core chorus, you know. And uh I was the first one who put a little bit of discipline in this uh wild choir. But my family was not poor but uh modest, you know, modest and for us it was impossible to go to the opera, it was imp impossible. Even cinema was expensive for us.

Presenter5:07

Okay.

Presenter5:17

Yeah.

Presenter5:23

Right.

Roberto Alagna5:23

But I was very lucky because my family was very, very talented and I had very good time with the show at home, you know. It was a wonderful family with uh a lot of uh musicians, singers, uh, comedian, uh, poet. In fact, in my family you have two parts. From my mother, everybody sings opera.

Roberto Alagna5:45

But from the part of my father they sing popular songs. And I was between those two uh discipline.

Presenter5:52

Is it true that your grandfather sang with Caruso?

Roberto Alagna5:54

Yes, he made an audition for Caruso and they became friends. He was not my grandfather, he was my uh grandgrandfather.

Presenter6:02

I see your great-grandfather.

Roberto Alagna6:02

Great grandfather. Yes. He was born in uh New York and he was tenor and in that period he he had a shop in uh little Italy and uh you had to pay to the mafia some money, you know, to keep your your

Presenter6:15

Like we call a protection racket to keep you safe.

Roberto Alagna6:17

Yes, for protection. And uh he never paid because he had this beautiful voice. But he was obliged to sing for the Mafia Congress and the meeting. And he sang many times for them. It's a very very long story. It's difficult for me to explain because it's like a movie, you know, it's like uh the Coppola movies or Scorse movie. And they met Caruso in this store because he came to buy some uh presents, some gift for people in at the Met. He asked uh Commendatore, may I sing something for you? Because I'm tenor. And Caruso said, Okay, sing something. And he sang and they invite him to sing for in the at the Met, in the choir. And he said, No, no, I prefer to sing for myself and uh I think he was afraid.

Presenter6:54

I think

Presenter7:00

Tell me about this uh the second piece of music that you've chosen for us today.

Roberto Alagna7:02

The

Roberto Alagna7:03

Yeah, I chose uh Jongo Reynard because he was for me the greatest uh guitarist. He was a gypsy, you know, a manoosh. And uh he started to play guitar. He was very, very talented and he had uh an accident. It was a fire and he burned his hand. And um after that he was obliged to play only with two fingers.

Roberto Alagna7:25

And he created a new technique with the guitar, and he became the greatest jazz uh guitarist. It's all the time a real pleasure to hear uh Jangoria.

Speaker 47:35

Yeah.

Presenter8:27

Django Reinhardt and Minor Swing. So, Roberto Alana, are your parents still alive? They're sure. What did they want for their eldest son? You were the eldest of four children.

Roberto Alagna8:36

Descendant.

Roberto Alagna8:37

You know, it was very strange. My education was very strange because uh I was uh adult at ten years old.

Presenter8:43

How come?

Roberto Alagna8:44

Because I was son of migrants and in that time it was very, very difficult, and you had to do yourself everything, you know. For example, m my mother and my father they were not able to write in French and at uh six years old I wrote for them everything, for the taxes, for for the doctor, you know. My mother was a una sarta couture, you know. She made a seamstress and a couture and my father was uh built uh houses. Right, yes. But my father was also a very good singer, he sang a lot.

Presenter9:07

A seamstress and a couture and

Presenter9:13

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna9:17

In cabaret and nightclubs.

Presenter9:20

And is it true your parents your mother certainly wanted you to be an accountant?

Roberto Alagna9:24

Yes, yes, because she was afraid about this uh profession, you know. And for my mother it was very important to go with the suit and the costume, to have a very, very nice aspect. And she was very important for her.

Presenter9:37

Where on earth did the schoolwork fit into all this?

Roberto Alagna9:38

We're in a

Roberto Alagna9:40

You know, the school was a little bit strange because uh I I went to the school with a lot of migrants uh children, you know. In that period it was very important to respect each other. It was l little bit like a jail, you know, the jail atmosphere for for children. Quite dangerous.

Presenter9:56

Right, like Rowdy and

Roberto Alagna9:57

Yeah

Presenter9:57

And and were you there with the best of them? Were you a rowdy character?

Roberto Alagna10:01

No, because I was very shy. Right. But um I was very lucky because of my voice. I started to sing very, very early, to to play guitar, and with my voice I I had a lot of friends.

Presenter10:13

And you were married very young for the first time you were

Roberto Alagna10:15

Yeah, I was married very young, yeah, and I stayed with her five years. After that, uh I was in love with the second one and uh she became my m my wife and the mother of my daughter and after that uh she died. It was very difficult for me because uh she was uh twenty seven when uh she started to be ill and I was twenty eight and I was a widow at twenty nine.

Presenter10:41

And by that time were you were singing by that time?

Roberto Alagna10:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. I I started to sing opera when I was um twenty four, but in the same time I sang also cabaret. Each night I sang in cabaret, I slept for three hours, after that uh going to the office, after that trying to study opera, uh and in the night uh popular songs. You know, it was a very, very busy life. But um it was my life. I regret nothing because it was a beautiful life.

Presenter11:08

You tell me now about your third piece of music.

Roberto Alagna11:11

Yes, it's uh one of the greatest tenors. His Bianominogili. He was a phenomenon because he was able to sing from the morning till the the night, each day. I think it's amazing, no? For him, singing was something natural, like birth. For this reason, I have a great admiration for this guy.

Speaker 411:32

Come your beam of glor for your beyond.

Speaker 411:57

I preva chevna qualboza.

Speaker 412:02

Pop you pincher and you're my love for the money.

Speaker 412:07

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Presenter12:30

Peña Mino Gili, singing De Grio's impassioned outburst from the third act of Puccini's Mano Lesco. I wonder, Roberto, if there was a moment when you knew that you would make opera your life?

Roberto Alagna12:41

No, never. Because for me it was something uh unreachable, you know. It was my impossible dream.

Roberto Alagna12:49

Also, because I was so shy. But I tried, and all the time it was uh like my destiny, something

Roberto Alagna12:57

A force put me in this way.

Presenter12:59

And when it happened for you, it seems to me it all happened i incredibly quickly. You were spotted in it would have been around about nineteen eighty eight. You had the debut we spoke about uh with the Gleinborn uh touring company, and within two years you were playing at La Scala in Milan. That's ex that's an extraordinarily fast journey for anyone.

Roberto Alagna13:06

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna13:09

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna13:13

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna13:15

Leave us.

Roberto Alagna13:16

I I was all the time too shy and not sure of me because all the time my mother told me, you know, this world is not for us.

Roberto Alagna13:24

We are simple people. It's not for us. It's too difficult. It's impossible for us. And for me it was like this, you know, it was okay, it's not my world. Even if it was my dream, my secret dream,

Presenter13:34

So how did you start, let's be clear about this, actually start singing opera in order that people would hear it publicly because you were singing in nightclubs uh a while back.

Roberto Alagna13:42

Yes, I sang in nightclubs, but in nightclubs my voice was very powerful, maybe too much, you know. And I remember my musicians telling me, You know, Roberto, you have some problems with your voice, it's too loud. You must do something. Go to see this teacher, Rafael Ruiz. It's a Cuban wine. He's a very good teacher. You will see with him what is the problem. And this teacher was crazy after listening to me because he told me, But you are a tenor. The teacher is said, Okay, trust me, two or three years, you will become the greatest tenor in the world. I said, Oh my god, it's crazy. I was seventeen, you can imagine. It was impossible. And after that, sure, my teacher said, Okay, you have a big potential. Believe me, stop to smoke, stop the cabaret, stop everything. You have to study opera. I said, Okay, I will try.

Presenter14:33

And so in your head, then, given that, as you say, you know, you were very close to your family, and your mother had said to you for all those years

Roberto Alagna14:37

Other heads

Presenter14:38

We're simple, straightforward people. This is another life. It's not for us. When did you think, you know, it is for me? I'm going to give it a go.

Roberto Alagna14:45

Still today I'm not sure if if it's for me. You know, my mom she's all the time afraid. Even today. All the time she said, Oh, it was better to do another profession. All the time, still today, it's like this. It's a very Sissyian mother, you know.

Presenter14:59

I was gonna say that's Italian mothers for the

Roberto Alagna15:00

Yeah, it's almost anything. And it's like this. And you know, it it's the same. I never ask uh a theatre at Covent Garden or at the Met or at La Scara n I never ask, could you do this opera for me? Never in my life. All the time.

Roberto Alagna15:16

It's because somebody offered me something.

Presenter15:19

Tell me about your next piece of music, then.

Roberto Alagna15:21

He's a a Russian tenor, Ivan Kovlovsky, with a sweet voice, very soft and beautiful, and uh I loved also his acting. His act acting remind me Malombrando. For me I think it's more powerful, this kind of acting. Yes, and the voice is amazing, and it's incredible because he had um lyrical, lyrical gelo voice, but he sang also a Wagnerian part.

Speaker 415:58

Ye bom o i visor na prasanali bo kai chimeta yi.

Speaker 416:21

Uh

Speaker 416:36

Dhamma Shobhawama.

Roberto Alagna16:44

Just a pretty good old

Presenter16:48

Ivan Kozlovsky singing the aria Where, oh, Where Have You Gone? Golden Days of My Youth from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Erniegin. You said earlier that much of your family's history and early life was something like a Martin Scorsese movie, but there are elements of your own life that have been as dramatic and as tragic as any opera. Ye you were married to your second wife, your career was taking off magnificently.

Roberto Alagna16:58

It was not

Roberto Alagna17:00

Is he?

Roberto Alagna17:05

It was tread.

Roberto Alagna17:09

Yeah.

Presenter17:11

And your wife gave birth to a little girl, and then you found out that your wife was desperately ill. How did you find out?

Roberto Alagna17:19

It was terrible this this moment because I I remember we we were in Sicily and uh it was you know the beautiful weather, the beach, the and the sun and everything. And uh one day she started to have trouble in the head, the head and the eyes. She was obliged to put the sunglasses and she said, Oh, I'm not feeling well.

Presenter17:32

With her head headaches.

Roberto Alagna17:39

And we start to to go to the doctor, and they said, Oh, it's something uh not normal and and uh we were obliged to return to Paris. And we went to the doctor, we made some exams, and it was so rude, the doctor, because he said in front of us,

Roberto Alagna17:55

You will die in three months. And uh my voice broke in that moment.

Presenter18:02

Uh

Roberto Alagna18:04

And uh we start to to cry, you know, and uh we return home.

Roberto Alagna18:09

It was like everything around you are s.

Roberto Alagna18:14

Not true, nothing. Like a surreal uh situation. Yes. And uh I had to call the the parents.

Presenter18:15

Like a surreal uh situation.

Roberto Alagna18:21

to explain that. And it was the first time it was the first time I saw this uh young girl.

Roberto Alagna18:30

so poor fool, crying like a baby, and telling Ma'am, you have to come soon, I am very, very ill.

Presenter18:38

And you had a a little daughter and, as I say, everything was uh

Presenter18:43

You were busier than you had ever been. You were pursuing your dream. Was there a point at which you thought you you ha you would have to give up your dream?

Roberto Alagna18:47

It makes

Roberto Alagna18:48

In that moment I was very, very busy because uh it was the beginning of my career and everybody called me and I and I remember um f for my body and my brain and my nerves it was very difficult because I sang only in Europe, I cancel everything in the in America and in other places to stay in Europe because each night I return home to to stay with her in the hospital. You know, and I I I was there each night on a chair and she was in the hospital and she was so strong. In fact, she doesn't die after three months, but she lived one year and a half.

Roberto Alagna19:26

Because she was very, very, very, very strong. And um this is a very tragical moment in my life, very, very difficult to to explain.

Presenter19:34

We'll take a break for some music then. Tell me about your next piece of music.

Roberto Alagna19:38

Yes, the next uh piece is um Giorgio Zancanaro, the great baritone. He was a good friend of mine and uh I remember this beautiful voice. For me, this uh voice is very moving. All the time when I I hear his voice, I have uh such a great emotion. And I remember every time I sang with him, I sang better. I don't know why. But with him singing was easier.

Speaker 420:08

I am a man of the world.

Speaker 420:18

Glorium Sor.

Speaker 420:24

Ombre sorry

Speaker 420:33

Holy star

Speaker 420:37

Uh

Speaker 420:46

It hello.

Speaker 420:51

Very wool, bellevo spiro.

Presenter21:01

Ezzozaria One Day from the Immortal Heights from Verdi's Attila, sung by Giorgio Zancinaro with the orchestra of La Scala Milan, conducted by Riccardo Mutti.

Roberto Alagna21:10

Now you remember me something with Ricardo Mutin. You know La Scarla? Yes. They asked me three times.

Presenter21:14

Yes.

Roberto Alagna21:16

to come to make the audition for Muti? And I said all the time no and uh after three times they called me again. I said, Okay, you want to listen me? I come and um it was like a father with with me and uh still today uh I know it has a very, very big affection for me.

Presenter21:33

Uh you know, of course, now having brought that up, I have to ask you about La Scala and I have to ask you about what happened one night on stage when uh I have to say you were keeping very good company because uh the best singers in the world have been booed at La Scala in Milan and uh you were by a few people sitting up in the gods who consider themselves to be more experts than the experts in Scala.

Roberto Alagna21:37

What happened one night on

Roberto Alagna21:45

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna21:48

So

Roberto Alagna21:50

The difference is because uh all the tenors or the singers uh who have the same experiences had this because they they made uh a mistake or crack or something like this. The trouble with me was because they start to boo before I sign, before I open my mouth.

Presenter22:08

When you are an artist on stage giving everything that you have for a performance as of course the best to digging into your ability, it must be worse than awful to hear people be giving that sort of reception.

Roberto Alagna22:12

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna22:15

Digging into your ability.

Roberto Alagna22:22

Yes, yes, because that sort of reception. Yes, because when it's uh unfair, it's unfair. And for me, for exam, I don't like to fight, I don't like violence, I don't like a vendetta, even if I have a Sicilian bloat. I don't like that. For me, to go on stage, it's an act of love. I must be in love with the audience, with my colleagues, with the music, with the company, with the theatres. This is a pleasure for me. If I have to go there to fight, to prove something is not my my temperament. You know? If you don't like me or my singing, of my acting, I can't oblige you to listen to me. You know? It's like this.

Presenter23:01

Um you seem a very a very passionate uh person and a sensitive person. Are you somebody who reads their reviews as well, or are you one of those artists who refuses to read the reviews?

Roberto Alagna23:08

Superfici.

Roberto Alagna23:09

Oh no, I read everything because for me it's part of my my profession and I love that. You have to play with that also sometimes. And for me I I am not uh touched by that, you know? Because for me it's a l like a joke. I think it's part of the the business and the profession.

Presenter23:27

Tell me about your next piece of music, then.

Roberto Alagna23:29

Yes, the next uh piece is uh a piece uh with uh Nikolai Giorov, the great bass. He was um such a kind man. I sang many, many times with him and uh I had a big admiration for the great artist, but also for the humility of this man. I remember singing with him La Bohem in Roma.

Roberto Alagna23:52

And he was asking me advices, forth seeing.

Roberto Alagna23:57

And I was in shock and he said, But

Roberto Alagna23:59

Nicolai

Roberto Alagna24:01

You are a genius you are amazing you are you are s such a wonderful instrument and you are asking me? I am nobody, I am just a young guy. Ac how I can uh help you?

Roberto Alagna24:14

But it was like this. It was very important for him to share the research of the voice, the technical. And then I think we have a very, very uh wonderful relation between us. It's a pity uh Nicolae is not uh still today with us, but uh I think he has the most beautiful bass voice in the world.

Speaker 424:50

Yeah.

Speaker 424:56

God praise my agent alone.

Speaker 425:00

Anaya vila chisa galor bekwam sorza much sreginastia.

Speaker 425:10

Yeah.

Presenter25:29

Nikolai Gyarodov singing Prince Greyman's Ario from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onyegin. Um let's talk a little then, Roberta Olanya, about the woman who you say gave you a new life and a new future. Tell me about Angela, tell me about how you met.

Roberto Alagna25:40

Okay.

Roberto Alagna25:44

Angela was my angel. You know, when we met for the first time it was in'ninety two in Covent Garden, here in London.

Roberto Alagna25:51

And I remember I was late at the rehearsal, and I heard a voice behind the door.

Roberto Alagna25:58

I said, Whoa.

Roberto Alagna26:00

What a beautiful voice Who is this girl?

Presenter26:00

What?

Roberto Alagna26:03

And when I opened the door, the surprise was very good, you know.

Roberto Alagna26:08

And I saw her with these those beautiful brown eyes, very, very powerful, and something happened between us.

Roberto Alagna26:18

in that moment. We had the first uh rehearsal on stage, and I took the hand of Angela and I I received, I don't know, such a big voltage of electricity. It was amazing.

Roberto Alagna26:32

And the same for her.

Roberto Alagna26:33

There was something amazing it's something uh

Roberto Alagna26:37

In incredible and impossible to explain.

Presenter26:40

What happened?

Roberto Alagna26:40

And we start to to be in love and to be uh but without speaking, you know, only with on stage and uh looking each other and to stay it was uh very delightful to stay with her and to stay beside her and to to sing with her, to mix our thimbre, uh, our vibration together.

Presenter27:02

And was it spoken between you? Did you talk to her about the way you used to be?

Roberto Alagna27:04

Yes, sure. Sure. And uh it was something uh the fatal attraction, you know. But because of the husband, my wife, uh we were very happy in our uh family. And they they di we decide

Presenter27:09

Uh

Roberto Alagna27:19

to avoid each other.

Presenter27:21

Right.

Roberto Alagna27:21

And I said to my manager, Okay.

Roberto Alagna27:24

I don't want to sing with this girl anymore.

Roberto Alagna27:27

And for two years we tried to avoid each other, but we met again two years later.

Presenter27:34

And by this time you were a widower.

Roberto Alagna27:36

Yes, I was with her at that time and we started again to be a friend, to share the the time together and uh I was so in love. The last day we met uh a beautiful party and uh at five o'clock in the morning I return home very sad and with my heart broken.

Roberto Alagna27:57

And I start to have uh tears in my eyes as I said, Okay, I can't uh live without this girl. What can I do? And I start to cry f myself like like this, like a crazy man. And at six o'clock in the morning somebody ringing the bell. It was Angela.

Roberto Alagna28:16

She she had the same sentiment for me, and we decide to to stay together. And I remember the the husband called me and he told me, She's with you. I said yes.

Presenter28:29

And then in nineteen ninety six you were married in New York. You were married by Rudolf Giuliani, at that time the mayor.

Roberto Alagna28:32

Made by

Roberto Alagna28:35

Mm-hmm.

Presenter28:35

Could it have been any more glamorous and fabulous?

Roberto Alagna28:36

Any more

Roberto Alagna28:38

Yeah.

Presenter28:38

But

Roberto Alagna28:38

But again it was uh something not uh prepared. Really? Yeah, yeah, because in fact uh the the ceremony was uh the day before. And when we arrived in City Hall,

Presenter28:43

I

Roberto Alagna28:50

The mayor, Julian, said, Oh, we lost the papers And he said, But don't be afraid. To morrow is the great um celebration of Jimmy Levine for the gala. I'll be there. I love opera and we'll sign the papers there. And d between the second act and the third act, we were married.

Presenter29:09

Incredible. Tell me about your next piece of music.

Roberto Alagna29:11

Yes, it's uh Ronnie Fleming and Thomas Sampson in Thais, because I I saw them at the Met. They are very good friends. I regret uh because I never sang a lot with uh Roné Fleming, I sang only in Requiem Diverdi. I have a great great admiration for her. With Tom I sang a lot. I think our voices are match very well together. We made a lot of uh C D's together. It's all the time a great pleasure. He's a very very good friend. René uh the same and uh I think they are great and they are the greatest singers of today.

Presenter30:31

René Fleming and Thomas Hampson singing the final duet of Massenet's Thais with the National Orchestra of Bordeaux, conducted by Yves Abel. You were waxing so lyrically there about René Fleming's abilities. I'm wondering if Angela was listening, that she might not just be slightly annoyed about that.

Roberto Alagna30:41

Many flag

Roberto Alagna30:43

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna30:48

No, no, not that.

Presenter30:49

Torn

Roberto Alagna30:49

BAAP

Presenter30:49

So there you were, you and Angela Georgieu, um, married like the sort of the Bogart and Bacall, I suppose, of the of the opera world, the must-see.

Roberto Alagna30:56

Poems of the

Presenter30:59

And you were booked for so many engagements, so many concerts, so glamorous, tickets were at a premium. Do you think at that point you were booked for too too much stuff? The pressure was too great.

Roberto Alagna30:59

And just

Speaker 431:01

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna31:01

And he

Roberto Alagna31:03

Glacier.

Roberto Alagna31:07

It was nice. For ten years we spent twenty four hours together and it was amazing. It was fantastic. It was magical for me. And uh after that Angela decided to sing a little bit uh less with me is uh her choice. Maybe she's right, maybe she's wrong. I I think okay is um is a choice. For me I accept that.

Presenter31:08

Uh

Presenter31:31

It sounds though like a choice that you you wouldn't have made if it had just been done to you.

Roberto Alagna31:33

Can you just be a little bit more?

Roberto Alagna31:38

But I think with Angela it's something magical. And uh the most important for me is to be together, not maybe only to to sing, but to to spend time together.

Roberto Alagna31:49

Um

Presenter31:50

And you're also your parents to two girls, two children.

Roberto Alagna31:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. We have the two girls. It's very difficult to be together because they start to have their own life, you know, they have seventeen and uh nineteen.

Roberto Alagna32:02

But we try, we try to have a a normal family life.

Presenter32:06

And one of those daughters, there is your daughter, of course, and your other daughter is an adopted daughter. Tell me about the circumstances of that.

Roberto Alagna32:09

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna32:11

is the niece of Angela because she was the daughter of the sister. The sister died in a car accident, crash. After two years, the husband also. And uh she became more orphan. It was I think it was normal to take her with us.

Presenter32:27

Where do you find the space for family life, I wonder, these two people with these international careers?

Roberto Alagna32:31

Yeah, it's difficult, but uh thanks God we have people with us, you know, helping us. But for me, you know, I have the Sicilian temperament, it's never enough. When I am alone I am all the time very, very nostalgic and sad. For me, my family, it's ver very, very important to be with them and uh maybe it's the only thing I miss in this world.

Presenter32:54

You miss the thing that maybe it was what you had when you were growing up.

Roberto Alagna32:57

Exactly, exactly. I think that it's the most important in life, you know, uh the family, it's the the the only

Roberto Alagna33:06

Person who never betrayed you, no?

Presenter33:08

So you know, of course, I'm going to send you, Roberto, to this desert island. You're going to be all on your own, apart from your eight discs and some other things that we'll talk about in a moment. You're obviously going to be incredibly lonely and sad.

Roberto Alagna33:12

Be more

Roberto Alagna33:15

Thanks though.

Roberto Alagna33:21

Yes, it's true. And thanks God I have my voice with me. My voice for me is my my best friend. Sometimes my voice is like a person.

Presenter33:31

Does it surprise you like a person sometimes? Are you sure?

Roberto Alagna33:33

Yeah, yeah, sure. And I have to conquist her, to to be gentle, to invite her, to be kind. Sometimes she's very difficult with me and one day she will leave me, you know, and the divorce will be very, very difficult for me.

Presenter33:50

You'll miss her.

Roberto Alagna33:51

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter33:52

Tell me about your final piece of music today then.

Roberto Alagna33:55

It's um a wonderful tenor, it's a Belgian tenor. Nobody knows him. He was a little bit like uh Nicola Geda. The same uh possibilities in the voice with the top note, uh with uh incredibly uh clear and uh soft, and uh he was able to sing very large repertoire. He had a very short career, only ten years, because after that the war uh came and uh it stopped his career, but he was a very, very great tenor.

Speaker 434:24

La silent c'est.

Speaker 435:13

Look here,

Presenter35:23

Andre d'Arcourt singing the lullaby Bersuse. So we come to the part of the programme, Roberto, where I'm going to give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and you can take a book to the island as well of your own choice. What's it going to be?

Roberto Alagna35:31

And you can

Roberto Alagna35:33

Yeah.

Roberto Alagna35:35

Um I will choose maybe uh Victor Ego.

Presenter35:38

Okay. And a luxury too. We allow you something to make life a little more bearable on this lonely island. What will your luxury be? A guitar. A guitar with me. It's yours. And if you had to choose just one of these eight tracks, which one would it be?

Roberto Alagna35:47

Get that with me.

Roberto Alagna35:54

Uh Giorgio Zancanaro, because I told you with him I sang better. Maybe I will keep my voice longer with him.

Presenter36:01

Roberta and Anya, thank you very much for letting us view your desert island discs.

Roberto Alagna36:02

But I think I see you.

Presenter36:04

Uh

Roberto Alagna36:04

Thank you.

Presenter36:12

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.