Roberto Alagna as Cash Cow - Republished

Roberto Alagna was pimped to sell out La Scala's Aida. He is a beautiful tenor that we've managed to step on, desecrate and insult to no end. When I first saw him sing on the Levine anniversary, the cameraman zoomed in so close up on him, I could see his fillings. Why do people try to get under his skin. Give the brother his props. Opera Managers, directors and impresarios have to understand that we as opera singers deserve to be treated like the intelligent people we are and not like cash cows. While we are used to sell out productions and bring in billions of dollars, we are somehow regarded as cash cows, money makers, and not seen as artists, humans. Our names are associated with the amount of revenue we can generate, not necessarily what can attribute to our superb performance. No one in opera management ever thinks about what they could do to make a performer more comfortable. Zefferelli knew that Alagna's voice was small cast as Radames. What he should have done was staged Celeste Aida at the footlights so that Alagna's voice would carry over the orchestra. After all Viva Verdi! We can't expect his smaller voice to compete with that mega Verdi orchestra. Give the brother a break. We all knew that Alagna's voice was small for Radames and that the role has traditionally been given to dramatics. And some stage direction adjustment should have been made for that. Show a tenor some respect.

To sum everything up, the situation is: without great singers, there is no great opera. Alagna is a great singer. La Scala sold out 11 performances of Aida based on the promise that Alagna would sing Radames. The patrons bought into that. Now that he is not singing Radames my question is: can the patrons get a refund? Or does La Scala betray the opergoing public by using Alagna's name to sell tickets, generating the funds and reneging on the promise to bring Alagna's voice to his public??

Alagna on the other hand, has to learn to control that Latin temper of his. He can't let them make him all hot and sweaty. He must work on keeping a cool head.