YouSaid · the spoken record

Roberto Alagna

lines on the record: 46
first: 2009-08-16
most recent: 2009-08-16
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It's a wonderful tenor. It's a Belgian tenor. Nobody knows him. He was a little bit like Nicola Geda, the same possibilities in the voice with the top note with incredibly clear and soft, and he was able to sing very large repertoire. He had a very short career, only ten years, because after that the war came and it stopped his career, but he was a very, very great tenor.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, sure. And I have to conquist her 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.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it's true. And thanks God. I have my voice with me. My voice for me is my best friend. Sometimes my voice is like a person.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's difficult, but thanks God, we have people with us helping us. But for me, I have the Sicilian temperament is never enough. When I am alone, I am all the time very, very nostalgic and sad. For me, my family is very, very, very important to be with them. And maybe it's the only thing I miss in this world.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is Denise 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 she became more often, it was, I think it was normal to take her with us.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. We have two girls. It's very difficult to be together because they start to have their own life. They have 17 and 19. But we try to have a normal family life”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For me, no, because in fact, you know, I like to sing with everybody. But I think with Angela is something magical. And the most important for me is to be together, not maybe only to sing, but to spend time together. And you can see”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Glamorous. 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 after that, Angela decided to sing a little bit less with me. Is her choice? Maybe she's right, maybe she's wrong. I think okay is a choice. For me I accept that.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it's Ron Flaming and Thomas Samson in Thais because I saw them at the Met. They are very good friends. I regret because I never sang a lot with Ron Fleming. I sang only in Requem Diverdi. I have a great great admiration for her. Wisdom I sang a lot. I sing our voices are match very well together. We made a lot of CDs together. He's all the time a great pleasure. He's a very, very good friend Ren de Sam, and I think they are great and they are the greatest singers of today.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, because in fact the ceremony was the day before and when we arrive in City Hall, the mayor, Julian said Oh, we lost the papers. I said, but don't be afraid tomorrow is the great celebration of Jimmy Levine for the gala. I'll be there. I love opera, and the wolf signed the papers there. And between the second act and the third act, we were married. Incredible.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I was widow at that time. And we start again to be a friend, to share the time together, and I was so in love the last day we made a beautiful party and at five o'clock in the morning I returned home very sad and with my heart broken and I start to have tears in my eyes I said okay I can't live without this girl what can I do? And I start to cry myself like this like a crazy man, and at six o'clock in the morning somebody ringing the bell, it was Angel. She had the same sentiment for me. and we decide to stay together. And I remember the husband called me and he told me she is with you. I said yes.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But because of the husband my wife we were very happy in our family and did we decide to avoid each other? And I said to my manager, I don't want to sing with this girl anymore. And for two years we tried to avoid each other, but we met again two years later.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we start to be in love and to be but without speaking, you know, only on stage and looking each other. It was very delightful to stay with her and to stay beside her and to sing with her, to mix our fim, our vibration together.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Angela was my angel. When we met for the first time, it was in'92 in Coval Garden here in London. And I remember I was late at the reusal, and I heard a voice behind the door. We said What a beautiful voice who is this And when I opened the door, the surprise was very good, you know. And I saw her with those beautiful brown eyes, very, very powerful, and something happened between us in that moment. We had the first rehearsal on stage, and I took the hand Orangela and I receive I don't know such a big voltage of electricity was amazing. And the same for her. It was something amazing at something incredible impossible to explain.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, the next piece it's a piece with Nikolai Garov the great bass. It was such a kind man. I sang many, many times with him, and I had a big admiration for the great artist but also for the humility of this man. I remember singing with him La Boem in Roma. And he was asking me advices, forth seeing. and I was in shock, but Nikolai, you are genius, you are amazing you are such a wonderful struggle, and you are asking me I am nobody, I am just a young guy how I can help you But it was like this it was very important for him to share the research of the voice the technical and I think we had a very wonderful relation between us It's a pity Nikolai is not still today with us but I think he has the most beautiful bass voice in the world.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“who refuses to regard. Oh no, I read everything because for me it's part of my profession and I love that. You have to play with that also sometimes. And for me, I am not touched by that, you know, because for me it's like a joke. I think it's part of the business and the profession.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, because when it's unfair, it's unfair. And for me, I don't like to fight. I don't like violence. I don't like vendetta even if I have a Sicilian blood. 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 temperament. You know, if you don't like me or my singing or my acting, I can't oblige you to listen to me, you know? It's like this.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What happened one night? The experts in it. The difference is because all the tenors or the singers who have the same experiences had this because they made 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.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now you remember me something with Ricardo Mutin. You know, Lascala. They ask me three times to come to make the audition for Muti, and I said all this I know, and after three times they call me again, I said okay, you want to listen to me? I come, and it was like a father with me, and still today I know it has a very, very big affection for me.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, the next piece is Georgios Ancanaro, the Great Bariton. He was a good friend of mine, and I remembered this beautiful voice. For me, this voice is very moving. All the time when I hear his voice, I have 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.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Give up your dream? In that moment I was very, very busy because it was the beginning of my career and everybody called me. And I remember for my body and my brain and my nerves was very difficult because I sang only in Europe, I can sell everything in America and in other places to stay in Europe because each night I return home to stay with her in the hospital. And 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 because she was very, very, very, very strong. And it is a very tragical moment in my life very difficult to explain.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes. And I had to call the parents. Explain that and it was the first time it was the first time I saw this young girl so powerful crying like a baby and telling ma'am you have to come soon I am very very ill”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was terrible this moment because I remember we were in Sicily and it was, you know, the beautiful weather, the beach, the sun and everything. And one day she started to have trouble in the with her headaches? The head and the eyes. She was obliged to put her sunglasses and she said, I'm not feeling well. And we start to go to the doctor and they said, oh, it's something not normal. And 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. You will die in three months, and my voice broke in that moment. And we start to cry, you know, and we return home. It was like everything around you are sitting. Not true, not three. Like a surreal.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is a Russian tenor Ivan Kozlowski with a sweet voice very soft and beautiful, and I loved also his acting. He's acting remind me Malombrando. For me I think it's more powerful this kind of acting and the voice is amazing and it's incredible because you had lyrical lyrical voice but he sang also Wagnerian part.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's only, and it's like this. And you know, it's the same. I never ask a theater at Covent Garde or at the Met or Las Gala. I never ask could you do this opera for me? Never in my life. All the time it's because somebody offered me something.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Today, I'm not sure 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 Sicilian mother, you know.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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 voices too loud. You must do something. Go to see this teacher Raphael Rizis of 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 tainor. The teacher said okay trust me two or three years you will become the greatest turner in the world as 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.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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. 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.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, never, because for me it was something unreachable, you know. It was my impossible dream. Also because I was so shy. But I try, and all the time it was like my destiny, something a force put me in this way.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it's one of the greatest tennis. It's Bieno Gilli. It was a phenomenon because he was able to sing from the morning till the night each day. I think it's amazing. For him, singing was something natural like birth. For this reason I have a great admission for this guy.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I start to sing opera when I was 24, but in the same time I sang also Cabare. Each night I sang in Cabaret. I slept for three hours after that going to the office. After that trying to study opera, and in the night popular songs. You know, it was a very, very busy life, but it was my life, I regret nothing because it was a beautiful life.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I was married very young, and I stayed with her five years. After that, I was in love with the second one, and she became my wife and the mother of my daughter. And after that she died. It was very difficult for me because she was twenty seven when she started to be ill and I was twenty eight and I was widow at twenty nine.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not because I was very shy, but But I was very lucky because of my voice I stopped to sing very, very early, to play guitar, and with my voice I had a lot of friends.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, the school was a little bit strange because I went to school with a lot of migrants, children, you know. In that period, it was very important to respect each other. It was a little bit like a jail, you know, the jail atmosphere for children quite dangerous. Right.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes, because she was afraid about this profession, you know, and for my mother I 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.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it was very strange my education was very strange because I was adult at ten years old. Because I was a son of migrants, and in that time he was very, very difficult, and you had to do yourself everything, you know. For example, my mother and my father, they were not able to write in French, and at six years old I wrote for them everything for the taxes for the doctor, you know. My mother was Nasarta Coutoya, you know? A seamstress and a cup. And my father built houses But my father was also a very good singer. He sang a lot in Cabaret and nightclubs.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You've chosen for us today. I chose John Gorenart because he was for me the greatest guitarist. He was a gypsy, you know, a manouche. And he started to play guitar. He was very, very talented. And he had an accident. It was a fire and he burned his hand. And after that he was obliged to play only with two fingers. And he create a new technique with the guitar, and he became the greatest jazz guitist. It's all the time a real pleasure to hear Jangariat.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And 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 long story. It's difficult for me to explain because it's like a movie, you know, it's like the copola movies or scorches movie. And they met Caruso in this store because he came to buy some present, some gift for people at the Met. He asked Commandatore, may I sing something for you? Because I am dinner. And the Caru say something. And he sang, and they invite him to sing for the Met in the choir. And they said, no, no, I prefer to sing for myself. I think he was afraid.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes he made an audition for Caruso and they became friends. It was not my grandfather, it was my grandfather. I see your great grandfather was born in New York and he was Tenor and in that period he had a shop in little Italy and you had to pay to the mafia some money, you know, to keep your like we call a protection.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But my family was not poor but a modest, you know, modest, and for us it was impossible to go to the opera. Even cinema was expensive for us. 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 a lot of music, singers, comedian, poet. In fact, in my family you have two parts from my mother everybody sings opera. But from the part of my father they sing popular songs, and I was between those two disciplines.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The music and the performance in the early days. Is it a little bit like a wild core, of course? And I was the first one who put a little bit of discipline in this wild choir.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To visit, yeah, yeah, yes, because it's something amazing and so beautiful in the sound. And it's a live recording, you know, it's not a trick or something like this. No, it's amazing.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, my fauch is Ladame Blanche with Nicola Geda, Tenor and Hern Spurmberg because of Geda. For me I have a very big admiration for this singer, very, very talented. He can do everything with his voice, and for me it's a great maestro.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not because my wife is all the time in my brain, in my all the time in my soul, and I have my wife with me all the time. I think now was very important also to show my taste in music. It's too common to put Angela or maybe another colleague of today. It was important for me to do something more unusual.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I said it was nice I was to the beach with my family and he said you are crazy but 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 I made my debut without rehearsing with the orchestra and I remember at the end of the show my manager came to me and said Oh you made a miracle tonight.”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, in that time, you know, for me was something very natural because sure in that time I was a little bit ignorant because I sang in Kabare before, you know. For eight years I sang each night on Kabare. And for me, it was a normal life. I had a normal life during the day and each night singing on Cabare and it was the same when I start to sing opera and during the day I was with my family in Plymouth, I remember, and I went to the sea and I had a very good time, you know, with them. And after six o'clock I said, okay, now I am going to the theater to sing Draviata Alfredo. And I remember the Bariton asked me did you rest all day without speaking? Everything?”
2009-08-16 · Desert Island Discs · Roberto Alagna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source