Berlioz’s music for tenor is not only varied from light-lyric to heroic, it’s also ungraciously written: high notes pop up out of nowhere; tessitura remains in the E-F-G “bridge” area far longer than is comfortable for tenors of any ilk; rhythms require true musicianship; and soft singing is called for at unfortunate heights. But Roberto Alagna is in grand voice here, more suited to the heroic (Troyens) and really light music (the narrator in L’enfance du Christ) than in the in-between arias, where a certain type of French voix-mixte eludes him. That having been said, he comes closer than any tenor since Nicolai Gedda, who came closer than any tenor since Georges Thill, to filling Berlioz’s bill, and overall this is a brilliantly successful recital.
I’m certain that he wouldn’t be able to sustain all of Aeneas’s music on stage, but here Alagna is marvelous–manly, confused, insistent. His singing of Iopas’s little tune is lovely, but a real lyric voice–not the spinto Alagna is turning into–is called for. As mentioned, he sings the narrator in L’enfance du Christ with great beauty and simplicity; perhaps he might have done precisely the same with Iopas’s tune if it didn’t sit so high. He sings the duet from Damnation de Faust with Angela Gheorghiu and both are lovely and engaging. The excerpts from Lélio, hardly masterworks, are interesting, and Gerard Depardieu adds flavor as the speaker.
An oddity is an aria we’re accustomed to hearing for the bass-baritone Mefistofeles; here we get an earlier work by the composer in which it’s for tenor and guitar. Alagna’s Cellini is a bit strained, but there may be no way of singing this music perfectly. The CD ends with Berlioz’s rip-snorting arrangement of La Marseillaise, complete with choruses of men and kids. It almost makes you want to be French. Almost. This is a terrific CD, filled with difficult music by a tough-composer-for-voice. And it’s a must-have.
