Moving and magical

Roberto Alagna
Barbican

Simon Boccanegra
Royal Opera House

The Merry Widow
Coliseum

Roberto Alagna gave a recital of Verdi arias in the Barbican last week, his first appearance in the UK since his wounding experience at the hands of the hooligans who call themselves connoisseurs at La Scala Milan. It was a most enjoyable occasion, and after the first number the singer said quietly, ‘It’s very nice to be here,’ a touching tribute to the greater taste and better manners of London audiences. He was for the most part in excellent voice, though the encore of Otello’s first entrance showed that that is a role he would do well to leave alone; his singing of the death scene, by contrast, was moving and magical, with no histrionics and an inwardness I haven’t heard from him before.

The concert followed the pattern of the one which his wife Angela Gheorghiu gave last year — she made a late, attention-grabbing entry into the auditorium in this one. Ion Marin’s coiffure conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Chorus sat and occasionally sang a bit, including an unnecessary Anvil Chorus. There were overtures, and even Johann Strauss’s Quadrille on motifs from Un Ballo in Maschera, but the only distinction was that of the soloist. He acts better in this context than he does on the operatic stage, and characterises more rapidly and decisively. He gave the occasion dignity, a warmth and variety of tone which hardly any other Italianate tenor possesses these days, and lots of energy. I came out beaming.

The Royal Opera’s latest revival of Verdi’s most sombre opera Simon Boccanegra is conducted, unexpectedly to me, by John Eliot Gardiner. And I admit to being surprised at what a good job he made of it.