Rebel tenor serenades La Scala
2006-12-15 14:34
Milan - Top tenor Roberto Alagna, who stormed off the stage at Milan's La Scala this week after he was booed in mid-performance, staged his own show outside the famed opera house on Thursday as the show went on inside without him.
Alagna, who had said he would sue the theatre if they did not let him return, arrived in Piazza della Scala shortly before Verdi's Aida was due to start and began singing before a crowd of onlookers and photographers.
Looking up at La Scala, the French-born tenor, hailed by some critics as the new Pavarotti, sang a poignant passage from Puccini's Madame Butterfly containing the words: "Farewell, flowered sanctuary of happiness and love."
He took a photograph of the theatre with his mobile telephone. "I came to take a souvenir, my last happy memory of La Scala because I don't know when I will see it again," he was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
Alagna, 43, walked off Franco Zeffirelli's lavish production of Aida on Sunday night after a small section of the audience heckled him as he was singing an aria.
The incident, a first in the 230-year history of La Scala, forced a costumeless substitute to step in and carry on singing as some in the audience shouted "Shame on you!". Organisers later apologised to the public.
Alagna said he had told La Scala he was ready to return to the show but the opera house had turned him down for breach of contract. Thursday's first performance of Aida was the first since Sunday's dramatic episode.
Alagna told reporters outside the theatre that his lawyers had already begun proceedings against La Scala, but said he was also sorry at the way things had turned out.
"I dearly loved this theatre and its audience, I cancelled a very important production at Covent Garden to come here but I came with great joy," he said.