Le Chanteur
December 2020
After the great acceptance among the audience and critics of the releases ‘Caruso 1873’, the opera singer surprises us with his new album ‘Le Chanteur’.
“Le Chanteur” is a fine and skillful interlacing of several popular songs, arranged by Ivan Cassar, the tenor’s faithful traveling companion.
In this tribute to French song, he brings back to life songs he performed during his childhood and then when he was playing cabaret, long before going on the biggest lyrical stages. As he says, this record brings him back to fond memories. Roberto Alagna delights us once again, this time not with his tenor voice, but by revisiting these old songs with his own personality, his dynamism, his sweetness, and with magnificent arrangements.
Popular music is a genre which should be prudently approached by classical singers. With its own rules and patterns it’s easy for those novices in these to sound poor or even tedious. But Alagna’s interpretation reaches perfection– special mention should be made of his father who was a big lover of popular music, while his mother initiated him as a boy into opera.
Alagna takes on the relaxed rhythms of the style, often with early entries, and slides. And we can clearly hear every word, many of them without accessory liner notes. The combination of instrumentalists brings variety to the interpretation, including some clarinet and trumpet astonishing interventions in ‘Bohémienne aux grands yeux noirs’,
Exceptional interpreter capable of moving because he is able to communicate the true meaning and passion in every word he sings. Roberto Alagna’s a velvety but at the same time powerful voice, with clean and endless highs. A perfect instrument, from which the tears as well as the smiles of the audiences emerge. He has tackled the South American and Sicilian repertoire and the Neapolitan serenades in a simply divine way and now he adds another piece to his interpretations with this wonderful CD which is a foray into the most beautiful French songs. A disc that shows us the umpteenth facet of a great artist, capable of crossing genres with a unique style. Remarkable tenor in opera, extraordinary singer in all genres.
He’d been wanting to record this repertoire for years. The result is an absolutely fascinating disc. An album which will easily find its audience and definitely a piece to owe if you are a popular music lover.
– Paul Thomas
