Perched on a terrace overlooking, at an altitude of 400 meters, the Mediterranean, the Franco-Italian tenor Roberto Alagna and the Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak will perform on Sunday love duets, a concert " without a net between sky and sea ", to make live the opera in times of coronavirus. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the couple in town and on stage will perform in the tiered gardens of a luxury hotel in the village of Èze, near Monaco, " in a vacuum and with the most beautiful setting. scene that exists, nature, ”emphasizes Aleksandra Kurzak.
Read also: The Metropolitan Opera is organizing a luxury video gala with the biggest stars of the classic
But this emptiness will not only be the precipice at their feet when they sing, at 7:30 p.m. , the sometimes poignant repertoire of Madame Butterfly's Vogliatemi bene , sometimes lighter than " a Neapolitan, Mexican song and even an operetta ", detailed Friday evening Roberto Alagna in an interview with AFP, a few minutes from the dress rehearsal.
To read also: Roberto Alagna: "With the coronavirus, we must rethink our model"
The void will also be the absence of the public on the site, due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The show will be broadcast exclusively on the internet, live and then for twelve days on the New York Met website, which is organizing a program of twelve concerts with big names in opera. Entrance ticket: 20 dollars, or 16.90 euros. The Alagna-Kurzak duo succeed tenor Jonas Kaufmann filmed in a Gothic abbey in Bavaria and Renée Fleming in a museum in Washington.
It's even more difficult without the public, we feel a little bit in a vacuum, we don't have their reaction. Even in the silences, at the opera, we feel electricity
Aleksandra kurzak“ The Met is closed until Christmas and it is also, in this difficult period, an opportunity for this institution to replenish its funds, ” says Roberto Alagna. The native of Clichy-sous-Bois, near Paris, reconnected with the public a few days ago in Palermo, for the first time since confinement: “ Every evening, we were offered gifts, cakes that they (the spectators) themselves made tambourines at home, it was great ”. " When there is an audience, there is a communion, we feel the thrills, the anxiety, the expectations, " he continues. " There, we do not know where we are going, it is without a net ", comments the tenor before the concert in Èze.
Read also: A third of the public does not plan to return to the cinema, the concert or the theater as long as the virus is there
“ It's even more difficult without the public, we feel a little bit empty, we don't have their reaction. Even in the silences, at the opera, you can feel electricity. Yet we know that we are watched by thousands of people, ”adds the soprano. For the performance of Jonas Kaufmann, 25,000 tickets had been sold by the Met.
High definition and satellite capture
For tonight's concert, this institution has deployed, on the technical side, " the big cavalry is Hollywood!" », Laughs Alagna. The concert, captured in high definition, is shot using cameras linked by satellite to a New York studio where a host will comment on it during the interludes. " Let's hope that Sunday we have good weather, that we are in good shape and that the miracle takes place ", asks Roberto Alagna.
Our mission is to make people forget, the time of the show, the hassles of everyday life and all that we are currently experiencing
Roberto Alagna“ We tried to compose a program that could reach as many people as possible, it's entertainment. Our mission is to make people forget, the time of the show, the hassles of everyday life and all that we are currently going through ”, pleads the tenor.
Read also: The Metropolitan Opera in New York will not resume until the end of December 2020
During confinement, the star duo cut their bohemian life. " I even planted tomatoes, which I never did ", smiles the tenor, confined with his family in the Paris suburbs. Nothing to do with the " race against time " to which, according to him, the soloists are subjected today.
“ When I started, nobody was doing one show after another, we had a production and we would rest for a month or two. Now it's one behind the other, we shoot each other, and we do it because the fees are lower and because, when we are offered something, we tell ourselves that we are going to accept because we I don't know if in six months we'll be singing again, ”he laments.
To see again, except for the unforeseen, the duo in flesh and blood on a French stage, it will be necessary to wait until April 2021 and the “ taking of the role ”, alongside her husband, of Aleksandra Kurzak in La Tosca at the Opéra-Bastille .