Needless to say, Elina Garanca was an irresistible and hypnotic Carmen. She sang a very moving Micaela by always finding the right balance between the bravery and the fragility of her character. The soprano, as she candidly says in her main aria in the third act, was not frightened at all for her Met debut. I was not the only one with tears in my eyes. His flower song was devastating just like the first duet with Ailyn Pérez (Micaela), “Ma mère, je la vois”. The finale was an incredible explosion of rage and madness. He is weak, grim, his features are tortured even the sound seems darker. When the third act begins, Alagna creates a metamorphosed and barely recognizable character. The first act will let you see a loving and very naive Don José in every gesture and faces Alagna makes. Hence, his interpretation of the character was simply amazing. What is the most admirable is that he manages to make his vocal technique disappear completely: his performance was never about Alagna singing, it was not even about the music: it was just Don José, again, speaking directly to you through an invisible lyrical tenor screen. If the volume is impressive, the fact that the diction stays crystal clear and the pitch absolutely centered in his fortissimos take his singing to a very, very rare level. In terms of “projection”, Alagna has one of the biggest voices of the circuit. But when he sings, his diction is so clear that you cannot help feeling like he speaks directly to you and this is truly mind blowing. How Alagna does it is still a mystery to me. I must admit that I had never heard a singer performing live from whom I could understand every single word, until that night. Paradoxically, it is especially true for French singers: simply put, in order to sing in French, they need to relearn their own language.

Because of its pronunciation of course, but also because a lot of its sounds are hard to “project”. Jonas Kaufmann will be singing for the last two shows of the run early March while Roberto Alagna has covered the whole month of February.Īny good vocal coach will tell you that French is the hardest language to sing. In real life, it is a quote from the Metropolitan Opera’s website. “ Roberto Alagna and Jonas Kaufmann take turns playing Carmen’s desperate lover, Don José” may be a quote from the online brochure of the Opera House you started in one of your opera fanatic dreams.

Carmen at the metropolitan opera