OMG ALAGNA SPOKE TO PAPARAZZI OUTSIDE OF TEATRO ALLA SCALA BEFORE HE FINALLY LEFT. HERE IS WHAT HE SAID (translated from Italian):
"The audience didn’t understand, that’s why I left.
I’m displeased, embittered, stunned: I sang all over the world, but standing in front of tonight’s audience, I felt like I was in another world. True audiences - audiences with fire and blood - were not at La Scala tonight.
I sang beautifully, I was bravissimo. Too bad for those who didn’t understand.
I shall never come back to La Scala: This is not a theatre, it’s a Roman Arena. Professionals here get manipulated.
I sing with heart, with my blood. Critics never mentioned my work on fraseggio [phrasing], on my voice’s color, on my pathos.
With Zeffirelli and Chailly? I had good feeling. To no result.
I canceled my commitment for Manon Lescaut in 2008. My wife is thinking of canceling her commitment for La Traviata here in July 2007."