Today’s print edition of Il Giornale carried an article in Spettacoli (Entertainment) with il ballerino Roberto Bolle’s snarky slams against Roberto Alagna, which had been reported to Opera Chic yesterday by her high-placed sources. This device seems to be the latest trend concerning the aftermath of the Alagna walk-out on Sunday night’s Aida at Teatro alla Scala. Translated from Italian, the article follows:
Bolle: Alagna è mosso dall’invidia (Translation: Alagna is Compelled by Envy)
Bolle is quoted,
“Alagna has not been classy. Here the audience rules. The audience decides who deserves cheering and who deserved booing. Alagna attacked the critics, and that I can understand; but he should not have attacked his fellow artists in the way that he did.”
“My performance has been compared to a go-go dancers’. [ed: Corriere della Sera’s music critic Maestro Paolo Isotta had a few days ago critiqued the entire production, going-on to say that Bolle’s dance was go-go-esque, and the only thing that will resonate with the audience will forever be Bolle’s golden thong-encased a$$]. But you need to analyze things in their context. In Aida, I play an Ethiopian slave, and therefore design and costume must be considered in that context. I didn’t dare suggest this earlier, but now considering Alagna’s provocation, I must admit that he surely is envious of my perfect physique and of my 'glute' [ed: killer a$$]”.
“Sunday night I was in my dressing room, getting my body-paint applied, and I noticed a lot of commotion in the backstage area. All the artists remained silent. We were left speechless. We just could not believe what had just happened. Alagna at least had to finish Act I. Was that a tantrum? Okay, yes it was. But at least he should have asked for forgiveness later.”
“But I have to concede that Alagna has shown great courage. He has been a genius in his folly; he gave us a ‘coup de teatre’ that will remain in history and that has captured the attention of the media.”
Today's print-edition of Corriere della Sera carries the same statement from Bolle (that Opera Chic carried yesterday in the post here), but expands on his quote with the additional phrase from il ballerino reading, "Un colpo di testa sbagliato, da kamikaze.” Which translated, means that Alagna had, "made a wrong-headed move [literally a “head-butt”], executed kamikaze-style”.