BREAKING ALAGNA NEWS! PLEASE CREDIT OPERA CHIC!
Opera Chic has just learned that Roberto Alagna has bowed-out of his upcoming appearance at the Sanremo festival.
More in a sec...
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Link here, which is Pippo Baudo's official roll-call for the Sanremo festival, and doesn't mention Alagna. Go on: Control+F for the "A-word". Good luck finding it!
In addition to the entire cast/crew of the recent La Scala Aida, Alagna has clearly burned his existing bridges with Pippo "ex-husband of Katia Ricciarelli who beats-up hecklers outside of the opera house" Baudo, Director and M.C. of the entire Sanremo Festival. Alagna has also burned his bridges with songwriters Guido Morra and Maurizio Fabrizio, who specifically wrote Alagna an original song ("Schiavo d'Amore") that he was supposed to live-debut at the festival.
The affair comes down purely to scheduling, which Alagna flubbed, and just doesn't have capacity for.
His opening night at the Vienna Staatsoper for Massenet’s Manon is on Saturday, March 3, 2007, which is coincidentally the climax and closing-night of the Sanremo festival. Therefore, the only feasible slot for Alagna's Sanremo appearance would have been on Friday, March 2, 2007, which is designated for all the super-stars.
One can only guess that Vienna was all like AW HELL NAW when they realized that Alagna wouldn't be present for the final, general rehearsal the night before their Manon la prima.
Can someone gift this boy a filo-fax or something?
IMAGE MACRO TIME!!!
It is important to remember that Alagna was the one who asked Baudo to appear in the 2007 Sanremo Festival. NOT the other way around. Baudo's old quote states:
"'Esprimo grande solidarieta' nei confronti del tenore Alberto Alagna per quanto accaduto alla Scala. Confermo che Alagna mi ha chiesto di partecipare al prossimo Festival. [Trans: I confirm that Alagna asked me to participate in the next Festival] E' una candidatura eccezionale che dara' prestigio internazionale alla manifestazione"'
ALAGNA! What lies are these?!