Tenor Alagna’s Performance Elicits Boos
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Tenor Roberto Alagna marched off the stage at La Scala when the audience booed him during the second performance of Franco Zeffirelli’s “Aida.”
He was replaced seconds later by his understudy Antonello Palombi, who rushed on wearing jeans.
“I do not deserve this kind of reception,” Mr. Alagna told La Repubblica newspaper after his early exit from Saturday night’s performance.
Thursday night’s opening of Mr. Zeffirelli’s “Aida” was a much-anticipated event, with Prime Minister Prodi and Chancellor Merkel of Germany among the many prominent figures in audience.
That audience applauded for more than 15 minutes after the final curtain fell, standing to cheer Mr. Zeffirelli, conductor Riccardo Chailly, and a cast led by the Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana in the title role and Mr. Alagna as Radames.
But the second performance did not go quite as smoothly.
The audience erupted in boos and whistles when Mr. Alagna came on stage and began singing the famous “Celeste Aida” aria. Mr. Alagna stopped, looked at the public, then walked off the stage, according to Italian news reports.
La Scala general manager Stephane Lissner apologized to the audience before the opening of the third act.
“In many years at La Scala, I had never seen anything like what happened tonight,” Mr. Chailly told reporters after the performance.
No one answered the phone at La Scala yesterday morning. The next performance was scheduled for tonight.
