Tenor walks off stage at La Scala

Associated Press ^ | December 11, 2006

[Zakeet]

MILAN, Italy - 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, who rushed on wearing jeans.

"I do not deserve this kind of reception," Alagna told La Repubblica newspaper after his early exit from Saturday night's performance.

[Snip]

Thursday night's opening of Zeffirelli's "Aida" was a much-anticipated event, with Italian Premier Romano Prodi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel among the many prominent figures in attendance.

[Snip]

"In many years at La Scala I had never seen anything like what happened tonight," (the Conductor) Chailly told reporters after the performance.

[Zakeet]

A Marx Brothers movie moment.

[TXnMA]

... just because the poor guy was singing the music he'd memorized from Verdi's Aida... ;-)

[KarlInOhio]

Why did the crowd boo him? I saw nothing in the whole article telling why.

[Gator101]

Tenor walks off stage

Who does this guy think he is? ...one of the Simpson sisters?

[Charles Martel]

It might not have been the tenor's fault. Some conductors are really out to get ya.

[Gator101]

Leopold!

[I see my hands]

Another victim of the War On Tenorism.

[bigfootbob]

prima donald?

[Shermy]

[Dante3]

I want to know also why they booed him. The audience in Italy can get rough. We had an incident also in NY recently.

[fish hawk]

Too funny! That scene is the first thing I thought of. LOL

[HereInTheHeartland]

" 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, who rushed on wearing jeans. "

He pulled a tenor's version of a Kramer?

[I see my hands]

Scott Tenorman

Maybe Eric Carman was another prominent member in attendance.

[ecurbh]

Classical music ping!

Sounds like something Kathleen Battle would have done.

[Captain Rhino]

"What else could I do?" Alagna said in an interview Monday with Italy's Tg5 news. "Did I have to stay there ... until my voice broke?"

The "Celeste Aida" aria requires the tenor to reach and sustain some pretty high notes. Perhaps he was having difficulty...or perhaps there were just some jerks in the audience that thought it would be fun to harass him.

[dfwgator]

ROTFLMAO!

[CaptRon]

Also, why wouldn't the understudy be dressed to perform?

[KarlInOhio]

Also, why wouldn't the understudy be dressed to perform?

Like a third string quarterback running onto the field with his headphones and clipboard.

[sitetest]

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[GSlob]

Well, he's not the first one to be booed in La Scala history. In the good old days, when the new music was not up to snuff, the crowd used to grab the conductor with his chair, lift it [and him], and carry him [with chair] in the buffet.