Peter de Caluwe, the Intendant of La Monnaie / De Munt, is firing back at tenor Roberto Alagna over his recent cancelation of “Tosca” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

De Caluwe reached out to OperaWire with a statement that he shared on social media in which he questions Alagna’s sincerity in his statements to Conessi all’Opera.

In those statements, Alagna states that he was not interested in engaging with the Liceu production (which originated at La Monnaie) by Rafael R. Villalobos, making reference to his distaste for its references to Pasolini’s “Salò.”

In his statement, de Caluwe makes note that while Alagna “claims he does not wish to be part of a project that ‘treats violence’ and more importantly would make him ‘a victim of bad taste’ …the life of a gangster and maffia capo seems to pose him fewer moral problems and being surrounded by some female nudity at Paris Folies Bergères undoubtedly gives him a more joyful prospect than to tolerate Mrs Alagna-Kurzak perform ‘Vissi d’arte’ with a pre-Raphaelite male nude next to her.”

He goes on to question the timing of the cancelation of the Liceu production, noting that production dates of both “Tosca” and “Al Capone” coincide, posing a scheduling conflict for the tenor.

“How could he have combined a new production in Barcelona which is totally overlapping with the Paris final rehearsals and premiere dates? The Paris project was published on April 4^th, exactly when Alagna initiated the Barcelona cancellation process and put the whole coproduction project at risk, hence creating himself the problem with the house and his audiences and using inappropriate slander to get out of it,” De Caluwe writes.

“Al Capone” opens on Jan. 28, 2023, while “Tosca” opens on Jan. 4 and runs through Jan. 21, 2023.

OperaWire has reached out to Alagna’s management for comment.

Below is de Caluwe’s full statement:

From Tosca to Al Capone, from Liceu to Folies Bergère

Over the past weeks, Mr Alagna created some waves after cancelling his participation in Liceu’s new Tosca (originated at La Monnaie in Brussels last year), claiming he could not accept the concept of the production. In his recent interview in Connessi all’opera on the subject, he claims he does not wish to be part of a project that ‘treats violence’ and more importantly would make him ‘a victim of bad taste’ (“non voglio essere ostaggio del cattivo gusto”) .

The life of a gangster and maffia capo seems to pose him fewer moral problems and being surrounded by some female nudity at Paris Folies Bergères undoubtedly gives him a more joyful prospect than to tolerate Mrs Alagna-Kurzak perform Vissi d’arte with a pre-Raphaelite male nude next to her.  The fact that he will be starring in Al Capone in Paris surely sheds a more nuanced light on the arguments the tenor used to get out of the Puccini project in Barcelona. How could he have combined a new production in Barcelona which is totally overlapping with the Paris final rehearsals and premiere dates? The Paris project was published on April 4^th, exactly when Alagna initiated the Barcelona cancellation process and put the whole coproduction project at risk, hence creating himself the problem with the house and his audiences and using inappropriate slander to get out of it.  In our business, it is always wise to stay honest and not to pour ‘merda’ (sorry, repeating Alagna’s words when he refers to a superlative artist like Pasolini) over teams and houses that try to creatively reflect on how to interpret opera today. The truth always comes out anyway, like in any good operatic scenario.

His fans now have the alternative to see their startenor perform no less than 90 performances portraying a hero with dubious interests in money, crime, tax evasion, machismo and violence. Is it wrong to question whether they will have less problems digesting the life of a manipulative crime boss in a cabaret theatre rather than seriously discussing love, art and life in an intelligent and eye-opening opera production?  At least, Cavaradossi can be considered an artist of a certain nobility…