San Francisco Opera Opening Concert

Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna

SFO opening night concert

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Starting in 2021, San Francisco Opera switched from programming an opera for opening night to programming a concert. The last two years were great; 2021 featured the dynamic duo of Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Jamie Barton in a richly varied and delightful program; last year featured a bunch of different singers doing their thing, mostly marvelously. This year, we got returning soprano Aleksandra Kurzak and, in what Matthew Shilvock termed "a long overdue debut", Kurzak's husband, tenor Roberto Alagna.

Alagna, you might or might not know, has been making headlines since the mid-1990s: the tragedy of his first wife's early death, leaving him a widower with a small daughter; his romance with soprano Angela Gheorghiu and their marriage on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera house, with officiant Rudy Giuliani, back in the days when Giuliani was hated for fewer reasons than now; the tempestuous Alagna/Gheorghiu marriage and eventual divorce; some on-stage mishaps and booing, and on and on.

There were rumors for years about when he might finally appear at SFO, and here we are, in 2023, and we finally got an in-person look at him. And what I saw, and heard, was not great. The tenor is now 60; he was a lyric tenor with a lovely voice to start, but along the way he decided to take on heavy roles. (Here he is in 1997 singing "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'Elisir d'Amore.) His age and those heavier roles have taken their toll, and, well: during most of the first half of the program his volume was set at "too loud." Eventually, he was warmed up enough to sing at lower volume levels, but still, there's audible wear on his voice and an encroaching wobble. Overdue is right; too bad he and Gheorghiu never sang, say, La Traviata back in the day. I'm sure they sounded great together.

And actually, in his prime, he and Kurzak would have sounded great together. She was last here in 2012 as Gilda in Rigoletto, and wow, she's a terrific singer who has it all: a very beautiful and distinctive voice, flawless technique, great style. She was wonderful in everything she, and they, sang. Kudos also to Adler Fellow soprano Olivia Smith, who sounded great in about 90 seconds on stage as Lola in Cav.

Oh, besides Alana's current vocal state, the other disappointment was the program itself, which consisted of verismo standards (Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Tosca), a bit of Saint-Säens, and some songs. It was kinda dull, particularly compared to the musical variety of the last two openings.

• Joshua Kosman, Chronicle, reports on the occasion as much as on the performances. "Blunt" is a good description of how Alagna was interpretively. And yeah, dramatically things weren't all there for either singer; maybe they've done this show a million times (concerts pay better and require less rehearsal time than opera) or maybe more rehearsal time would have been good.