In the history of operatic hissy fits, what happened at Teatro Alla Scala in Milan during “Aida” on Sunday night was a bravura performance.
Boos from La Scala’s notoriously un-shy “loggionisti,” the upper-balcony aficionado crowd, greeted the tenor Roberto Alagna after “Celeste Aida,” his opening aria as Radames. He gave an unscripted military salute and promptly stalked off the stage. While the conductor Riccardo Chailly continued the performance, the stand-in, Antonello Palombi, was thrust on stage to finish the act in jeans. Two days later accusations of conspiracy, deception, violation of the theater’s traditions and insulting the audience are flying.
La Scala’s president and artistic director, Stéphane Lissner, has banned Mr. Alagna from the rest of the run, which lasts until Jan. 12, and said that his future at the house is in jeopardy. For his part Mr. Alagna has promised to sue the house for his fees, which he said are around $13,000 a performance.
“I meant nothing bad,” a still audibly upset Mr. Alagna said in a telephone interview Tuesday from his Milan hotel. “I came there to sing, only to sing, not to insult or steal.” He added: “I am a human being, not only a singer. When you sing badly, or do a crack, you can expect this kind of reaction, but I sang well.”
Mr. Lissner said there was no way he would have Mr. Alagna back during the “Aida” run after what happened.
“He doesn’t have any more respect for the audience, and the audience doesn’t understand,” Mr. Lissner said, also by telephone from Milan. “It’s a kind of professionalism. The audience expects the singer is supposed to do the whole performance.” As for scheduled performances by Mr. Alagna in “Manon Lescaut” next season, those were now up in the air, Mr. Lissner said.
“It’s a possibility he will sing,” Mr. Lissner said. “It’s a possibility he won’t sing. Nobody is prepared to have Mr. Alagna in this theater. But for the future, we will see.”
Further, Mr. Alagna’s wife, Angela Gheorghiu, has just withdrawn from a Royal Opera production of “Don Carlo” in London next season. A company spokesman said she was “uncomfortable” with the role.
The couple have had their problems in the past. Ms. Gheorghiu refused to wear a blond wig during a Metropolitan Opera tour of “Carmen” in Japan and was replaced by her understudy for a performance. The Met also withdrew a contract for the couple for “La Traviata,” apparently over a dispute about the set design. They have since been invited back.
And of course midproscenium meltdowns are not unheard of in the opera world. Maria Callas declined to come back after the first act of “Norma” in 1958 in Rome. More recently Luciano Pavarotti failed to appear for what amounted to farewell performances at the Met in “Tosca” four years ago. Joseph Volpe, general manager of the Met, banished the soprano Kathleen Battle over her excessively divalike behavior.
But Mr. Alagna’s act was particularly striking. Rarely does a singer walk off the stage as the music is playing.
Mr. Lissner professed to being baffled, though he said Mr. Alagna was depressed about lukewarm reviews from the glittery opening night performance on Thursday. He said he thought Mr. Alagna sang well on both nights, and that the boos Sunday night were not excessive. Some peopled cheered too, he said, adding that Mr. Alagna might have provoked any negative reaction with petulant comments in interviews over the weekend.
As soon as Mr. Alagna left the stage, Mr. Lissner said he ran back and spoke to him for half an hour, urging him to go back on. Both men are French.
The cancellations will also probably trouble executives at Decca Classics, which was making a DVD of the production. No decision has been made about whether to issue it, Mr. Lissner said.
Mr. Alagna poured out a different, sometimes conflicting version of events. He said the boos had started even before he began to sing. His throat grew dry and constricted. His blood sugar, as a doctor later found, was dropping.
“I left the stage because I was not well,” he said. “I am an artist. I am very sensitive.” He blamed La Scala for not halting the performance to give him a chance to recover, as normally happens when a singer is taken ill.
He denied that Mr. Lissner spoke to him for 30 minutes. “He told me just that, ‘Return, or it will be very bad for you,’ ” Mr. Alagna said.
Then, he changed tack and said his salute reflected recognition that the public had spoken. “So be it. I respect your decision,” he said. “If people don’t like me, why do I have to force them to listen to me?” And yet, he continued, the real disrespect to the audience came from Mr. Lissner by canceling his performances. “Those people paid to see me, to hear me,” he said.
He also hinted at darker forces arrayed against him, saying that the cover, Mr. Palombi, was already warming up in his dressing room before the performance, and that three mysterious figures made karate chop motions at him outside the stage door beforehand.
“There’s something very strange,” he said, adding that he may have been the inadvertent target of audience members who resent Mr. Lissner’s French nationality.
He acknowledged that he may have made a mistake. “But everybody in this world can make a mistake and have a second chance,” Mr. Alagna said. “They told me, ‘Not here.’ ”
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