Opera japonica/Luigi Alva

Luigi Alva

In the third quater of the 20th century, there were few singers, let alone tenors, who could compare in sheer vocal elegance with Luigi Alva, the Rossini-Mozart specialist, whose numerous recordings still set the standard for such roles such as Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Don Ottavio in (Don Giovanni) and Fenton (Falstaff).

Alva now teaches singing at the Voice Academy of La Scala in Milan. Silvia Luraghi met him on February 1st, and talked to him in a coffee shop near the opera house.

Silvia Luraghi: Let's start with your Japanese connections.

Luigi ALVA: Around 1970 I went to Japan with the Deutsche Oper, on the occasion of the Osaka Expo. We did Falstaff and Cosí fan tutte, both with Lorin Maazel. There were of course other international singers, so one day a guy from a recording company asked us to record a collection of pop songs from our home countries. I chose a Neapolitan song, 'Oh Marí, oh Marí'; when I had sung the first part, I was asked to sing the second in Japanese: so they gave me a translation, and someone provided a transcription using Spanish equivalents of Japanese sounds. In the end I really sang the Japanese text!

Luraghi: You are from Peru, and you chose an Italian song when asked to sing something typical of your home country...

ALVA: I moved to Italy in 1953; I still have very close connections with Peru, but I also consider myself Italian.

Luraghi: Tell me how you started your career.

ALVA: I started singing for the Peruvian radio. In 1950 I met Anton Guadagno, who suggested that I sang the role of Beppe in Pagliacci: but my operatic debut was as Alfredo in Traviata, at the opera house of Lima in 1951. In 1952 I took part in the selection of a tenor for the movie The Great Caruso, with Mario Lanza. The first prize was a fellowship for the Academy of La Scala. I didn't win, but decided to move to Italy, to study with Maestro Ghirardini. In 1954 I was chosen among the singers of As.Li.Co. for a production of Traviata. After the second performance, Giulio Confalonieri, who was the director of the Academy of La Scala, came to me and told me that I was admitted: so I ended up studying at the Academy anyway.

Luraghi: How long did you study at the Academy?

ALVA: In 1955 I was selected for the opening of the Piccola Scala [a smaller theater where chamber operas were performed until 1983], and sang Il Matrimonio Segreto with Giulietta Simionato and Graziella Sciutti; after the opening, on December 12, Giulini told me that he wanted me to sing in a production of Barbiere at La Scala with Maria Callas.

Luraghi: Lindoro in Barbiere and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni are the roles that you are most famous for . . .

ALVA: But I have sung a lot of Donizetti, too! I did Elisir, Don Pasquale, and La fille du régiment, both in French and in Italian.

Luraghi: Did you do Lucia?

ALVA: Once I was singing Fenton in Madrid; one day I was asked to sing the role of Arturo [Lucia's groom] that same evening, because the singer who was to sing it had been taken suddenly ill (Edgardo was Alfredo Kraus). I agreed, but asked for there not to be any announcement: so the public were quite surprised when they saw me! This remained my only experience of Lucia.

Luraghi: You said you were singing Fenton in Falstaff. Is this a role you like?

ALVA: Very much, and especially because I debuted it in a very beautiful production at Covent Garden, directed by Franco Zeffirelli: he was one of my favorite directors, we did eighteen productions together.

Luraghi: Have you ever had problems with stage directors?

ALVA: Not really, I have always got along rather well with all of them. Sometimes we did not agree on everything: I remember a production of Don Giovanni in Berlin, in which the director, Nölte, had rather strange ideas about the time of the day at which the action took place. For example, Don Giovanni tried to rape Donna Anna in the evening, although in her aria Donna Anna refers to the facts saying 'era già alquanto avanzata la notte': accordingly, the action should have taken place at 2 a.m.! I had a discussion with Nölte about timing, and later on I learned that he wrote an article in which he defended his views.

Luraghi: What is your favourite role?

ALVA: Nemorino in Elisir.

Luraghi: So you don't like dramatic roles?

ALVA: Around 1965 I was asked to sing Werther in Turin. It looked very different from the types of role that I was familiar with, so I asked for two weeks, read the score, and accepted. I sang it for five performances, in a Crivelli production conducted by Dervaux, with Annarita Rota. We got great reviews: but nobody ever asked me if I wanted to do it again.

Luraghi: What other French roles did you sing?

ALVA: Nicia in Thaïs, with Virginia Zeani in a Zeffirelli production; Médecin malgré lui, L'heure espagnole, Siebel in Faust.

Luraghi: After many years you have come back to La Scala Academy as a teacher: can you tell me something about your present activity?

ALVA: I like teaching, I have done some master classes, too. I find particularly interesting to see the different aspect of interpretation, how to make a character part of one's personality. This of course is reached through articulation and fraseggio, not only singing technique.

Luraghi: You said you have kept quite close relations with Peru: can you explain what you do there?

ALVA: I am the founder of an Association 'Pro Lirica', completely based on private funding; we organize a season which, this year, will be devoted to Verdi: we will open with the Requiem, then we will have the Peruvian premiere of Falstaff, Traviata, Alzira, which is especially important for us because the action takes place in Peru, and an open air production of Aida.