Roberto Alagna’s parents hailed from Sicily but emigrated to France, where he was born. He has described his family as ‘consisting of generations of acrobats, mandolin players and singers’. While still a teenager he started to busk as a singer; and influenced by the recordings of Mario Lanza, he gradually moved to the operatic repertoire. Although largely self-taught, he did receive some instruction from Rafael Ruiz. Alagna won the Luciano Pavarotti Singing Competition in Philadelphia in 1988 and shortly afterwards appeared with Glyndebourne Touring Opera as Alfredo/La traviata, a rôle he repeated in Montpellier, where he was hailed by the critics as a ‘tenor miracle’. He went on to sing Alfredo in many European opera houses, including Toulouse, M...