Kurzak | Alagna - 65th anniversary of the Philharmonic in Szczecin

The Polish soprano and opera diva Aleksandra Kurzak can be heard more often at the Metropolitan Opera, the Garnier Opera or the Viennese Opera than in Poland. She practiced Verdi's "Semper libera" from Traviata at the age of five. This first-rate star is not the only surprise and celebration at this evening’s 65th anniversary of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Szczecin. This evening we will also hear the singer regarded as the heir to Luciano Pavarotti. Ladies and gentlemen! The French tenor Roberto Alagna, and privately ... the husband of Aleksandra.

Aleksandra Kurzak came from a musical family. She is the daughter of singer Jolanta Żmurko and horn player Ryszard Kurzak. In 2000 she graduated with honors from the Vocal Faculty of the Academy of Music in Wroclaw, and later the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. Later, she attended the Internationales Opern Studio at the Hamburg Opera. Recently, in a sense, she has returned to her native country, where she earned her doctorate in theater (Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wroclaw).

She has won many awards, including the first prize and special awards at the Third International Stanislaw Moniuszko Vocal Competition in Warsaw. Paradoxically, however, the most important competition was the one where she won nothing. In the Luciano Pavarotti Vocal Competition in LA, Alexandra did not even reach the finals. But her performance remained in the memory of the director of Covent Garden so well that proposals were arriving quite soon after. Despite many performances at MET, La Scala and other renowned venues, it is with the theater in Covent Garden that she is most connected.

French tenor Roberto Alagna was born into a family of Sicilian expatriates. As a teenager, he was earning money from street performances and occasional appearances in Parisian cabarets. In those years his salary consisted mainly of ... tips, while his university education came from an album he recorded of famous tenors. He was discovered by Gabriel Dussurget, co-founder of the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Alagna won the International Luciano Pavarotti Competition and soon was given a professional debut as Alfredo in "Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi. Then there was La Scala, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera.

The story of Robert and Alexandra is like a fairy tale. They first met on the stage in the opera "The Elixir of Love" by Donizetti. It's one of those moments when the world of opera is astonishingly close to the real world. Today they have a daughter, Melanie, a happy private life, and a profession planned a few years in advance.