Pasion on Sale

Pasion
When Roberto Alagna decided to record great songs from the repertoires of South America, he had no intention of taking them into the gold-and-velvet decor of an opera house. On the contrary, Roberto Alagna wanted to return to the simplicity and fervour to be found in dance halls or in village squares, on open-air stages festooned with strings of coloured lights. Pasion is not the album of some opera singer come to add a little grandeur to popular song. Quite the reverse, this is a declaration of love from one of the greatest voices of the century, a statement of his love for repertoires containing songs that for decades have brought millions of people – Roberto Alagna included – to tears and laughter and quivers of emotion. Roberto Alagna has recorded songs such as Besame mucho and Quizas, quizas, quizas, songs one has loved, who knows how many times, as well as countless Cuban boleros, tangos from Argentina, Mexican classics. Roberto Alagna confesses, “All these songs mean something to us instantly. They’re songs I’ve known for such a long time.” Roberto Alagna confesses to being a (very) poor dancer, but claims he has never forgotten how most of these songs came into existence, or why they have been sung for generations: “I can’t listen to them and sit still at the same time. I can always feel my arms, feet and head moving.” It is the same for such dancehall songs as the lively, amorous waltz Cielito lindo and the sublime bolero entitled Siboney. “With these songs, says Roberto Alagna, everything is in the rhythm, and for each one of them you have to find a climate that speaks to the public while it transports emotion. You mustn’t use a voice which is too heavy and powerful; the voice has to remain an instrument. Otherwise you change the nature of the style and lose all its intimacy.”