Tenor Roberto Alagna has responded to critiques regarding his cancelation of “Tosca” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

In a reply to OperaWire’s recent article on La Monnaie’s intendant Peter De Caluwe’s comments (which were published on social media), Alagna sent a Twitter response featuring a statement by “Al Capone” director Jean-Felix Lalanne. OperaWire had previously reached out to Alagna’s management regarding his comments on de Caluwe’s statement.

In his statement, Lalanne called the claims “bordering on defamation.” He noted that he had been working with the tenor on “Al Capone” since 2020 and that Alagna had kept him informed of his professional agenda so that they could organize the show and its own schedule around that.

“To claim that he could have cancelled anything for the setting up of my musical shows a perfect ignorance of laws and customs of the production world, which could lead one to suppose that things can be set up and organized at the last minute,” Lalanne wrote.

Alagna had dropped out of “Tosca” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, telling Conessi all’Opera that when he and soprano Aleksandra Kurzak had signed the contract for the Puccini work, they had expected to take on the older production; he noted that he was not on board creatively with the new take, which drew inspiration from Pasolini’s “Salò.”