A cynic might look at Roberto Alagna’s new disc, ‘My Life is an Opera’, and think, ‘At least he admits it’. From his stormy La Scala stage departure to his relationship with Angela Gheorghiu, Alagna’s personal life is…well, operatic. Somewhat embarrassingly, the disc’s booklet has each of the arias listed (out of order from their disc sequencing) to illustrate some signpost in his life, though instead of dealing with the aforementioned incidents in this loose autobiography, the text speaks of the ‘meteoric’ rise of this ‘golden-voiced handsome young genius’. (Oh dear.)

But anyone who thought the medium-weight Alagna voice was on the way out with his Radamès and Otello might be dumbfounded at his excellent state of vocal health on the disc, and the sure dramatic instincts behind it. Most of the repertoire seems new to Alagna’s discography, though there are very few signs of having just learnt arias from Gluck’s Orfeo, The Queen of Sheba (both the Gounod and Goldmark versions) and Reyer’s Sigurd.

Aside from forays into Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, the programme seems to signify a re-commitment to his fundamentally mid-weight lyric vocal personality, not playing safe in the way he builds phrases and longer-term musical climaxes but rarely pushing his limits (the closest he comes is in an excerpt from his brother David Alagna’s opera Le dernier jour d’un condamné). Lensky’s aria from Eugene Onegin is in French translation, not Russian. Bel canto choices such as the dramatically charged duet from Roberto Devereux (with Aleksandra Kurzak) don’t require serious coloratura.

The biggest vocal surprise is ‘Magische Töne’ from the Goldmark Sheba, in which Alagna goes into the falsetto stratosphere with a musico-dramatic effect that stands well alongside performances by the great tenors of the past, including Nicolai Gedda and Leo Slezak. Alagna doesn’t have a particularly strong-minded collaborator in the London Orchestra (an ensemble I’ve never heard of) and its Director Yvan Cassar. But recorded sound is first-class.