Is nothing off limits for Roberto Alagna? He talks frankly about the precarious state of his marriage in today's Le Figaro (as revealed earlier by OperaChic).
And in the same interview, the Sicilian pintpot breaks omerta on opera's last taboo - that most fascinating subject - how much he earns (my translation):
"I’m well off but nothing like as rich as people think. I live in Switzerland but I pay my taxes in France. I don’t know exactly how much I’m worth because I’m not a businessman. For a gala concert, I'm paid 60,000 euros. If I need money, I go to Abu Dhabi or Japan, where I can get 100,000 euros. I get 25% (or 25c ?) on CDs, but nothing on DVDs or live cinema broadcasts. For opera, I get a flat 13,000 euros per night. But at the end there’s nothing left. Half goes in taxes. The rest pays my agent and my living costs. [For Carmen] the apartment I rent near Covent Garden costs £1,500 a week. My only luxury is somewhere comfortable to stay. At the Met, my whole fee goes in living costs."
"When I left EMI, I bought my back catalogue for £800,000. I paid for it with what I had in the bank and the advance on my Sicilian album. In classical music, you’re happy to sell 20,000 CDs worldwide."
