By newsfirstusa 
MILAN — American tenor Brian Jagde used to be simply wrapping up Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” in Barcelona final week when he were given a last-minute do business in to sing the similar position in L. a. Scala’s gala season premiere this Saturday, arguably the opera international’s maximum prestigious gig.
Jagde’s look as Don Alvaro reverse soprano Anna Netrebko will mark his 3rd efficiency at Milan’s storied Teatro alla Scala. He seemed two times as an alternative tenor reverse Netrebko, changing Roberto Alagna in “Turandot” this summer season, and now he’ll change Jonas Kaufmann within the coveted season opener.
“I’m happy to be their guy,’’ Jagde told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
While it is not unheard of for Americans to sing on La Scala’s opening night, a highlight of the European cultural calendar, it remains a rarity in an opera house where Europeans tend to dominate.
Beside Maria Callas last century, American Brian Hymel opened the 2016 season in “Madame Butterfly” and Lisette Oropesa used to be solid in “Lucia di Lammermoor” however sang in a gala live performance to an unoccupied theater when the 2020 season premiere used to be shuttered by way of the pandemic.
In 2008, American tenor Stuart Neill used to be promoted from understudy to the “Don Carlo” opening night time solid later the headlining tenor made too many get dressed practice session errors. Neill gained beneficiant applause from the harsh L. a. Scala family.
“It’s definitely one of the things that every artist dreams about,’’ Jagde said. “I think it is about the artist and meeting the moment at the right time. I think that is more of what it’s about than necessarily where they are from.”
Jagde mentioned singers are interested in L. a. Scala’s “rich tradition.”
“Every artist wants to not just perform there, but have great success there,” Jagde mentioned. “The public is known to be a very devoted fanship — and they can love you or they can hate you. You really want to be embraced by that audience specifically.”
Up to now, the critiques from L. a. Scala’s higher balconies of exacting opera enthusiasts had been sure on his earlier two outings, Jagde mentioned, including that artists must settle for all comments.
“It’s our job as artists to embrace the fact that we are making people feel something. Whatever they feel is appropriate to them,” he said.
Jagde, 45, grew up outside of New York City, and started singing in musicals in high schools and choirs in college, but never gave a thought to the opera. He started studying computer science and business upstate but then a classical music program at Purchase College closer to home grabbed his attention, thinking it might lead him to Broadway.
“I didn’t know at the time that classical voice meant opera,” he said laughing. He got accepted off the waiting list, and quickly fell in love with opera as the purest expression of the unadulterated voice.
“I remember being on stage and experiencing something I had never experienced on stage before, which was a completely acoustic, magical sound,” Jagde said. “This was completely natural, hearing an orchestra underneath me, and my voice carrying over that. I remember committing full-heartedly (to opera) on stage at the moment.”
His college teachers pegged him as a baritone, and he spent eight years doing auditions and artists programs in that range until he realized that “I was still warming up to high Cs and still had no low notes.”
As soon as he began auditioning as a tenor, the offer began rolling in. He made his main position debut on the Metropolitan opera in 2021 within the position of Cavaradossi in “Tosca,” and has sung on such renowned stages as the Paris Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper and Naples’ Teatro di San Carlo.
During the 2023/24 season, he warmed up his Don Alvaro at the Metropolitan Opera House and London’s Royal Opera House. His La Scala debut last spring was as Turiddu in “Cavalleria rusticana.”
L. a. Scala normal supervisor Dominique Meyer mentioned his best attention in casting an opera is whether or not a singer “is up to the role.” Jagde, he mentioned, is amongst 5 or 6 tenors who may sing the Don Alvaro position, “and he was available.”
Jagde completed his Barcelona performances on Nov. 18, and confirmed up for rehearsals at L. a. Scala the then hour. Don Alvaro, he mentioned, is a job, “that has kind of grown with me, as I have grown as an artist.”
Jagde said singing alongside an international opera star like Netrebko for the second time this year will help take some of the jitters out of the gala premiere.
“She is a wonderful colleague. She is a good person to work with, always available to you. She is nothing but smiles and fun,” he mentioned.