Tenor walks off stage at La Scala

Tenor Roberto Alagna broke his contract by walking out of a performance of Franco Zeffirelli's "Aida" at La Scala after being booed, and he will not sing for the remaining scheduled performances, a spokesman for the opera house said Monday.

Alagna stunned the audience and his colleagues by marching off the stage after the audience booed him following the opening aria "Celeste Aida" on Sunday night. An understudy in jeans took over immediately.

Despite his reaction, Alagna told a news conference Monday that he intended to sing as scheduled Thursday. But management at the famed opera house said that would not happen.

"It's been brought to our attention Roberto Alagna's intention to return to La Scala for the next performance," spokesman Carlo Maria Cella said. "His behavior has created a rift between the artist and the audience, and there is no possibility of repairing this relationship."

Cella said Alagna had technically broken the contract, and that the legal office would evaluate what action to take.

"He did not leave because he was sick; he left voluntarily," Cella said.

La Scala general manager Stephane Lissner released a statement earlier criticizing Alagna for "an obvious lack of respect to the public and the theater," but he also was critical of the audience's behavior.

"I have always maintained that artists are at the center of a theatrical project and we are here to support them, to guarantee the best conditions for them so that they can do their jobs," Lissner said.

Alagna rejected accusations that he did not sing well.

"I finished without the slightest error and from the balconies came a 'bravo!' and right after that boos and whistles," Alagna told reporters Monday. "I thought the audience would have defended me, but it didn't. So I obeyed the audience that demonstrated that it did not want me.

"If I don't have the joy of singing, I can't do it. I have to quit," he said. "To sing with whistles and boos, you risk singing off-key."

He also had told La Repubblica newspaper: "I do not deserve this kind of reception."

"What else could I do?" Alagna told Italy's Tg5 news. "Did I have to stay there ... until my voice broke?"

Thursday night's opening of "Aida" was a much-anticipated event, with Italian Premier Romano Prodi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel among the many prominent figures in attendance.

That audience applauded for more than 15 minutes after the final curtain fell, standing to cheer Zeffirelli, conductor Riccardo Chailly and a cast led by the Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana in the title role and Alagna as Radames.

But the second performance did not go quite as smoothly.

Alagna came onstage and began singing. After a "nervous start," according to people in the audience, Alagna started on the "Celeste Aida" aria, which prompted a chorus of boos and whistles. Alagna stopped, looked at the audience, then walked off the stage.

Understudy Antonello Palombi, still in jeans, rushed out.

Lissner apologized to the audience before the opening of the third act.

"In many years at La Scala I had never seen anything like what happened tonight," Chailly told reporters after the performance.

The next performance was scheduled for Tuesday night.