Roger Alier was in many ways an astronaut. Bonhomie and generosity did not make him typical of this world. Nor the great intellectual capacity associated from a young age with the enthusiasm for opera. These features stood out yesterday in the parliaments dedicated to the La Vanguardia opera critic who disappeared on Thursday. About 250 people attended the lay ceremony, in Sancho de Ávila, with the room packed.
Everyone from the opera came together: from the basic social fabric to directors of institutions. Singers such as Carmen Bustamante, Eduard Giménez David Alegret, Lluís Sintes, Tina Gorina, Carlos Cosías, Víctor Jiménez, Carolina Fajardo… or Carlos Daza, who wanted to close the event in an emotional way, singing L’emigrant a capella, they met with institutional representatives: Valentí Oviedo, director general of the Liceu, and his former predecessor Josep Caminal; Joaquim Uriach, president of the Palau de la música; Oriol Aguilà, artistic director of the Peralada Festival; a very sad Mirna Lacambra with the Sabadell Opera team…, or even Xavier Cester, Director of Music at the ICEC, as well as the deputy director of La Vanguardia Miquel Molina.
Jaume Aragall or Sara Blanch had passed through the vigil room the day before, and that same morning, the president of the Liceu, Salvador Alemany. The family of Montserrat Caballé, whom Alier praised during his lifetime, or the director of Opera Sarrià, Assunto Nese, everyone wanted to be in the private farewell that led Jordi Maddaleno, disciple and successor at the head of the criticism of opera at La Vanguardia.
“Roger was my emotional father. He helped me from the beginning in this crazy world of opera”, said Maddaleno in his heartfelt simile. “He left sweetly, listening to his favorite opera, Il matrimonio segreto, by Mozart’s contemporary Domenico Cimarosa”, which played in the hall.
The various anecdotes helped to understand a wise intellectual who, in order not to contradict his father, studied Medicine and, secretly, went to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. The art historian Francesc Fontbona aroused the first laughs when he explained that he had first met his brother and that, when he introduced him to Roger, he denied that they had ever met in class.
As a teacher, he was also curious: Fernando Sans, with whom he founded the magazine Ópera Actual, explained that the only honors certificates he never got were put there by him, so that he would not have to pay tuition the following year. “He approved everyone and, to cover it up, he made up names on the list of students so he could suspend them.” Laughter and laughter.
There are still things to learn from Roger: he left a book about the Teatre Principal, where he staged so many operas, translated into Catalan… “because it’s important that people understand”, he said. Publisher wanted. And also someone who keeps the collection of 18th century opera books. Is there a museum?
