Roberto Alagna is the first person ever to walk off the La Scala stage during a performance.

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The talk in Italian art circles this week is all about the French tenor Roberto Alagna being booed and storming off the La Scala opera house stage Sunday night in the second performance of the season-opening production of Verdi's "Aida."

"It is getting to be a soap opera," Italian pianist Benedetto Lupo said from his home an hour outside Rome on Thursday. "I really think La Scala probably (overreacted)."

Alagna stalked off Italy's venerable La Scala stage in the middle of the opening aria — the first performer ever to walk off the famed stage in the middle of a performance. He was replaced by his stunned understudy, Antonello Palombi, who was sent on stage moments later still dressed in jeans. At the second act, Palombi was allowed to put on the costume.

La Scala has said it would not let Alagna return to the production, which continues through Jan. 12.

According to news reports, the boos came from audience members sitting in the tiered balconies. Those folks usually prove to be the most scathing critics, unafraid to let loose a stream of boos at will.

"That, unfortunately, is part of opera and some opera houses in Europe," said Lupo, who will perform three concerts with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Jan. 11, 12 and 14. "If you go there, you know that may happen. You take your chances that way.

"I would never be able to play in front of an audience that even before I played one single note showed some kind of (disapproval)," he added.

In an interview with The New York Times' classical music reporter Daniel J. Wakin on Wednesday, Alagna said, "I came there to sing, only to sing, not to insult or steal. I am a human being, not only a singer. When you sing badly . . . you can expect this kind of reaction, but I sang well."

Lupo said he had friends who attended the Sunday performance and they told him "the people booing were much less than the people cheering. The reaction was really overdone. What followed it was too much talk and too much press."