The American label adds the French star to a stable that already includes Jonas Kaufmann and Juan Diego Flórez.

In the latest move in what seems to be an increasingly volatile recording industry, Sony has wooed Roberto Alagna away from Deutsche Grammophon. A few months after the release of Malèna, his latest album of New Sicilian and Neapolitan Songs, the French tenor who toured Australia last year has apparently accepted a “long-term, multi-album deal”.

“I am utterly delighted to become part of the international Sony Classical family,” said Alagna, an artist whose past album sales in his native France alone top the five million mark. “I have long since admired the label and its achievements and I look forward to a long and fruitful association in the years ahead.”

In an international career spanning more than 30 years, Alagna has achieved cultural icon status at home where he is acknowledged as France’s most successful classical recording artist. He had a previous long-term relationship in the 1990s and 2000s with EMI. “Not only has Roberto Alagna been a leading operatic presence for many years, he has also become a true force outside of opera by possessing that quality so rare in...