BENJAMIN BERNHEIM – Boulevard Des Italiens [CD]

Decca (UMO) / Classics / Deutsche Grammophon

£12.56

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: 4861964
Barcode: 0028948619641
Release Date: 08 Apr 2022
Genre: Classical

Documenting more than a hundred years of Italian operatic music in France, Benjamin Bernheim’s new album Boulevard des Italiens. Music stretching from Spontini’s La Vestale to Mascagni’s Amica – all sung in French – receives gold-star treatment from Bernheim, a tenor ideally placed to sing this repertoire in his native language. As he explains, “The aim was really to show the history of the French language in opera houses in Paris by way of these Italian composers who brought their pieces there. With the Opéra Garnier at one end, and the Opéra-Comique at the other, the Boulevard des Italiens is where it all happened.” Benjamin Bernheim has received widespread acclaim for both his stage performances and his 2019 debut album on Deutsche Grammophon, for whom he records exclusively. On Boulevard des Italiens, the singer hailed by Diapason as “the new star tenor” not only gives an object lesson in French operatic singing, with diction praised for its “miraculous clarity”, but provides a fascinating survey of the symbiotic relationship between Paris and generations of Italian composers.

TRACKLIST
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
1 Adieu, séjour fleuri [Madama Butterfly, SC 74, Act 3]
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
2 Pour me rapprocher de Marie [La fille du régiment / Act 2]
3 Ange si pur que dans un songe [La Favorite / Act 4 / No. 14 Choeur, récitatif et romance]
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
4 Fontainebleau ! forêt immense et solitaire [Don Carlo / Act 1]
5 Je l'ai vue [Don Carlos / Act 1]
6 Le voilà ! c’est l’enfant ! – Ô mon Rodrigue ! [Don Carlos / Act 2]
7 Dieu, tu semas dans nos âmes [Don Carlos / Act 2]
Donizetti
8 Seul sur la terre [Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal / Act 2]
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (1774-1851)
9 Prélude [La vestale / Act 3]
10 Qu'ai-je vu! ... Julia va mourir! [La vestale / Act 3]
Verdi
11 L'Emir auprès de lui m'appelle [Jérusalem / Act 2]
12 Je veux encore entendre ta voix [Jérusalem / Act 2]
Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)
13 C’en est donc fait, plus d’espérance ! [Ali Baba]
14 C’est de toi, ma Délie, que dépendait mon sort [Ali Baba]
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
15 Amica ! Vous restez à l’écart ... [Amica / Act 1]
16 Pourquoi garder ce silence obstiné? [Amica / Act 1]
Verdi
17 Ô toi que j'ai chérie [Les vêpres siciliennes]
Puccini
18 Ô de beautés égales dissemblance féconde ! [Tosca, SC 69