Benjamin Bernheim - Boulevard des Italiens (2022)

Benjamin Bernheim's latest album Boulevard des Italiens documents more than 100 years of Italian opera in France. Music ranging from Spontini's La Vestale to Mascagni's Amica is sung here by the tenor in French, his native tongue. "We wanted to trace the history of French in Paris opera houses through all these Italian composers who had their pieces performed there," Bernheim says. "Between the Opéra Garnier and the Opéra-Comique, this history became music - the Boulevard des Italiens is its setting." The album will be released by Deutsche Grammophon on April 8, 2022. From the beginning of the 19th century until well into the 20th, Paris was the opera capital of Europe. The metropolis attracted Italian composers in particular, because it was cosmopolitan and its townsfolk loved stage singing. Thus, an intensive exchange developed between the French and Italian theatrical traditions. Plays were almost invariably performed in French, regardless of the country in which they were written; and by adapting their music to the tonality of the French language, Italian composers also opened up new realms of melodic creativity. On Boulevard des Italiens Bernheim sings a characteristic selection of the most distinctive works in each case. He researched the repertoire thoroughly beforehand, expertly advised by Palazzetto Bru Zane, a foundation for French music of the Romantic period. Not only did inspiring thoughts and suggestions come from there, but also "tangible help in editing the vocal parts, but also the orchestral scores," says Bernheim. It was Gaspare Spontini who ushered in the new age of Romantic opera in Paris with his groundbreaking La Vestale in 1807; a passionate scene from it is the oldest music on Boulevard des Italiens. Bernheim also sings music by Spontini's contemporary Luigi Cherubini: an aria from the little-known opera Ali Baba (1833), which features the high C that was by then part of every tenor's vocal armor. From the beginning of the 19th century, the influx of Italian composers grew steadily. One of the most successful of them was Gaetano Donizetti. Bernheim has selected excerpts from three of his operas that had their world premieres in Paris - from the rather rarely performed Dom Sébastien, his last contribution to the genre, as well as from La Fille du régiment and La Favorite. When it comes to the all-surpassing Giuseppe Verdi, Bernheim comes up with even bigger surprises. The lilting tenor aria from Jérusalem, Verdi's own French version of I lombardi, is heard. "Reshaped beyond recognition," as the composer himself noted, it is as much a revelation as an aria for the Heldentenor in his epic Les Vêpres siciliennes, which can be considered an absolute rarity. This number was not written for the premiere, but as a replacement aria in a later revival. In an early edition of the score it was found hidden in the appendix. Verdi's Don Carlos is "a central piece" for Bernheim, as he says. He chose the hero's beautiful entrance aria from it, and the moving duet for tenor and baritone in the longer, more nuanced original French version; Florian Sempey sings it with him. Giacomo Puccini is associated with Paris in many ways and very closely - not least because of the version of Madama Butterfly first performed at the Opéra-Comique in 1906, on which the opera's valid score is based. Until the 1960s, it was still customary to sing Puccini in French. Bernheim revives this tradition with two of the better-known arias from Madama Butterfly and Tosca, vividly demonstrating how "the French language, with its very own accents and many nasals, gives this music a new sonority." The historical overview is supplemented by a lengthy scene from Pietro Mascagni's seldom-heard tragic opera Amica, premiered in Monte Carlo in 1905. Here Bernheim indulges in the sound of French in amalgam with deeply felt Italian verismo. The recording sessions with conductor Frédéric Chaslin and the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna took place in April 2021 - "when the world was just opening up again," Bernheim says. "That was, personally and musically, a wonderful feeling. We were just revelling in the 'Italianità'." Benjamin Bernheim has received wide acclaim for his stage performances and debut album, released in 2019 on Deutsche Grammophon, where he is under exclusive contract. On Boulevard des Italiens, the "new star tenor" (Diapason) not only gives a demonstration lesson in French operatic singing with diction of "almost elusive clarity," as critics have written, but also a fascinating overview of the symbiotic relationship between Paris and generations of Italian composers.

TRACKLIST

1. Benjamin Bernheim - Adieu, sejour fleuri
2. Benjamin Bernheim - Pour me rapprocher de Marie
3. Benjamin Bernheim - Ange si pur
4. Benjamin Bernheim - Fontainebleau! Forêt immense
5. Benjamin Bernheim - Je l'ai vue
6. Benjamin Bernheim - Le voilà! … Toi, mon Rodrigue
7. Benjamin Bernheim - Dieu, tu semas dans nos âmes
8. Benjamin Bernheim - Seul sur la terre
9. Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna - Introduction
10. Benjamin Bernheim - Qu'ai-je vu! … Julia va mourir!
11. Benjamin Bernheim - L'Emir auprès de lui m'appelle
12. Benjamin Bernheim - Je veux encore entendre ta voix
13. Benjamin Bernheim - C’en est donc fait
14. Benjamin Bernheim - C’est de toi, ma Delie
15. Benjamin Bernheim - (Amica!…) Vous restez á l’ècart
16. Benjamin Bernheim - Pourquoi garder ce silence obstiné?
17. Benjamin Bernheim - Ô toi que j'ai chérie
18. Benjamin Bernheim - O de beautés égales