Benjamin Bernheim (tenor), Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Frédéric Chaslin
Puccini: Addio, fiorito asil (from Madama Butterfly) (sung in French as 'Adieu, sejour fleuri')
Donizetti: Pour me rapprocher de Marie (from La Fille du régiment)
Donizetti: La maîtresse du roi?...Ange si pur (from La Favorite)
Verdi: Fontainebleau! Forêt immense et solitaire … (from Don Carlos)
Verdi: Je l'ai vu (from Don Carlos)
Verdi: Le voila!...Toi, mon Rodrigue! (from Don Carlos)
Verdi: Dieu, tu semas dans nos âmes (from Don Carlos)
Donizetti: Seul sur la terre (from Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal)
Spontini: La Vestale: Introduction to Act Three
Spontini: Qu'ai-je vu! quels apprets! (from La vestale)
Verdi: L'Emir auprès de lui m'appelle...Je veux encore entendre (from Jérusalem)
Cherubini: C'en est donc fait (from Ali Baba)
Cherubini: C'est de toi, ma Delie (from Ali Baba)
Mascagni: Amica! Vous restez à l'écart (from Amica)
Mascagni: Pourquoi garder ce silence obstiné? (from Amica)
Verdi: A toi, que j'ai cherie (from Les vêpres siciliennes)
Puccini: Recondita armonia (from Tosca) (sung in French as 'O de beautés égales')
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.
