Composer: Luigi Cherubini, Gaetano Donizetti, Pietro Mascagni, Giacomo Puccini, Gaspare Spontini, Giuseppe Verdi
Performer: Benjamin Bernheim
Orchestra: Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Conductor: Frédéric Chaslin
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalogue: 4861964
Release: 2022
Size: 1.04 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
01. Adieu, sejour fleuri
Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment
02. Pour me rapprocher de Marie
Donizetti: La Favorite
03. Ange si pur
Verdi: Don Carlos (Five-act French version)
04. Fontainebleau! Forêt immense
05. Je l’ai vue
06. Le voilà! … Toi, mon Rodrigue
07. Dieu, tu semas dans nos âmes
Donizetti: Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal
08. Seul sur la terre
Spontini: La Vestale
09. Introduction
10. Qu’ai-je vu! … Julia va mourir!
Verdi: Jérusalem
11. L’Emir auprès de lui m’appelle
12. Je veux encore entendre ta voix
Cherubini: Ali Baba
13. C’en est donc fait
14. C’est de toi, ma Delie
Mascagni: Amica
15. (Amica!…) Vous restez á l’ècart
16. Pourquoi garder ce silence obstiné?
Verdi: Les vêpres siciliennes
17. Ô toi que j’ai chérie
Puccini: Tosca
18. 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.