Douce France: Mélodies & Chansons Benjamin Bernheim & Carrie-Ann Matheson

• Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869): Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano):
• 1Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): I. Villanelle02:03
• 2Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): II. Le spectre de la rose05:47
• 3Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): III. Sur les lagunes06:05
• 4Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): IV. Absence04:48
• 5Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): V. Au cimetière (Clair de lune)04:41
• 6Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, H. 81 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): VI. L'île inconnue03:43
• Ernest Chausson (1855 - 1899): Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano):
• 7Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): I. La fleur des eaux10:27
• 8Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): II. Interlude02:43
• 9Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19 (Transcr. Matheson for Tenor and Piano): III. La mort de l'amour12:35
• Henri Duparc (1848 - 1933): L'invitation au voyage:
• 10Duparc: L'invitation au voyage04:18
• Extase:
• 11Duparc: Extase03:22
• Phidylé:
• 12Duparc: Phidylé04:56
• La vie antérieure:
• 13Duparc: La vie antérieure04:17
• Joseph Kosma (1905 - 1969): Les feuilles mortes (Arr. Leuenberger for Tenor and Piano):
• 14Kosma: Les feuilles mortes (Arr. Leuenberger for Tenor and Piano)02:42
• Léon Chauliac (1913 - 1977), Charles Trenet (1913 - 2001): Douce France (Arr. Leuenberger for Tenor and Piano):
• 15Chauliac, Trenet: Douce France (Arr. Leuenberger for Tenor and Piano)03:19
• Jacques Brel (1929 - 1978): Quand on n'a que l'amour (Arr. Leuenberger for Tenor and Piano):
• 16Brel: Quand on n'a que l'amour (Arr. Leuenberger for Tenor and Piano)03:14
• Total Runtime01:19:00

Info for Douce France: Mélodies & Chansons

The French tenor Benjamin Bernheim has recorded his first solo song album. On Douce France, he couples 19th-century mélodies by Berlioz, Chausson and Duparc with 20th-century chansons by Brel, Kosma and Trenet.

Over the last year, not only has Benjamin Bernheim given triumphant performances in La rondine, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Werther and Roméo et Juliette, he has also presented acclaimed recitals with his regular duo partner Carrie-Ann Matheson in Munich, Milan and Vienna, and at the Verbier Festival. His programmes included selections from the French repertoire, a rich seam of vocal writing which Bernheim has now mined for Douce France – Mélodies & Chansons. On this, his first solo song album, he explores French Romanticism in works by Berlioz, Chausson and Duparc, before ending with classic chansons by Brel, Kosma and Trenet.

While studying French song over the years, Bernheim has learned, notably, that the two cycles recorded here, Les nuits d’été and Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer, were both originally written (in part or fully) for the tenor and piano, before being orchestrated and becoming associated with the female voice. While not questioning these developments, he was “keen to get back to the mood of extreme intimacy that keyboard accompaniment allows for”. In this respect, his colleague played a key role. “I might not have had the courage to embark on this adventure if I hadn’t had Carrie-Ann Matheson as my partner,” says Bernheim. Not only does Matheson accompany the tenor, she has transcribed the orchestral scores into the idiomatic versions heard on Douce France.

The album ends with music by three 20th-century masters of the chanson. “Here too,” says Bernheim, “you have to find the right centre of gravity – vocal, musical and rhetorical.” And his ability to do just that can be heard in Jacques Brel’s Quand on n’a que l’amour, Joseph Kosma’s Les feuilles mortes (“Autumn leaves”) and Charles Trenet’s Douce France (all arranged by Guy-François Leuenberger).

Benjamin Bernheim, tenor
Carrie-Ann Matheson, piano

Benjamin Bernheim
One of the leading tenors of the new generation of singers, Benjamin Bernheim is now in constant demand at the world’s most prestigious opera houses. Critics and audiences alike are regularly captivated by his interpretations of the great lyric tenor roles of Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti, Gounod, Massenet and more. He wins frequent praise for his masterful acting skills as well as for his voice, described as “alluringly beautiful” by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and has become known for his flawless diction, striking expressive breadth and extensive tonal variety, all of which reflect a rare dedication to the art and craft of singing. “I always try to play with every vocal colour in order to tell a story,” he told GQ Spain in 2021. “That’s what matters most to me: I want to use my voice to transport the audience to other worlds.”

Benjamin Bernheim signed an exclusive long-term contract with Deutsche Grammophon in April 2019. Issued the following November, and presenting a selection of Romantic arias from operas by Berlioz, Donizetti, Godard, Gounod, Massenet, Puccini, Tchaikovsky and Verdi, his DG debut album received rave reviews, with The Sunday Times saying, “… [Bernheim] looks set to be the outstanding French tenor of our time. The arias from Werther, Roméo et Juliette, Manon, Faust, Berlioz’s Damnation and a rarity, Godard’s Dante, reveal a patrician artist whose marrying of words and tone brings a special magic to this underrated music.”

His next album, Boulevard des Italiens, explored the history of Italian opera in Paris. With the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna and conductor Frédéric Chaslin, Bernheim recorded a selection of arias by Cherubini, Spontini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni – all in French. Boulevard des Italiens was released to equal critical acclaim in April 2022. (“Bernheim, who has a voice of immense clarity and lyrical attractiveness, sings Puccini like a dream. But there are also rarer delights aplenty here: elegant poise in Donizetti’s La favorite, heroic dynamism in Spontini’s La vestale and a top-C-packed number from Cherubini’s Ali Baba…, an ideal vehicle for Bernheim’s effortlessly expansive upper range.” – BBC Music Magazine)

He has now recorded his first solo song album, Douce France – Mélodies & Chansons, in collaboration with his regular duo partner Carrie-Ann Matheson. Together they explore the Romantic repertoire in works by Berlioz (Les nuits d’été), Chausson (Poème de l’amour et de la mer) and Duparc, as well as chansons by Brel, Kosma and Trenet. Douce France is released by Deutsche Grammophon on 30 August 2024.

Bernheim began the 2023–24 season by making his role debut as Ruggero in Puccini’s La rondine at the Opernhaus Zürich. He then returned to the Paris Opéra for the title role in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, before going back to Zürich to star as Massenet’s Werther (“Bernheim delivered an outstanding performance … His piano passages were filled with passion and sorrow, while his high notes sparkled with brilliance and desperation” – Bachtrack).

Having made his house debut at the Metropolitan Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto in October 2022, he made a triumphant return to New York as Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in March 2024 (“Bernheim, every bit the poet-singer, put a succulent sound to elegant use, with transitions between vocal registers that had a buttery seamlessness” – The New York Times). In June, he travelled to Milan to sing Werther at La Scala, where earlier in the season he had given a recital with Carrie-Ann Matheson that featured some of the material recorded for Douce France. The duo joined forces again at the Wiener Staatsoper in April 2024, while the tenor also appeared in an opera gala at the Luxembourg Philharmonie in October and in concerts with soprano Lisette Oropesa in Paris, Milan and Baden-Baden in April/May.

On 11 August 2024, Bernheim took part in the star-studded closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics. He performed Fauré’s Hymne à Apollon (“Hymn to Apollo”), which originated in 1894 when the composer created a harmonised version of an ancient song melody inscribed on stone tablets discovered in the ruins of Delphi.

This summer he plays Hoffmann at the Salzburg Festival (13–30 August), with one performance of Mariame Clément’s new production streamed on STAGE+ on 24 August. He then reprises the role at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (24 September−18 October). Later in the autumn he will give recitals featuring repertoire from Douce France in Los Angeles (9 November), Vienna (14 November), Prague (19 November), Paris (24 November) and Monte Carlo (9 February 2025). The forthcoming season also sees him play the title role in Massenet’s Werther at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (March/April), Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the Vienna Staatsoper (May) and Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon at the Paris Opéra (May/June).

Born in Paris in 1985 and raised in Geneva, Benjamin Bernheim was introduced to singing during childhood by his opera-loving parents. He joined the Geneva Conservatory’s children’s choir at ten and, soon after, fell in love with opera when the choir performed in Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at the Grand-Théâtre in Geneva. He studied at the Conservatoire de Lausanne with Gary Magby, participated in masterclasses with Giacomo Aragall, and attended Carlo Bergonzi’s renowned Accademia Verdiana in Busseto.

In 2008 Bernheim joined Zurich Opera’s International Opera Studio; he returned to the company two years later as a member of its renowned ensemble, and was soon in high demand as a guest artist at the world’s leading opera houses in roles such as Alfredo, Rodolfo and Lensky, as well as performing in productions at the Salzburg Whitsun and Summer festivals. In addition to his many operatic appearances, his schedule now also includes an increasing number of concert and solo recital performances.

In 2020 Bernheim was named Opera Singer of the Year at Les Victoires de la Musique, France’s most prestigious classical music awards, and Musical Personality of the Year by the Syndicat professionnel de la critique de théâtre, musique et danse. His DG debut album won him the Opus Klassik as “Newcomer of the Year” (2020), as well receiving a Diapason d’or and a Choc de Classica, and being named “Album of the Week” by The Sunday Times, among others. In February 2022, Benjamin Bernheim was decorated as Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. Two years later he was again honoured as Opera Singer of the Year at Les Victoires de la musique classique 2024.

Carrie-Ann Matheson
has a multi-faceted international career as a pianist, conductor and educator. She is currently the Artistic Director of the world-renowned San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program. A native of Canada, Matheson began her career at the Metropolitan Opera, working as assistant conductor, prompter, pianist and vocal coach. Following a long tenure at the Met, she joined the conducting and coaching staff at Opernhaus Zurich, and also worked at festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele and the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival.

Especially in demand as a recital pianist, her collaborations have brought her to the great stages of the world with many of the world’s leading opera singers, including Piotr Beczała, Benjamin Bernheim, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kaufmann and Rolando Villazón. In August 2024, her debut CD “Douce France” with tenor Benjamin Bernheim will be released on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophone label.

Ms. Matheson is passionate about nurturing the next generation of opera singers and pianists, and in addition to her work in San Francisco, she is a masterclass clinician and guest coach at leading institutions worldwide. Her collaborations have included the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio,

International Opera Studio (Opernhaus Zürich), Atkins Young Artist Program (The Mariinsky Theatre), Lindemann Young Artist Development Program (The Metropolitan Opera), Ryan Opera Center (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival and the International Vocal Arts Institute. She is currently also a member of the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Ms. Matheson assisted such conductors as James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and Gianandrea Noseda, before making her conducting debut in 2015 at Opernhaus Zürich, where she has conducted works such as La Finta Giardiniera, Don Pasquale and Iphigénie en Tauride, among others. In addition to her work with opera singers, she has performed in chamber music concerts with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and Philharmonia Zürich.

Ms. Matheson holds degrees from the University of Prince Edward Island (B.Mus.Ed), the Cleveland Institute of Music (M.Mus in Collaborative Piano), the Manhattan School of Music (Professional Studies Diploma in Vocal Accompanying) and is an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

She has served as juror for competitions including the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, The Butler International Vocal Competition, the Schmidt Vocal Arts Competition and the Richard Tucker Foundation Auditions.

Recent and upcoming engagements for Ms. Matheson include recitals at prestigious venues across the world, including Teatro alla Scala (Milan Italy), the Munich Opera Summer Festival (Munich, Germany), the Verbier Festival (Verbier, Switzerland), the Vienna State Opera (Vienna, Austria), Opéra de Paris (Paris, France) and Opera de Monte-Carlo (Monaco), among others.

In addition to her work onstage and in the opera rehearsal room, Ms. Matheson is an International Coaching Federation certified personal and leadership coach, specializing in working with artists who are striving to achieve their full potential.

Booklet for Douce France: Mélodies & Chansons