No one would have said, a priori, that tenor Benjamin Bernheim – pure technique, exquisite phrasing, and perfect diction – and soprano Ermonela Yaho – all passion and vibrato – would form a colossal operatic pair. But this was proven on Friday at the opening night of the 40th edition of the Peralada Festival, an event that makes real the popular saying that 40 is the new 30, as it maintains its essence with youthful dynamism and improves with age.
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How many festivals can afford such a celebration without having yet recovered their outdoor stage, one of their hallmarks? And it has been four editions without occupying the gardens. The DNA of Peralada’s cultural and artistic proposal seems to have accumulated the specific weight necessary to be relocated to smaller venues – Carme church, Mirador del Castell… – or distant ones like the Palau de la Música, where it will host the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, without that meaning it disappears from the map. At least for now.
“This pianist is a one-man orchestra and a soloist. He has it all,” said Yaho
The reception from the audience filling the church this Friday confirms that this festival, which emerged in the eighties thanks to the alliance of two ladies – the castle owner, Carmen Mateu, and her friend and super soprano Montserrat Caballé – still maintains its love for opera and the arts today.
That recital was a way to “pay tribute to all the great voices that have given unforgettable moments and have helped place Peralada in the Olympus of the great international opera festivals,” said the artistic director, Oriol Aguilà. And for that, they also had a pianist, Marcos Madrigal, whom the French critics call “the treasure of Cuba,” since this Cuban concert pianist residing in Italy – ever since Martha Argerich brought him to her Academy at Lake Como – moves away from the figure of the piano accompanist: a seasoned performer, “he is a one-man orchestra and a soloist, he has it all!” said Yaho in the cloister dressing room. And Bernheim agreed with her.
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The recital opened with Cilea, flowed through Puccini and Verdi, and ended with Gounod and Massenet, without encores. Something unusual, but the heat was becoming unbearable for the soprano, who had given her all in her final scene, when Bernheim and she become the lovers of Manon. She sang “Allons! Il le faut…” and he followed with “Ah! fuyez, douce image,” that intimate and resigned prayer of Des Grieux trying to expel the memory of Manon, who has left him for a life of luxury. Both then linked with “N’est-ce plus ma main que cette main presse?”, when she appears in the church and realizes she made a mistake. “Is it no longer my hand that your hand presses? Is my voice no longer a caress for you? Am I no longer Manon?”
Yaho unleashed her brutal emotional intensity and gave herself over in a plea that again elevated Peralada to Olympus. But the one who had given a deeply moving recital was Bernheim. If critic Roger Alier said of him in 2021, at his Catalan debut in Peralada, that he was a lyric tenor “of undeniable importance,” last night’s review must place him at the zenith of his career. The Franco-Swiss tenor, born in Paris two years before the festival, displayed his timbral beauty, musicality, exceptional technique – high notes at mezza voce – and significant versatility, as before gifting the audience a heartfelt “Ah! Lève-toi, soleil!” from Roméo et Juliette and showing why the star aria of his repertoire is “Pourquoi me réveiller” from Werther, he made clear he is ready to debut Tosca in a few months in Berlin with a measured “E lucevan le stelle.” No one like him has known how to control the difficult acoustics of the Carmen, moving from delicate emission to a great voice stream. Happy 40th to all.
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