BACKGROUND

So Romantique! is the tongue-in-cheek title of a newly released album co-produced by Palazzetto Bru Zane and Alpha Classical Recordings, featuring the French tenor Cyrille Dubois in a collection of opera and operetta airs from the heyday of the French Romantic Lyric Theatre.

The French vocal tradition from the haute-contre tenors of Lully and Rameau throughout the 19^th century’s Auber, Boildieu, Delibes, and Thomas is best embodied in the quintessentially Gallic ténor de grâce, a unique type of male voice that freely uses the voix mixte voice to navigate a high tessitura usually off-limits to most tenors for whom loud, louder, and loudest pedal to the metal singing is the order of the day.

Cyrille Dubois need not step outside a very specialized repertoire that has allowed him to enjoy a fine European career. His work focuses on neglected operas by exponents of a French romantic opera and operetta world exemplified by the likes of by Gounod, Bizet, Halévy, and Saint-Saëns. Dubois also explores rarities by Benjamin Godard, Louis Clapisson, Charles Luce Varlet, Théodore Dubois, and Charles Silver – composers known as creators of mélodies best suited to the elegant salons of the Belle Époque turn of the century Paris, who in fairness were gifted melodists who remain unjustly neglected outside of France.

THE MUSIC

DANIEL AUBER (1782-1871) LA BARCAROLLE – ASILE OÙ RÈGNE LE SILENCE

BENJAMIN GODARD (1849-1895) PEDRO DE ZALAMEA – COMBIEN DE FOIS J’AI RÊVÉ D’ELLE

AMBROISE THOMAS (1811-1896) LE ROMAN D’ELVIRE – SUPRÊME PUISSANCE

FRANÇOIS-ADRIEN BOIELDIEU (1775-1834) LA DAME BLANCHE – VIENS, GENTILLE DAME

FROMENTAL HALÉVY (1799-1862) LES MOUSQUETAIRES DE LA REINE – ENFIN UN JOUR PLUS DOUX SE LÈVE

LOUIS CLAPISSON (1808-1866) GIBBY LA CORNEMUSE – RÊVONS QU’UN PLUS BEAU JOUR

GAETANO DONIZETTI (1797-1848) LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT – AH! MES AMIS, QUEL JOUR DE FÊTE!

CHARLES GOUNOD (1818-1893) LE MÉDECIN MALGRÉ LUI – JE PORTAIS DANS UNE CAGE

CHARLES LUCE-VARLET (1781-1853) L’ÉLÈVE DE PRESBOURG – VIENS, Ô MÉLODIE

GEORGES BIZET (1838-1875) LA JOLIE FILLE DE PERTH – C’EST DONC ICI… Ô CRUELLE

THÉODORE DUBOIS (1837-1924) XAVIÈRE – AU CLAIR MATIN

CHARLES SILVER (1868-1949) MYRIANE – SEUL, AI-JE DIT

AMBROISE THOMAS (1812-1896) MIGNON – ADIEU, MIGNON!

LÉO DELIBES (1836-1891) LAKMÉ – FANTAISIE AUX DIVINS MENSONGES

AMBROISE THOMAS (1812-1896) RAYMOND – FILS DE ROI… POINT DE PITIÉ

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) LE TIMBRE D’ARGENT – DEMANDE À L’OISEAU

LOUIS CLAPISSON (1808-1866) LE CODE NOIR – ADIEU, TOI MA PAUVRE MÈRE

THE RECORDING AND PERFORMANCE

The Orchestre National de Lille led by Pierre Dumoussaud supports the soloist throughout the album’s seventeen tracks in a recording made in July of 2021, engineered by Paul Giroux, with Olivier Rosset as producer and a booklet that offers translation of all the texts of the arias.

Cyrille Dubois balances his stylishly elegant singing with equal measures of technical dexterity, idiomatic know-how, bravura, and élan, not stinting in any of those areas. The tenor navigates the perilous waters of the region known as the passaggio – the area where many a tenor has been known to encounter difficulties – with no sign of trouble.

In Tonio’s aria from La fille du régiment he delivers the notorious high c’s without effort, holding on to militaire et mari without breaking a sweat. In When squillo is called for, squillo he delivers. When gentleness of utterance is wanted Dubois offers a melting legato, as in Viens, gentille dame from Boieldieu’s La Dame Blanche. When show-stopping above the staff singing is required, Dubois has high c’s, c sharp’s, and d’s galore, as in the arias from Ambroise Thomas’ Le Roman d’Elvire and Halévy’s Les Mousquetaires de la Reine.

With this debut album Cyrille Dubois claims a rightful place among a long line of French lyric tenors like Henri Legay, Edmond Clement, and Alain Vanzo, all of whom were extensively represented during the acoustic recording era. We look forward to hear more from this extraordinary artist.

Rafael de Acha © 2023