© Catalina Filip
After a year that saw Benjamin Bernheim, featured in today’s recording, take on several of his now-signature roles to acclaim, 2026 holds markedly fewer operatic performances for the tenor. Despite short runs of Manon in Vienna in January and Les contes d’Hoffmann in Berlin in March, Bernheim’s attention will turn largely to concerts, including a tour of the Verdi Requiem with the Staatskapelle Dresden, and recitals through next summer. It’s in the latter format that U.S. audiences will have their only chance to see Bernheim live this spring, at Princeton University.
Next year also sees today’s conductor James Gaffigan start his tenure as Houston Grand Opera’s Music Director Designate in the fall. (He’ll start his official five-year term as Music Director the following year.) Listeners can determine to what extent Gaffigan succeeds here in his goal to “combine a New World focus on precision with an Old World attention to ‘music and color and sound and style,’” as he put in an interview with Parterre Box last week.
Chausson: Poème de l’amour et de la mer
Benjamin Bernheim
James Gaffigan, conductor
Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana
Sala Radio, Bucharest
30 August 2025
In-house
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
