Following his Rossini recital (Alpha 791), Florian Sempey shares another of his passions: his enthusiasm for the world of knights and medieval narrative. For him, “a mysterious force emanates from castles and other antique buildings; their ancient stones have always fascinated me.” Ferrum Splendidum (the Latin for ‘Resplendent Metal’) recalls the singer’s ancestors, who were blacksmiths in the Périgord region. Though not following in that family tradition, Sempey concentrated instead on forging and moulding the metal of his brilliant baritone voice. Now a much sought-after opera soloist at the height of his art, he has devised a programme ranging widely through different heroic characters and operas, including Grétry’s Richard the Lionheart, Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas, Meyerbeer’s Le Pardon de Ploërmel, as well as Tchaïkovsky’s opera The Enchantress, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, extracts from Carl Orff’s famous neo-medieval cantata Carmina Burana, and even the premiere recording of a piece by Romain Dumas, Le Chevalier d’Éon, composed in 2019. Once again Florian teams up with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and its young maestro Victor Jacob, who was named a ‘Revelation’ in the conductor category at the 2023 Victoires de la musique awards.
Works:
•Andre Modeste Gretry: O Richard! O mon Roi! aus Richard Coeur de Lion
•Gaetano Donizetti: Quel air sombre-...D'un amour qui me brave & A moi viens, ouvre tes ailes aus Lucia di Lammermoor
•Carl Orff: In Taberna aus Carmina burana
•Peter Tschaikowsky: Finale Akt 1 aus La Belle au bois dormant op. 66; Scene finale du Prince aus L'Enchanteresse
•Ambroise Thomas: O vin, dissipe la tristesse & La fatigue alourdit mes pas...Comme une pale fleur aus Hamlet
•Romain Dumas: De Bourgogne je suis un fruit aus Les Mirifiques Aventures du Chevalier d'Eon
•Vincent d'Indy: Fervaal-Prelude Akt 3
•Charles Gounod: Mab, la Reine des mensonges aus Romeo et Juliette
•Giacomo Meyerbeer: O puissante magie aus Le Pardon de Ploermel
•Richard Wagner: O du mein holder Abendstern aus Tannhäuser
•Richard Wagner: Lohengrin-Prelude