Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian

Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian discovered the stage at the age of 10. He trained at both the Montpellier Conservatoire and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, before being admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. He was the 2017 HSBC Laureate at the Festival d’Aixen-Provence, won the Grand-Avignon prize at the first edition of the Concours Jeunes Espoirs de l'Opéra d'Avignon, and was awarded the Prix Gabriel Dussurget at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in 2022.

Paul-Antoine has performed Farnace in Mitridate with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre at the Palau Les Artes Reina Sofia in Valencia; Ottone in Handel’s Agrippina in Halle and Marte in Legrenzi’s La divisione del mondo at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, both with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques; Unulfo in Rodelinda at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée; the title role in Rinaldo at Opéra de Rennes; La Voce di Dio in Scarlatti’s Il primo omicidio at the Salzburg Festival with Philippe Jaroussky; Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare with English Touring Opera and Nireno in Giulio Cesare for Opera North; the title role in Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista with Le Banquet Céleste and Damien Guillon, and Clerio Moro in Cavalli’s Erismena with Leonardo Garcia Alarcón.

 

More recently, he made his debut at La Scala in Milan as Didymus in Handel’s Theodora (conducted by Maxim Emalyanychev and alongside Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres). In Moscow at the Bolshoi, he sang the role of Polinesso in Ariodante, conducted by Gianluca Capuano. He played Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Nireno in Giulio Cesare at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, as well as the title role of Giulio Cesare at the Festival International de Beaune; the title role of San Filippo Neri with Thibault Noally at the Festival de La Chaise-Dieu.

 

In the 2022-2023 season, Paul-Antoine performed the roles of Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream directed by Robert Carsen; Athamas in Handel’s Semele directed by Barrie Kosky; and Farnace in Mozart’s Mitridate for his debut at the Berlin Staatsoper. He also sang Gandarte in Handel’s Poro at the Opera Royal de Versailles, and Alessandro in Handel’s Tolomeo, rè d’Egitto at Madrid’s Teatro Real and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.

 

In 2023-2024, he appeared as Ottone in Rennes, Versailles, and the Cologne Opera; the title role in Scarlatti’s Mitridate Eupatore at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Thibault Noally; the role of Ulisse in Porpora’s Polifemo at the Opera National du Rhin with Emmanuelle Haïm; the role of Demetrio in Handel’s Berenice at the Theatre des Champs Elysées and the Teatro Real in Madrid with Francesco Corti. He also performed Handel’s Messiah with Laurence Equilbey at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, the Capitole in Toulouse and the Seine Musicale; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Rennes conducted by Damien Guillon, and a Bach recital at Bozar Brussels with Olivier Spilmont. He was the Umana Fragilità in Il ritorno d’Ulisse at the most recent Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

 

Experienced in a diverse array of repertoire, he has distinguished himself in oratorio (Bach’s St. John Passion, Monteverdi’s Madrigals, Purcell’s Royal Odes, Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater alongside Vincent Dumestre, Bertrand Cuiller, Benoit Haller, Sébastien Daucé, Geoffroy Jourdain and others), and has also performed recitals Lied and mélodie with pianists Lucie Sansen, Bianca Chillemi and Sarah Ristorcelli. In the contemporary repertoire, he has premiered works by Gérard Pesson and Philippe Raynaud, and appeared in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Thomas Ostermeier at the Comédie-Francaise.

 

In the 2024-2025 season, he returns to the role of Ulisse in Polifemo in Lille and Versailles; he plays Trasimede in La Merope by Domènec Terradellas at the Staatsoper Berlin, the Liceu in Barcelona and the Teatro Real in Madrid under the direction of Francesco Corti, as well as Maria Cleofe in Handel’s La resurrezione in Rennes and Tourcoing; Nathanael in Johann Adolph Hasse’s Serpentes Ignei in deserto at the Berlin Philharmonie; and the title role in Tamerlano in Freiburg, Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid. Paul-Antoine’s first Purcell recital with Le Consort will be released in spring 2025, for the Harmonia Mundi label.