Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian

Biography

After training at the Conservatoire de Montpellier, the Centre de Musique Baroque in Versailles and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian won the HSBC Award 2017 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Grand-Avignon Prize at the very first ‘Jeunes Espoirs’ Competition held by Avignon Opera, and in 2022 the Gabriel Dussurget Prize, again at Aix-en-Provence.
His operatic repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Britten via Stradella, Legrenzi, Scarlatti, Handel and Mozart, working with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Christophe Rousset, Emmanuelle Haïm, Philippe Jaroussky, Thibault Noally, Damien Guillon, Laurence Équilbey, Francesco Corti and Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. He has appeared on the world’s major opera stages, including La Scala Milan, the Moscow Bolshoi, the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Beaune International Festival, Festival de La Chaise-Dieu, Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Teatro Real de Madrid, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Opéra national du Rhin, the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona and the Capitole de Toulouse, as well as the Seine Musicale in Paris and the Bozar in Brussels.
Open to the whole range of diverse repertoires, he is particularly noted for his oratorio work, in tandem with conductors such as Vincent Dumestre, Bertrand Cuiller, Benoît Haller, Sébastien Daucé and Geoffroy Jourdain, while also giving recitals of French and German song with his partners at the piano Lucie Sansen, Bianca Chillemi and Sarah Ristorcelli. As to contemporary repertoire, he has premiered works by Gérard Pesson and Philippe Raynaud, and has also appeared in a stage production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night directed by Thomas Ostermeier at the Comédie Française.