Paris (AFP)

The Victoires de la musique classique, which have helped to discover stars like the violinist Renaud Capuçon or the contretenor Philippe Jaroussky, are preparing to recognize a very young generation of lyric musicians and singers on Friday.

The 22-year-old pianist Alexandre Kantorow or the 26-year-old mezzo soprano Adèle Charvet are among the 15 nominated, with almost parity in five categories, and for the first time two women in the composer category.

Broadcast on France 3 and on France Musique, this 27th edition will award a Victory of Honor to the great Russian diva Anna Netrebko and Philippe Jaroussky.

AFP met three of these rising stars.

Benjamin Bernheim, late star

Several times, Benjamin Bernheim wanted to throw in the towel. "I have long fought against my voice," said the 34-year-old tenor. "She got very tired very quickly, and from time to time I was voiceless."

Difficult to believe so the singer is courted: at the Paris Opera, he was applauded in "La Traviata", gets ready to sing in "Manon" by Massenet (February 26-April 10) and returns in "La Bohème " in June; he will soon make his debut at the prestigious New York Met and released his first solo album in November at Deutsche Grammophon.

For the Chicago Tribune, he is the "great French lyric tenor that the opera world has been waiting for".

Critics praise its "sparkling timbre" and highs of "power that nails the listener in the chair". Even if their voices are different, some compare him to the great tenor Roberto Alagna, his model, due in particular to the excellent diction of French.

The Franco-Swiss "made peace" with his voice a few years ago. "I saw singers my age much more advanced. I had to remember + each his time +".

What to be a little wary of social networks where, "before even proving that we are an accomplished artist, we too quickly become someone" known ". And we forget that the voice must mature".

Adèle Charvet, hip hip hop mezzo

Sometimes it only takes a buzz for a spotlight. It happened to the mezzo soprano Adèle Charvet in October: while she is multi-pressured, her name goes around social networks when she replaces at short notice a sick singer in the middle of Handel's Messiah at the Maison de la Radio, where she came as a simple spectator.

"At the level of the general public, it was unprecedented visibility," notes the one who had to learn the score in a flash.

Applauded for her "deep and voluptuous timbre" and her scenic presence, she spent her early childhood in New York, and has boundless admiration for the legendary sopranos Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price.

"I was also fed in hip-hop, I love soul. With my father (the French composer Pierre Charvet), on the piano, we sang the Beatles, Supertramp, Bob Marley, but also chorals (WELL chorals) of Bach ".

What about social networks? "Last year, I sang at the Bordeaux Opera in front of schoolchildren. The same evening, 40 college students followed me on Instagram; they wrote to me + this is our first time at the opera, we loved + ".

However, she remains cautious: "We are in a zapping society. I benefit from a certain fashion effect because of my youth, but that's not all I have to give!"

Alexandre Kantorow, young piano tsar

By winning the first piano prize in June 2019 at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, one of the most prestigious in the world, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French winner. At 22 years.

"At the time, critics and musicians spoke of this as pride, it was a little" cocorico ", like the World Cup", smiles the one who has been baptized the "young tsar of the piano".

The native of Clermont-Ferrand wants to keep his feet on Earth despite "the euphoria of having entered history" and the requests, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Konzerthaus in Berlin.

The only son of the conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the English violinist Kathryn Dean, he was immersed in a musical environment from an early age. But "my parents were careful, they know from experience how difficult it can be psychologically for a child. I never felt like I was forcing it."

Stay faithful to your own pace, therefore, as on social networks, where he only published one photo of himself for his 3,000 followers. "I have to isolate myself a little more; we are on a springboard, it is important to keep an artistic priority".

© 2020 AFP