Marc Hervieux delivers superb renditions of favourite Italian arias on this blockbuster ATMA recording. After the extraordinary success of Le premier Noël (ATMA’s best selling CD in 2009), Marc Hervieux presents his second CD on the ATMA label. Tenor Arias is devoted to the most beautiful arias from Italian operas by Puccini, Verdi, Mascagni, and Leoncavallo. With the exception of the excerpt from La Traviata, all the pieces on this CD are by members of the Young Italian School. These were Verdi’s successors, Italian composers active at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.The typical tenor of the Young Italian School is also passionately in love, and all the nine arias performed on this CD are, basically, love songs.

Under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Orchestre Métropolitain accompanies the popular tenor, and plays instrumental extracts from operas including the Intermezzo from Cavaleria Rusticana by Leoncavallo, and the very rarely heard Preludio sinfonico by Puccini.