Kirill Petrenko and Jonas Kaufmann at the Waldbühne

Jonas Kaufmann, who thanks to his fluent language skills can also express every nuance of Italian arias, has a special affinity for the country’s music. He is particularly fond of the classics of Verismo, the Italian variant of Naturalism: “These arias are charged with emotions that can move you to tears.”

To conclude the season, the star tenor presents famous verismo arias together with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. Following the sombre and dramatic overture to Verdi’s La forza del destino, he begins with excerpts from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s two-act opera Pagliacci. This drama, revolving around passion, jealousy and betrayal, in which the boundaries between staged reality and real life become increasingly blurred, made Leoncavallo world-famous overnight. This is followed by Federico’s lament from Francesco Cilea’s L’Arlesiana: a scene that steadily builds to a great climax.

After the soulful “Amor ti vieta” from Umberto Giordano’s Fedora, the programme features two classics of Italian orchestral music: Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic poems Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma. Both cycles offer incredibly vivid music peppered with naturalistic effects – such as when the night-time song of a nightingale is played on tape in Pini di Roma, and when Respighi has entire legions marching along the Via Appia.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Kirill Petrenko

Jonas Kaufmann