In time for the Verdi Year 2013 the Teatro alla Scala has come up with a special project: Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with an exquisite quartet of soloists – Anja Harteros, Elina Garanca, Jonas Kaufmann and René Pape – conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the Teatro’s Maestro scaligero. This first performance in Milan is followed by performances at the Lucerne and the Salzburg Festival and in the Berlin Philharmonie in 2013.
Vienna at the Turn of the 20th Century – A Recital with Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming has always been willing to expand her repertoire into new territory. This recital is a foray into musical jugendstil as embodied in works by composers active in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century – a natural progression from her long association with music by Richard Strauss: Familiar cycles from WOLF and MAHLER morph into the more progressive textures of ZEMLINSKY and SCHOENBERG, with KORNGOLD (and echoes of Johann Strauss II) supplying the necessary dose of kitschy gemütlichkeit. Renée Fleming and her piano partner Maciej Pikulski succeed in creating the “ideal combination of emotion and interpretation” (Der Kurier).