As part of the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater’s Festtage 2013, Barenboim will lead three unique programs at Berlin’s Philharmonie this month. He conducts songs by Verdi and Luciano Berio with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, and performs major choral works with the Berlin orchestra as well as the Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala.
Barenboim’s March 26 concert with Villazón and the Staatskapelle Berlin features selections from Verdi’s Eight Romances transcribed by Luciano Berio, who describes his adaptation for tenor and orchestra as "a respectful and subtle web of musical references which comments, with the hindsight and distance of 150 years, on the relationship of Verdi’s language, style and manner with time as it passes."
During the Festtage 2013, the Maestro will lead two choral masterpieces at the Philharmonie Berlin. On March 30, Barenboim conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala in Verdi’s Requiem with a lineup of soloists that includes Anja Harteros, Daniela Barcellona, Fabio Sartori, and René Pape. On April 1, Barenboim leads the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Staatsoper Choir in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem with Maria Bengtsson, Bernarda Fink, Rolando Villazón, and René Pape.