At 6 p.m. in the Festspielhaus :

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER | KIRILL PETRENKO

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Kirill Petrenko: Music director

Katharina Konradi: Soprano

Beth Taylor: Alto

Sebastian Kohlhepp: Tenor

Tareq Nazmi: Bass

Program :

– L. V. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op.125

Ever since they were founded in 1883, the Berliner Philharmoniker have included Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in their program. A regular guest in the Black Forest, the Berlin-based ensemble has been performing it since Han von Bülow’s reign in Baden-Baden, soon followed by interpretations by Wilhelm Furtwangler, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado. Heir to this prestigious tradition, Kirill Petrenko offers his own interpretation this evening. On the occasion of his appointment in August 2019, Kirill Petrenko declared: “There is only one work with which I can begin my activity here in Berlin: Beethoven’s Ninth”. And it’s with the Ode to Joy that he presents himself today in Baden-Baden.

At 6 p.m. in the Festspielhaus :

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER | KLAUS MÄKELÄ | LEIF OVE ANDSNES

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Klaus Mäkelä: Music Director

Leif Ove Andsnes: Piano

Program :

– R. Strauss, An Alpine Symphony, Op.64

– S. Rachmaninov, Concerto No. 3 in D

D minor, Op.30

How far will he go? The prodigious conductor Klaus Mäkelä is well known in Paris. The current Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris delights Philharmonic audiences with his fiery interpretations. But other skies are already calling from 2027, he will be the boss of the prestigious Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and we’ve just learned that he will also be the conductor of the legendary Chicago Orchestra. For this exceptional Easter Festival 2025, the Finnish musician makes his Baden-Baden debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in a spectacular program. In addition to Strauss’s impressive Alpine Symphony, he joins forces with the wonderful Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, imbued with grace and poetry.

At 6 p.m. in the Festspielhaus :

MADAME BUTTERFLY, by G. Puccini

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Kirill Petrenko: Musical direction

David Livermore: Stage direction

Eleonora Buratto: Madame Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San)

Jonathan Tetelman: Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton

Teresa Iervolino: Suzuki

Tassis Christoyannis: Sharpless

Didier Pieri: Goro

Aksel Daveyan: Prince Yamadori

Puccini literally fell in love with the story of this fifteen-year-old Japanese girl, the victim of a sham marriage to an American lieutenant, to the point of enthusiastically studying the customs and language of the Land of the Rising Sun. The premiere took place on February 17, 1904 at La Scala in Milan: a resounding failure, the opera was immediately withdrawn from the bill, before a drastic reworking by the composer himself, which was performed a year later in Brescia. The world then discovered a relentless summit of dramatic tension, a shattering opera that was to become one of the most popular pillars of the entire operatic repertoire. This new production, directed by Davide Livermore (one of today’s great names in staging), features the extraordinary forces of the Berlin Philharmonic led by Kirill Petrenko (who, before taking up his post in Berlin, was the wonderful conductor of the Bavarian State Opera). Since taking on the role at New York’s Metropolitan in 2022, Italian Eleonora Buratto has established herself as one of the great Butterflies of our time.