The tenor who won the Met National Council Auditions and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2016 sings Puccini and Donizetti under Maestro Arkady Beryn on 2 November 2026.
New York audiences first met René Barbera on the Metropolitan Opera stage in 2008, as one of the winners of the National Council Auditions, and again in 2016 when he made his company debut as Lindoro in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri; he returned as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier. On Monday, 2 November 2026 the Texas-born tenor headlines the Operngala-Nacht at the Philharmonie Berlin, with the Filharmonie Brno under Maestro Arkady Beryn, French baritone Florian Sempey and soprano Alisa Medvedeva.
Between those Met appearances Barbera built one of the most consistent careers of any American tenor of his generation. In 2011 he became the first singer to win all three top prizes at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition; since then he has sung at La Scala, the Opéra de Paris, the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Arena di Verona, and made recent role debuts as Rodolfo in Rome and Naples. In Berlin he sings Rodolfo’s “Che gelida manina” and Nemorino’s “Una furtiva lagrima” before joining his colleagues for the Brindisi from La traviata.
Sempey, a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, is the French baritone whose Rossini Figaro has been heard at the Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro; he sings “Largo al factotum”, the Toreador Song from Carmen and Don Giovanni’s “Fin ch’han dal vino”. Medvedeva, a Saint Petersburg Conservatoire graduate now based in Geneva who has appeared with Andrea Bocelli and Il Divo, sings Musetta’s waltz “Quando me’n vo”, Bellini’s “Oh! quante volte” and, with Sempey, the duet “Là ci darem la mano”.
The orchestra – one of the Czech Republic’s leading ensembles since 1956 – has the symphonic share of the evening: the Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, the overtures to Le nozze di Figaro, La forza del destino and La gazza ladra, the intermezzi from Manon Lescaut and Cavalleria rusticana, a Dvořák Slavonic Dance and the Brazilian “Tico Tico no fubá”. Maestro Prof. Arkady Beryn, who conducts, has more than forty years of professional experience. Chief Conductor of the Internationale Symphoniker Deutschland from 2003 to 2011, he has since appeared with the Berliner Symphoniker, the Camerata Salzburg, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Győr Philharmonic, and in halls including the Philharmonie Berlin, the Vienna Musikverein, the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. He has conducted for José Carreras, Roberto Alagna, Aida Garifullina, Maria Guleghina and Maxim Vengerov, and in July 2026 led a concert performance of Eugene Onegin in Jerusalem.
For New Yorkers, the venue is worth the flight on its own. Hans Scharoun’s Philharmonie, opened in 1963 and home of the Berliner Philharmoniker, introduced the terraced “vineyard” hall – 2,440 seats surrounding the orchestra – that concert halls from Los Angeles to Hamburg have followed. It stands at the Kulturforum, a short walk from Potsdamer Platz.
The Operngala-Nacht begins at 20:00. Tickets from €26.50 are available via Eventim.
EVENT INFORMATION
Operngala-Nacht – Opera Gala at the Philharmonie Berlin
Monday, 2 November 2026, 20:00
Philharmonie Berlin – Großer Saal
Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin, Germany
Conductor: Maestro Arkady Beryn
Soloists: René Barbera, tenor; Florian Sempey, baritone; Alisa Medvedeva, soprano
Orchestra: Filharmonie Brno (Brno Philharmonic)
Programme: Arias, duets, overtures and intermezzi by Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Puccini, Bizet, Verdi, Mascagni, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Dvořák and Zequinha de Abreu
Tickets: from €26.50 via Eventim – eventim.de/artist/philharmonie-berlin/operngala-nacht-philhamonie-berlin-4122419
Event page: Philharmonie Berlin – berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/concert/calendar/57371
Event listing: visitBerlin – visitberlin.de/en/event/brno-philharmonic-opera-gala-night
