From San Antonio to Bordeaux to Saint Petersburg, the soloists of the Operngala-Nacht on 2 November 2026 trace the routes along which opera careers are built today.
Opera careers used to be national. Today they are built across an ocean, and the three soloists of the Operngala-Nacht at the Philharmonie Berlin on Monday, 2 November 2026 show how. Tenor René Barbera, baritone Florian Sempey and soprano Alisa Medvedeva join the Filharmonie Brno under Maestro Arkady Beryn in the Großer Saal – three singers, three training systems, one repertoire.
Barbera is the product of the American pipeline. Born in Laredo and raised in San Antonio, Texas, he studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008, and passed through San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and the Ryan Opera Center in Chicago.
In 2011 he became the first singer to win all three top prizes at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia. His Metropolitan Opera debut came in 2016; his working life has since been largely European – La Scala, the Opéra de Paris, the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, the Arena di Verona and, in Berlin, the Deutsche Oper.
Sempey is the French system in action. He studied piano and voice in Libourne, then singing at the Bordeaux Conservatoire, made his debut at 21 as Papageno at the Opéra de Bordeaux and spent two years in the Paris Opera’s Atelier Lyrique. Rossini’s Figaro then carried him to the Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera House, Pesaro, Rome and Tokyo; he was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2022.
Medvedeva represents the Russian conservatoire tradition transplanted westward: five years at the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire, prizes at the Rachmaninov and Stravinsky international competitions, then a move to Geneva to work with mezzo-soprano Juliette Galstian, followed by appearances with Il Divo in Vienna, at the Verão Clássico festival in Lisbon and alongside Andrea Bocelli in Porto Cervo.
In Berlin the three converge on the common canon. Barbera sings “Che gelida manina” and “Una furtiva lagrima”; Sempey “Largo al factotum”, the Toreador Song and Don Giovanni’s “Fin ch’han dal vino”; Medvedeva Musetta’s “Quando me’n vo” and Bellini’s “Oh! quante volte”, and with Sempey the duet “Là ci darem la mano”. The Filharmonie Brno, one of the Czech Republic’s leading orchestras since 1956, plays the Onegin Polonaise, 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 and a Dvořák Slavonic Dance; “Tico Tico no fubá” and the Brindisi from La traviata close the evening.
The hall completes the transatlantic circle: Hans Scharoun’s 1963 Philharmonie, with its 2,440 seats in terraces around the stage, is the building that Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and countless others have followed. Maestro Prof. Arkady Beryn, who conducts, has more than forty years of professional experience and was Chief Conductor of the Internationale Symphoniker Deutschland from 2003 to 2011. He has led the Berliner Symphoniker, the Camerata Salzburg, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted in the Vienna Musikverein, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Philharmonie Berlin, and worked with José Carreras, Roberto Alagna, Aida Garifullina, Maxim Vengerov and Mischa Maisky. A professor of conducting, he gives international masterclasses, and several of his students now hold leading positions with major orchestras.
The Operngala-Nacht begins at 20:00, and 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
