Love Fantasies

– Oana Vedinas

ProgramRICHARD STRAUSS [1864–1949]Don Juan, tone poem (after Nikolaus Lenau) for large orchestra, Op. 20Six Songs after Poems by Clemens Brentano, Op. 68

ROBERT SCHUMANN [1810–1856]Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

Could there be a more beautiful declaration of love? When Robert Schumann heard Schubert’s ‘Great’ C major Symphony, he wrote to his fiancée Clara Wieck that he ‘desired nothing more than that you were my wife and I might compose such symphonies’. And indeed: it was not long after their wedding that, in 1841, the most splendid symphonies began flowing from his pen. The Fourth was his most formally original and was, in Clara’s words, drawn ‘from the very depths of the soul’. But with Richard Strauss’ tone poem Don Juan, the focus is on an entirely different facet of love – and not the marital kind. In the verse epic by Nikolaus Lenau on which it is based, this is stated plainly: ‘Within the wide circle of fair women, my love for each is ever new.’ And truly, ‘the fiery pulses of youth’ are set to music with incomparable brilliance by the still-youthful Strauss. Decades later, in his song cycle based on poems by Clemens Brentano, Strauss demonstrated that he was no stranger to the painful aspects of love: “In love there is sorrow, and it cannot be otherwise,” the text reads. Incidentally, the cycle also gives us the opportunity to reconnect with soprano Adela Zaharia, who launched her international career at the Komische Oper Berlin’s opera studio and later as a permanent member of the ensemble.

A journey through the entire cosmos of love – nothing less awaits you in this symphonic concert under the baton of Music Director James Gaffigan.

Artists/Collaborators: James Gaffigan (Musikalische Leitung), Adela Zaharia (Sopran), Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin (Orchester)

Next date:

• Date Friday, 27/November/2026 19:00
• Venue Komische Oper Berlin: Schillertheater - Großer Saal
• Address Bismarckstraße 110, 10625 Berlin-Charlottenburg