First Times for Last Songs

The opera house on Unter den Linden probably won’t re-open for another three or four years, but until then we can take some consolation in the annual benefit concerts put on by the Staatskapelle Berlin. Over the past few seasons, the orchestra have enlisted some of the biggest names in the music world – Anne-Sophie Mutter, Gustavo Dudamel, Lang Lang – and this year’s concert featured no less an operatic luminary than Anna Netrebko, who has stunned audiences around the world with her vocal authority and magnetic presence. On this evening, Ms Netrebko was scheduled to sing Strauss’ Four Last Songs, a work whose pained neo-romanticism (and German language texts) might seem worlds away from the more celebrated roles – Violetta, Adina, Donna Anna and, more recently, Leonora in Il Trovatore – with which she has made her name. The fact that it…