We held a mini interview with Luca Pisaroni before his concert with Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra that will take place on 7 January 2016 (this Thursday) at Lütfi Kırdar Concert Hall. With soprano Chen Reiss and conductor Sascha Goetzel they will present a delicious New Year programme ranging from Mozart to Broadway classics.

Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has established himself as one of the most charismatic and versatile singers performing today. Since his debut at age 26 with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pisaroni has continued to appear at the world’s leading opera houses, concert halls, and festivals.

Let’s start with the New Year’s concert you will give in Istanbul with Borusan Philharmonic. Would you like to comment about Thursday night’s programme? 
The programme we decided to do is something entertaining. At the end of the day, this is a New Year’s concert. So there are pretty much from the repertoire I’ve been singing at the moment. From Mozart’s “Papageno-Papagena” to Rossini’s II. Mehmed, which I’m doing in April in Toronto. Then I’m adding in the second half, Porter’s Night and Day and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “This nearly was mine”, which are kind of American classical Broadway songs. And we have some German pieces like “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz”, which is the duet from the composer of Merry Widow. These pieces have connection with Vienna where I live. Sascha and I, we both have connection to Vienna so it’s really nice that we will perform these pieces.

Have you ever worked with Sascha Goetzel before? 
Yes, we did the Le Nozze di Figaro together in Vienna and I liked him immediately. He has such a nice energy. He is full of passion and is very precise about what he wants. Especially when it comes to Mozart he has lots of ideas, which I like a lot. Because I’d like to try something new every time I do Le Nozze di Figaro. What’s more, this will be our first time when we’ll do these Broadway pieces. It’s going to be fun. And when we need fun, I prefer these musics somehow to the Italian repertoire.

Was it Sascha Goetzel who invited you to Istanbul? 
Yes, I’ve been to Istanbul only once, I think it was 1999, I came as a tourist. La Scala Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti would do some concert, so I came and stayed in Istanbul for a couple of days and I loved the city so much. It was so full of history. There is this connection of East and West which made my sightseeing experience even more exciting.

But you also grew up in a city full of history, Bussetto, Giuseppe Verdi’s hometown… 
Actually I was born in Venezuela. My parents stayed in South America for 10 years due to their work. I lived in Venezuela until I was 4 years old. But my parents were actually from Bussetto, so we moved to Bussetto and I grew up there.

Read the entire interview here.