Kaufmann remains very much an active international performer, and the coming season offers American audiences an unusually apt opportunity to hear him. On October 8, 2026, he joins Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker for Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala, an all-Italian evening framed by the overture to Verdi’s La forza del destino and Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, with arias drawn from Cilea, Giordano and Leoncavallo.