Opera Rara's 55th Season

We’re delighted to announce our 55th season of live operatic archaeology featuring performances and record releases celebrating the past made new.

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When you support Opera Rara, you join us on a journey of operatic discovery. Your generosity makes our mission possible, and your investment is key to bringing our ground-breaking work to a worldwide audience.

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Verdi’s original 1857 Simon Boccanegra

The first-ever studio recording of Verdi’s original 1857 version of Simon Boccanegra with The Hallé, the Chorus of Opera North and an exciting cast conducted by Sir Mark Elder

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2025/26 Salon Concerts

Opera Rara’s salon concert series features exciting emerging artists in intimate venues in London.

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Donizetti’s L'esule di Roma

Opera Rara has restored L’esule di Roma (1828), an opera which is considered a milestone in the Donizetti’s career. Vocal fireworks fly in this opera, punctuating remarkable ensembles and touching arias.

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Donizetti Songs Vol.3 & Vol. 4

The prolific and versatile Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti wrote around 200 songs. Vols. 3 and 4 of this new collection of the complete solo songs of Donizetti features tenor Michael Spyres, mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux and pianists Carlo Rizzi and Giulio Zappa.

OrderNew Release

Opera Rara's 55th Season

We’re delighted to announce our 55th season of live operatic archaeology featuring performances and record releases celebrating the past made new.

Learn MoreNews

Support Us

When you support Opera Rara, you join us on a journey of operatic discovery. Your generosity makes our mission possible, and your investment is key to bringing our ground-breaking work to a worldwide audience.

DonateMembership

Verdi’s original 1857 Simon Boccanegra

The first-ever studio recording of Verdi’s original 1857 version of Simon Boccanegra with The Hallé, the Chorus of Opera North and an exciting cast conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

OrderNew Release

2025/26 Salon Concert Series

Opera Rara’s salon concert series features exciting emerging artists in intimate venues in London.

TicketsEvents

Donizetti Songs Vol. 3 and Vol. 4

The prolific and versatile Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti wrote around 200 songs. Vols. 3 and 4 of this new collection of the complete solo songs of Donizetti features tenor Michael Spyres, mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux and pianists Carlo Rizzi and Giulio Zappa.

OrderNew Release

Donizetti's L'esule di Roma

Opera Rara has restored L’esule di Roma (1828), an opera which is considered a milestone in the composer’s illustrious career. Vocal fireworks fly in this opera, punctuating remarkable ensembles and touching arias.

OrderNew Release

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Who we are

Opera Rara’s mission is to rediscover, restore, record and perform the lost operatic heritage of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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When you support Opera Rara, you join us on a journey of operatic discovery.

Support Us

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Opera Rara’s 55th Anniversary Season

We’re delighted to announce our 55th season of live operatic archaeology featuring performances and record releases celebrating the past made new. Our new season launches on 26 September with the release of Donizetti Songs Volumes 5 and 6, featuring Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi and Artist Ambassador Ermonela Jaho. Our Donizetti Song Project, launched in September 2023, will culminate this season with the further releases of Volume 7 with Rosa Feola and Volume 8 with Nicola Alaimo. The latter will also feature in Opera Rara’s final ‘Donizetti & Friends’ recital at Wigmore Hall in June 2026. Rizzi and Jaho will also lead our 55th season full-scale opera production: the final, 1921 version of Puccini’s La rondine. For the first time ever, this third version will be heard publicly in its entirety and recorded in the studio; new material from the second version (1920) will be included in an appendix.

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Featured News

We’re hiring: Digital Content Manager

We are hiring for a Digital Content Manager to join our team from September before the start of our 55th season. The Digital Content Manager will report to the Development and Communications Director. Working as part of a small team, they will help the charity achieve...

Opera Rara announce 55th season

We’re delighted to announce our 55th season of live operatic archaeology featuring performances and record releases celebrating the past made new. Our new season launches on 26 September with the release of Donizetti Songs Volumes 5 and 6, featuring Opera Rara’s...

April Recording of the Month: Il pirata

It’s nearly the end of the month which means that the next in our series of complete operas on YouTube is now available! Our April Recording of the Month is Bellini’s Il pirata – the composer’s third opera, written when he was only 27 and his...

First studio recording of Verdi’s 1857 version of Simon Boccanegra Reviewed

Only released last week (Friday 21 March), reviews for our latest release – the first studio recording of the 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra – have been coming in thick and fast! It was also chosen as Presto Music’s Recording of the...

Donizetti Songs Volumes 3 and 4 Reviewed

Opera Rara’s recording project, spanning a total of eight albums, is truly extraordinary – the words from one of our first reviews of our latest installment of our Donizetti Song Project recording cycle: Volumes 3 and 4 released in February with our Artistic...

YouTube Stream: Michael Spyres & Marie-Nicole Lemieux

This Sunday 16 March from 4pm GMT, we’ll be streaming our fourth ‘Donizetti & Friends’ recital captured at London’s Cadogan Hall on Monday 10 March. Michael Spyres, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Giulio Zappa present rare Donizetti songs featured...

March Recording of the Month: Aureliano in Palmira

Revealing our March Recording of the Month: Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira written when the composer was only 21 (1813) and in the same year he produced three other operas! Kenneth Tarver is Aureliano with London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maurizio...

Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra Original 1857 Version

On Friday 21 March, we will be releasing the first ever studio recording of the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. For this recording, we teamed up with its former Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder, The Hallé and the choruses of Opera North and...

Opera Now Cover Feature

The Spring 2025 issue of Opera Now is now available and we’re delighted that our Artist Ambassadors Michael Spyres and Ermonela Jaho are on the cover. Taking time out of recording sessions with our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, Michael and Ermonela sat down...

February Recording of the Month: Le Portrait de Manon

Our February Recording of the Month is Jules Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon – a one-act follow up to his most well-known opera Manon. For this live recording – also featuring Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été – we worked with four singers and two conductors...