Opera Rara performance features on US radio
Opera Rara’s acclaimed recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto will be broadcast as part of the Chicago network’s prestigious Opera Series, and syndicated across the USA.
Broadcast date: Saturday 8 July at Midday (US Central time / 6 hours behind UK time)
Available to listen live or on demand worldwide
For the first time, Opera Rara will be featured in a prestigious North American radio series that broadcasts operas from the world’s finest stages. The WFMT Opera Series, which regularly features performances from New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala and Vienna State Opera, will broadcast Opera Rara’s performance of the bel canto rarity, Mercadante’s Il proscritto, on Saturday 8 July. Featuring interviews with Opera Rara’s Artistic Director, Carlo Rizzi, as well as musicologist Roger Parker and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, the broadcast will be syndicated to over 60 radio stations across the USA and heard in over 350 markets, bringing Opera Rara’s performance to nearly 500,000 people.
The Chicago-based classical music radio station, WFMT, is accessible via broadcast at 98.7FM (in the Chicago area), streaming live worldwide at wfmt.com, and on the WFMT app. The recording, which has been critically acclaimed in the UK and across Europe, features Carlo Rizzi conducting Britten Sinfonia, the Opera Rara Chorus and an outstanding cast including Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, Goderdzi Janelidze, Alessandro Fisher, Susana Gaspar and Niall Anderson.
Estlin Usher, Director of WFMT comments:
“We at the WFMT Network are absolutely thrilled to feature Opera Rara’s stunning Il proscritto in this year’s WFMT Opera Series. Opera Rara’s mission of bringing to light unknown, recently-rediscovered works is such an important service to the opera repertoire, and we are privileged to champion their hard work and to bring their talent and ambition to opera listeners across the United States. I am certain after these broadcasts there will be new fans of Mercadante and Opera Rara in the near future!”
Henry Little, Chief Executive of Opera Rara adds:
“Our mission at Opera Rara is to search for lost or unjustly forgotten operas, to restore them through new performing editions and to present them to the world through studio recordings and live performances. Mercadante’s Il proscritto was only performed a few times in 1842 after its premiere in Naples, following which it remained overlooked and forgotten in the Naples Conservatory library. What we found through the restoration process was a gem of an opera that had been lost due to time and circumstance. For this work to be received so well by modern audiences and to be heard by hundreds of thousands of listeners in the US and worldwide honours the brilliance of this opera and the commitment and effort which the Opera Rara team, led by Maestro Carlo Rizzi, have invested to give Il proscritto the place we feel it deserves in the opera repertory of 2023 and beyond.”
When the world shut down in March 2020, the discovery online of Mercadante’s original autograph score of Il proscritto in the Naples Conservatory Library proved a lifeline for Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi. Set in Edinburgh at the time of Oliver Cromwell, Il proscritto had not been performed since its première in Naples in 1842. Rizzi galvanised Opera Rara to undertake the full restoration of the score and, two years later, he conducted Il proscritto in London.
As Musical America commented: “This unearthed gem proves that Mercadante is well worth investigating… Rizzi, a doyen of Italian conductors, was in his element, leading the excellent Britten Sinfonia in a thoroughly involving account of the score. In a graceful and detailed reading, he teased out Mercadante’s often ravishing orchestral colours, while ensuring the music never lacked for fire in its belly. The outstanding cast was up to Opera Rara’s usual high standard.”
Edited by Opera Rara’s Artistic Dramaturg Roger Parker in collaboration with Ian Schofield, Il proscritto is the fourth opera by Mercadante – following Orazi e Curiazi (ORC12), Emma d’Antiochia (ORC26) and Virginia (ORC39) – to be restored by Opera Rara. The new performing edition is now available worldwide through Casa Ricordi, distributor of Opera Rara’s editorial catalogue of more than 30 complete operas. The performance of Il proscritto was realised with Britten Sinfonia with whom Opera Rara previously collaborated on a concert and recording of Donizetti’s Il Paria (ORC60) in 2019.
The US Broadcast of Mercadante’s Il proscritto is generously made possibly by support from Islée Oliva Salinas and Michael Buckley.