Opera Rara has a reputation for nurturing singers, providing them with opportunities for acclaimed debuts and international recognition through our studio recordings. From supporting artists on the edge of significant careers to training and developing rising talents, we champion emerging artists. And to support this necessary work, we need to raise at least £25,000. By donating to Opera Rara’s Big Give campaign, Championing Emerging Artists, your donation will be matched by one of our generous match funders. Double the donation, double the impact!
It all begins on Giving Tuesday, 3 December and closes at midday 10 December – but you can make a pledge in advance to register your interest. pledge form>>
Situation Starting a career is challenging. Starting a career as a world-class opera singer is a super-human feat. Artists are facing new and continued difficulties with fewer opportunities, lessening their chances of achieving a rewarding, robust career. Even through challenging times for our sector, Opera Rara continues to support emerging artists’ debuts, helping to form their reputation in the music world. But, creating world-class recording and performance opportunities is a costly endeavour.
Solution Since 1970, Opera Rara has helped emerging artists to overcome the odds, providing opportunities for their artistry to be shared globally. Our emerging artists leave a lasting legacy and learn from the best conductors, musicologists, and coaches in a professional studio setting. This is reflected in their highly acclaimed performances. We have expanded this work by launching a Salon Concerts series and by providing further opportunities for international exposure through our digital activities.
Campaign Aims Champion emerging artists through increased exposure, international features, reviews, broadcasts, and streaming. Provide an artistic legacy for emerging artists through their recordings. Provide performance and recording debut opportunities for emerging artists. Continue programming our Salon Concerts for our emerging artists, providing the opportunity to work in venues across London and beyond. Finance our production costs to continue providing the rare opportunity for artists to be a part of a truly unique studio recording experience.
Impact Opera Rara does not receive public funding – every pound spent on our work must be raised from generous individuals and organisations, nearly £1M annually. The support we receive makes our mission possible and directly affects the lives of artists. Recent singers who have made significant debuts with us include Katia Ledoux, William Thomas, Virginie Verrez, Germán Enrique Alcántara and Iván Ayón-Rivas. We continue to see many of our emerging artists make positive strides in their careers. double your donation, double your impact>>
Sunday 28 July is Opera Rara’s 54th birthday, and we invite audiences worldwide to celebrate with us! Across our channels, we’re marking this milestone by releasing special content, and we have set a goal of adding 54 new supporters to our ranks in the following weeks and months. Donations can be made here.
Opera Rara fans are able to help us reach our goal of 54 donors for 54 years by becoming a Friend or Patron, joining us on our journey of operatic discovery. Opera Rara’s work is only made possible by the generosity of our passionate supporters, and this year we need to raise nearly £1M.
Even just £5 per month could ensure that Opera Rara can continue all the inspiring performances, enlightening discoveries and award-winning recordings we experienced in our 53rd season. From the launch of the Donizetti Song Project, Opera Rara’s most ambitious project to date, to the recording and 5-star performance of the 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and our first Salon Series with exciting emerging artists, there were many opportunities to experience rare and forgotten music restored.
The last season was also filled with many accolades. Opera Rara’s recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto won an International Opera Awardfor Best Complete Opera Recording, and our recording of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde won Best Opera Recording of the Year at both the OPUS KLASSIK Awards and the OPER! Awards. Our Artist Ambassadors Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres were also recognised at the OPER! Awards as Singers of the Year. None of this could have been possible without the generosity of our family of supporters, and our new season is just as ambitious.
In Opera Rara’s 54th season, there are many more exciting discoveries to be made and ground-breaking recordings to come. We continue our work with the multi-year Donizetti Song Project, which will see many more recitals at both Wigmore and Cadogan Halls and the release of four recordings containing nearly 100 songs in total. The popular Salon Series returns with four more emerging artists in concert in London and streamed online, bringing new voices to audiences in London and to the world. And, we will release the first-ever studio recording of the 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra.
By donating today and becoming an Opera Rara Friend or Patron, you can unlock new ways to connect with our work as we unearth more operatic gems and champion incredible vocal talent.
Last night, Opera Rara won the OPER! Award for Best Opera Recording for its studio release of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde (ORC63). This is the company’s second OPER! Award having won in 2019 for its world premiere recording of Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida. Representing the company in Amsterdam was Opera Rara’s Chief Executive Henry Little, together with conductor Paul Daniel, who said: “Opera Rara’s relationship with Jacques Offenbach stretches back over fifty years… Thank you to Jean Christophe Keck, editor of the Offenbach Edition Keck, whose tireless and dedicated championship of this most appealing composer has helped to bring pieces like our Trébizonde back for 21st century audiences to enjoy.” We also celebrate our Artist Ambassadors, Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres, who both won Best Singer of the Year.
While the golden age of opera recordings may be over as the big labels have pulled out, Opera Rara continues to release many of today’s most important opera and operetta titles. In La Princesse de Trébizonde, Paul Daniel and the London Philharmonic Orchestra discover their humorous side. With Virginie Verrez, Anne-Catherine Gillet and Antoinette Dennefeld, strict attention is paid to idiomatic expression. Josh Lovell is a discovery in a class of his own. All in all, a great moment of the “Offenbachiade”. OPER! Awards Jury Statement
To celebrate, the recording is now available at 25% off on the Opera Rara websitewith the codeOPER25 until midnight, Sunday 4 February.
Recorded with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Rara’s September 2023 release of Offenbach’s comic operetta marked the premiere studio recording of musicologist Jean-Christophe Keck’s new critical edition of the three-act Paris version from December 1869. The recording also includes previously unpublished extracts from the original two-act Baden-Baden version first heard in July 1869 which were found fortuitously by Keck one ‘magic wardrobe’ within the Offenbach family estate.
Working with French opera specialist Paul Daniel, Opera Rara’s hand-picked cast of singers – Virginie Verrez, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Antoinette Dennefeld, Christophe Mortagne, Josh Lovell, Christophe Gay, Loïc Félix and Katia Ledoux – came together in September 2022 to give a one-off performance of La Princesse de Trébizonde at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall following a week in the recording studio. Since its release, the studio recording has been nominated for a 2024 International Classical Music Award, and voted Critics’ Choice and Recording of the Month by an array of international publications including Classica, Limelight, Opera, Gramophone, Opéra Magazine and Crescendo. Gramophone also picked the recording as one of its best albums of 2023.
Opera Rara, best known for its restoration and revival of bel canto operas, has also been a champion of Offenbach’s works since its founding in 1970. In February 2023, the company brought out its latest Classics boxset: Celebrating Offenbach (ORB3) featuring remastered studio recordings of Robinson Crusoe (ORC7) and Vert-Vert (ORC41), alongside Entre Nous (ORR243), a selection of rare arias, duets and ensembles from more than twenty of the composer’s lesser-known works. Further Opera Rara recordings of Offenbach include Christopher Columbus (ORC2) and Fantasio(ORC51) which won an International Opera Award in 2015.
On Friday 1 March, Opera Rara release its 27th complete Donizetti revival, L’esule di Roma (‘The Exile of Rome’), with Britten Sinfonia conducted by Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi. Nicola Alaimo is Murena, the Roman senator wracked by guilt for having condemned to exile Settimio, portrayed by Sergey Romanovsky, who is the lover of Murena’s daughter Argelia – sung by Albina Shagimuratova. Alaimo, Shagimuratova and Romanovsky are joined by emerging artists Lluís Calvet i Pey, Kezia Bienek, and André Henriques, all of whom make their recording debuts with this release.
Pre-orders for Opera Rara’s latest release will be available from 2 February.
Set in Imperial Rome, L’esule di Roma is one of Donizetti’s experimental Neapolitan works which, like Il Paria (ORC60) and Imelda de’ Lambertazzi (ORC36), was composed prior to Anna Bolena. Roger Parker, Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant, describes L’esule di Roma – which boasts one of the composer’s best bass-baritone roles – as a milestone in Donizetti’s career. Murena’s Act 2 descent into madness is a ‘remarkable anticipation of Donizetti’s mad scenes of the 1830s’, including most famously that in Lucia di Lammermoor.
This premiere studio recording of L’esule di Roma is based on a new critical edition created for Opera Rara by Parker and co-editor Ian Schofield. Following a week of recording in May 2023, Opera Rara presented L’esule di Roma at London’s Cadogan Hall: ‘Rare Donizetti is a roaring success… Opera Rara’s concert performance under the conductor Carlo Rizzi caught the score’s volatile energy and even flares of psychological intensity’ (The Times). Opera Rara’s third project with Britten Sinfonia comes hot on the heels of the International Opera Awards recognising their second collaboration – the world premiere recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto (ORC62), conducted by Carlo Rizzi – as the Best Complete Opera Recording of 2023. A month prior to the release of L’esule di Roma, on 9 February, Rizzi’s Puccini symphonic suite arrangements of Tosca and Madama Butterfly will be released by Signum Classics.
On 9 September, Opera Rara launched its Donizetti Song Project: an ambitious new multi-year initiative to record and perform Donizetti’s entire corpus of songs, nearly 200 in total of which many have never been heard before. Following the Project’s launch at Wigmore Hall with Lawrence Brownlee and Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, the company presented two further recitals as part of its Salon Series for emerging artists, giving in total thirteen modern-day Donizetti songs premieres to the public this autumn. Opera Rara’s latest release is Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde with London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel. Its April 2023 release of Mercadante’s Il proscritto with Britten Sinfonia conducted by Carlo Rizzi won the International Opera Award for best Complete Opera Recording at the end of November. Below are a list of Opera Rara event highlights for the diary from the start of the New Year.
Thursday 22 February William Thomas sings Donizetti songs Opera Rara’s next Salon Series recital for emerging artists this season features British bass William Thomas, finalist in the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize. William, together with pianist Florent Mourier, presents an evening of rare Donizetti songs alongside romanzes by Verdi.
Friday 1 March Donizetti L’esule di Roma recording release Donizetti’s 1828 experimental Neopolitan opera, L’esule di Roma, put the composer on the international map according to Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker, who, together with Ian Schofield, created the new critical edition of the opera marking the company’s 27th complete Donizetti revival, and 47th restoration project. Carlo Rizzi conducts Britten Sinfonia with a cast led by Nicola Alaimo, Albina Shagimuratova and Sergey Romanovsky. Also featured are Kezia Bienek, Lluís Calvet i Pey and André Henriques all making their recording debuts with this release. A digital launch will take place on 29 February.
Tuesday 12 March Opera Rara 2024-25 Season Preview Opera Rara’s artistic team led by Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi and Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker present a new season of live operatic archaeology including the first two releases in its Donizetti Song Project featuring tenor and baritone songs recorded with Lawrence Brownlee and Nicola Alaimo. This online event is available to Opera Rara’s supporters and press. It will be available on YouTube on Wednesday 13 March.
Thursday 18 April 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in Manchester Opera Rara team up with the Hallé and former Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder to present the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Edited by Roger Parker for Casa Ricordi, this new edition of the opera is the first to be based on Verdi’s original autograph score which only recently became available to scholars. Igor Golovatenko takes up the title role and is joined by Eleonora Buratto as Amelia, Iván Ayón-Rivas – who made his Opera Rara debut in Mercadanate’s Il proscritto – as Gabriele Adorno, and William Thomas as Jacopo Fiesco.
Thursday 23 May Ermonela Jaho sings Donizetti songs at Wigmore Hall Artist Ambassador Ermonela Jaho returns to Opera Rara for its second ‘Donizetti & Friends’ recital at Wigmore Hall. Jaho, accompanied by Rizzi, presents songs by Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Gounod and Viardot. A week prior to the recital, Jaho and Rizzi will record the Donizetti songs in the studio for release in 2025.
Earlier this year, Opera Rara announced the company’s most ambitious project to date, the Donizetti Song Project, which will see the recording and performance of nearly 200 songs by Gaetano Donizetti. Following the restoration of the songs, many of which are unknown and have not been performed since the 19th century, the project launched in September with a performance by star tenor Lawrence Brownlee and Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi at London’s Wigmore Hall. Two recital discs were recorded, one with Brownlee and one with baritone Nicola Alaimo, which will be released in 2024.
Continuing this multi-year project, Opera Rara’s Artist Ambassador, Ermonela Jaho, will record and perform her portion of the Donizetti Song Project. Following her recording of two recital discs with Rizzi at the piano, Jaho and Rizzi will give a performance at Wigmore Hall. This will be the second ‘Donizetti & Friends’ recital at Wigmore Hall in the series. The programme includes songs by Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Gounod and Viardot. Tickets are available to the general public in January. Further information can be found here…
Ermonela Jaho’s recital discs will be available worldwide in 2025.
Ermonela Jaho’s Donizetti Songs recital discs and Wigmore Hall performance are generously supported by
Starting on Giving Tuesday last week, Opera Rara launched its first Big Give with a goal of £15,000 to support the charity’s work with emerging artists. The Championing Emerging Talent campaign took place over 7 days and featured interviews with artists who have recently made their recording debuts as well as Opera Rara’s Artist Ambassadors, Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres, and Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi. These are available to view here.
In total, including Gift Aid and matching gifts, generous supporters from around the world donated over £30,000 to the cause, double the original goal. The donations support the unique recording and performance opportunities that emerging artists take part in. Since 1970, Opera Rara have championed the careers of emerging artists, giving them their studio recording debuts and bringing them to an international stage. As a charity that receives no public funding with an annual fundraising need of roughly £1M, the support of Opera Rara’s generous donors is the foundation of its success.
The company will continue to celebrate the debuts of incredible artists with a focus on recording firsts on its social media channels through the rest of the year. With daily tracks and artist features, followers and subscribers will enjoy hearing recent debut recordings as well as historic firsts from the Opera Rara’s past.
Opera Rara would like to thank the Big Give match funders Terry Sinclair, Peter Rosenthal and The Reed Foundation for their generosity.
At a time when opportunities seem to be dwindling, Opera Rara continue to give a chance to emerging artists to share their talent with the world through our internationally acclaimed recordings and performances. These artists leave a lasting legacy through their inspiring performances of rare and forgotten operas while learning from the best conductors, musicologists, language coaches and renowned singers in a professional studio setting.
Since 1970, Opera Rara have championed the careers of emerging artists, giving them their studio recording debuts and bringing them to an international stage. We restore rare and forgotten operas, providing unique opportunities to artists, and we need your support to champion exceptional talent.
Situation Starting a career is challenging. Starting a career as a world-class opera singer is a super-human feat. Artists are facing new and continued difficulties with fewer opportunities, lessening their chances of achieving a rewarding, robust career. Even through challenging times for our sector, Opera Rara continues to support emerging artists’ debuts, helping to form their reputation in the music world. But, creating world-class recording and performance opportunities is a costly endeavour.
Solution We continue to facilitate debut studio recordings with exciting emerging international singers. We have expanded this work by launching a Salon Concerts series and by providing further opportunities for international exposure through our online events. In the recording studio, our emerging artists leave a lasting artistic legacy and learn from the best conductors, musicologists, linguists, and coaches in a professional studio setting. This is reflected in their highly acclaimed performances.
Campaign Aims Provide performance and recording opportunities for emerging artists.
Continue programming our Salon Concerts for our emerging artists, providing the opportunity to work in venues across London and beyond.
Finance our production costs to continue providing the rare opportunity for artists to be a part of a truly unique studio recording experience.
Champion emerging artists in increased exposure, international features, reviews, broadcasts and streaming.
Provide an artistic legacy for emerging artists through their recordings.
Only with your support will we be able to continue to champion emerging artists and create unique opportunities to showcase exciting talent.
Opera Rara’s recording of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde has received international praise, garnering accolades and critical acclaim. It has already received a Diamant d’Opéra in Opéra Magazine, has been included in Presto’s Top 25 for two months in a row, received 5-stars in BBC Music Magazine and has been selected as Editor’s Choice in both Gramophone and Limelight. Gramophone also selected it as recording of the month in its latest issue. Read more about its recent successes here:
They all inhabit their characters; and they all sing warmly and phrase with lightly worn style. At the centre of it all, Anne-Catherine Gillet (Zanetta) and Virginie Verrez (Raphaël) are as likeable a pair of lovebirds as you could ask for, Gillet sparkling brightly (but never too sweetly) over her livelier numbers while Verrez brings a lovely, plangent wistfulness to Raphaël’s gentler, more bittersweet arias. The aim, as so often with Offenbach, is to find just enough emotional truth to make you care for these characters, before returning to the laughter refreshed. In company like this, no lover of 19th-century opera could be blamed for succumbing to the charms of this – very much alive – Princesse de Trébizonde.Gramophone
Paul Daniel gets the style just right, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra – a real luxury in operetta – plays with equal measures of gusto and affection. The finales, in particular, sparkle with fun, and the hunting chorus, in which Offenbach channels Weber, bristles with rustic charm… As a bonus, the release includes seven numbers cut between Baden-Baden and the Paris premiere, all worth hearing. Smartly recorded, and with Opera Rara’s beautifully illustrated booklet and informative notes, this is definitely one for the collection.Limelight
Yet the hero of this splendid set is Paul Daniel, who knows exactly how to take risks with Offenbach’s tempos, the final galop leaving you completely winded. Daniel and the LPO remind us of how skilled an orchestrator Offenbach was, knowing how to pass a winning tune around the orchestra in a manner that keeps you on your toes.BBC Music Magazine
The English label Opera Rara is best known for its attention to 19th-century Italian bel canto, but from the start the French repertoire also received considerable attention, in particular the lesser-known repertoire of Jacques Offenbach. While this initially happened in performances with predominantly British soloists, the recordings now mainly aim for the most French-speaking line-up as possible, which mainly benefits the dialogues and thus the atmosphere. And let me immediately add that conductor Paul Daniel and Opera Rara have once again created a sparkling whole. The hilarious moments tumble over each other, but are alternated with the right touch of slightly sentimental lyricism in which Offenbach’s oeuvre also excels.Opus Klassiek
The major bonus on this recording is that the main cast are perfectly French-speaking and familiar with this repertoire. Under the direction of Paul Daniel, the music-making is always playful and never heavy with Anne-Catherine Gillet, Virginie Verrez and their colleagues succeeding in capturing the spirit of the travelling circus. Good humour and musical seriousness sit side by side in perfect symbiosis.Opéra magazine
Conductor Paul Daniel is excellent at the head of the formidable London Philharmonic Orchestra which adorns itself in its most beautiful colours to make the spirit of this music shine… The cast is masterful in their French pronunciation, comedy, style, and wit… As always with Opera Rara, the editorial work is exemplary with an exhaustive booklet…. This boxset is truly a gold mine of completeness… and yet another immense musical, artistic and technical success. How wonderful to be able to immerse oneself in this lively and jubilant work, rich in twists and turns and comedy of all kinds in these dark times!Crescendo
Lucky for us, Opera Rara has given us a complete recording of this Offenbach work. The company cannot be commended enough for its continued efforts in bringing Offenbach’s music back to life through its dazzling recordings. At the head of the formidable London Philharmonic Orchestra, Paul Daniel brings panache and rhythmic precision to the great act endings. Amongst the cast, all very well balanced and theatrically engaging, one can’t help but highlight the fabulous singing of Anne-Catherine Gillet, bringing unquestionable style and a smile to our faces whilst listening to this operetta full of pure joy and emotion.El Mundo
The casting is luxurious, all singing in exemplary French. Before focusing on the soloists, it is essential to underline the role of the choir, in all its forms… Frequently interacting with the soloists, these Opera Rara singers show exceptional commitment, precision, balance and colour… The London Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Paul Daniel, finds the tempi, flexibility, and rhythms essential to the life of the work. It does justice to the most authentic colours, as well as to the expression, from the languid tenderness of the solo violin to the ringing sounds of the hunt. The difficult and complex lottery scene is magnificently constructed. As for the spirit, it is omnipresent, from the winks to the crazy onomatopoeia. From the lightness to the final, wild twist, indifference is impossible.Forum Opéra
In this recording, Offenbach’s buffo opera proves highly enjoyable. Conductor Paul Daniel has a fine feel for the music and, without any exaggeration and with tempos that are always appropriate, provides a constant, very smooth musical flow so that the piece never slackens despite two hours of music. The main cast, all excellent, and the chorus are fully integrated into the orchestral sound. There is plenty for the chorus to do, and the Opera Rara Chorus is on fire. Text intelligibility is high, and anyone who can speak French will be able to follow the action effortlessly.Pizzicato
The performance sparkles. French-speaking singers dominate the cast, led by the gleaming mezzo of Virginie Verrez, who has fun with Prince Raphael’s bogus toothache, and Anne-Catherine Gillet’s attractively voiced Zanetta. The conductor, Paul Daniel, keeps the London Philharmonic Orchestra on its toes and the spoken dialogue, always a risky area, is very brief, animated and in French. Financial Times
With a sweetly absurd libretto and playful score, the work was created with a lot of care… the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Paul Daniel takes audible pleasure in the music and the cast, almost-exclusively French speaking, are top notch, led by Virginie Verrez and Anne-Catherine Gillet. La Libre Belgique
Last night, Opera Rara won its fourth International Opera Award for best Complete Opera Recording for its studio release of Mercadante’s Il proscritto (ORC62). Representing the company in Warsaw was Opera Rara’s Chief Executive Henry Little, who said: ‘Our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, currently conducting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, has been the champion and driving force behind this project from the very beginning when he discovered Mercadante’s original autograph score in the Naples Conservatory Library during the pandemic. Our profound thanks to Carlo for his leadership.’
To celebrate this achievement, the recording is now available at 25% off on the Opera Rara website with the code IOA2023 until midnight, Monday 13 November.
Set in Edinburgh at the time of Oliver Cromwell, Il proscritto had not been performed since its premiere in Naples in 1842. Rizzi galvanised Opera Rara to undertake the full restoration of the score in 2020, and two years later, with Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts and Elizabeth DeShong singing the four principal roles, Rizzi and Opera Rara, together with Britten Sinfonia, recorded the work in the studio and presented it at London’s Barbican. Opera Rara released the first ever recording of Il proscritto in April 2023 which was voted Critics’ Choice by an array of international publications including The Guardian, Opera News, BBC Music Magazine, Oper!, Presto Music and Opéra magazine:
‘Chief honours go to Carlo Rizzi who leads a lovingly detailed reading with plenty of orchestral pizazz provided by the Britten Sinfonia. Not only does he tease out the score’s numerous colors (Mercadante’s woodwind writing is especially memorable throughout), his sense of rubato and his supple way of ensuring that singers have expressive wiggle room is first-class. The chorus-writing is rewarding too, with the Opera Rara men splendid as disgruntled Royalist exiles in a nocturnal clifftop scene… the whole thing has been beautifully recorded with impressive depth to the sound and voices perfectly framed against the orchestra. With sleeve notes up to Opera Rara’s usual high standard, this is a thoroughly recommendable rediscovery.’ Opera News
Opera Rara remain record holders in the Complete Opera Recording category having won three times in the past for Offenbach’s Offenbach’s Fantasio (ORC51) in 2015, Donizetti’s Les Martyrs (ORC52) in 2016 and Rossini’s Semiramide (ORC57) in 2019.
