Category: News

Opera Rara’s autumn 2012 release, Aureliano in Palmira, has received some fantastic reviews. Here’s what the critics have to say:

‘Opera Rara’s performance is a fine one, conducted with stylistic assurance by Maurizio Benini and sung by a good cast, able to rise above the music’s considerable technical challenges to achieve real expressive distinction. In the title role, tenor Kenneth Tarver reminds us of his excellent Rossinian credentials, with a light and airy tone and fluent top register. Spanish mezzo Silvia Tro Santafé is also fluent as Aureliano’s military and amorous rival, Arsace. Scottish soprano Catriona Smith equals her colleagues’ skills as Zenobia.’ – George Hall, BBC Music Magazine

‘The music is very fine, with a minimal amount of secco recitative. Musch of the momentus is generated by triplet figures in the accompaniment. The sheer variety is striking: resolution, love, defiance, supplication are vividly conveyed. There’s a canonic trio and a ‘vaudeville’ finale. There are solos for horn and, in a charming pastoralo chorus, for violin. The LPO play beautifully for Maurizio Benini. Kenneth Tarver makes an accomplished Aurelian, a touch of steel in his tone emphasising his authority. In Zenobia’s aria ‘Là pugnai’, Catriona Smith colours her voice with both assertiveness and wistfulness before dazzling the listener with her coloratura. And the forthright tones of Silvia Tro Santafé are a first-rate substitute for those of the castrato Velluti. The recording is well balanced, with a nice sense of perspective when Zenobia enters in Act 2 at the top of the staircase; and, as always with Opera Rara, the booklet containing the libretto is admirable.’ – Richard Lawrence, Gramophone magazine

‘Opera Rara, as ever, does it proud with excellent engineering and an informative booklet. Maurizio Benini leads an authoritative performance, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra play with style. Kenneth Tarver takes the title role, and his sweetly elegant tenor surmounts its coloratura difficulties with seeming ease. Likewise the travesti role of Arsace (created by the great castrato Velluti) is dispatched with panache and thrilling tone by Silvia Tro Santafé. Catriona Smith’s Zenobia is sweetly sung with some moments of shrillness; but her duets with Tro Santafé are rather delicious highlights of bel canto grace. A rarity worth investigating.’ – Francis Muzzu, Opera Now

‘There is much to be enjoyed here. The two Zenobia-Arsace duets are meltingly beautiful and show how the youthful Rossini was able to crate emotional landscapes that reflected the development of character. There is also stirring and patriotic music, including Aureliano’s cavatina, which begins with a gloriously playe dhorn obbligato. Kenneth Tarver employs his light lyric tenor to great effect in the title role. He tosses off the high-flying role with ease and purity of tone, though one might wish for a bit more vocal heft in his jealous rages. Without question the vocal honours here go to the Arsace, mezzo Silvia Tro Santafé, who contributes a fearless and virtuoso performance that is both firey and passionate, finding many vocal colours and nuances that illuminate character and emotion. Maurizio Benini leads the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a sensitive yet propulsive reading.’ – Henson Keys, Opera News

‘Somehow or other Opera Rara keeps pulling magnificent bel canto singers out of some magic hat. In this polyphonic multinational cast there are well-known and unknown voices; not one is duff. It must seem like a miracle to find a replacement for the soprano cast as Zenobia and then to get as replacement a Scotswoman who is a Kammersängerin of the Stuttgart State Opera. She had to step into the gap late in the day and sings with a firmness of tone and pleasing capacity for characterisation that nearly matches the other two outstanding principals. Of these Kenneth Tarver is a delight. He sings with good unforced open tone and without undue stress to create a full and convincing Aureliano in his many moods. Pleasing as those two are, the biggest surprise, and the biggest success, is the singing and overall performance of the Spanish mezzo Silvia Tro Santafé as Arsace, originally written for a castrato. Her voice is flexible to meet the demands of the coloratura with her vocal centre and lower tones being the best I have heard from a mezzo for some time. Despite some of the quality singers Opera Rara have cast in various recordings over the past few years Santafé is one of the best. She is a singer who in this recording uses her considerable vocal capacities and quality to convey the emotions, drama and characterisation of a role in a manner I have not heard in a young singer for a long time. The recording comes with Opera Rara’s usual lavishly illustrated book, including a complete libretto with an English translation by Jeremy Commons. Add to this an article and synopsis by Richard Osborne.’ – Robert Farr, MusicWeb International

Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra received stunning reviews for the concert performance of Donizetti’s Belisario at the Barbican on Sunday 28 October 2012. Here’s what the critics had to say:

‘Donizetti’s Belisario proved a revelation. Written just before Lucia di Lammermoor (and containing a similar sextet), it’s a muscular, martial melodrama about a Byzantine general whose honour is besmirched by a scheming wife..In the title role, Nicola Alaimo presented an impressive old-school Italian baritone, forthright in style and big in vocal and physical presence. The fluently musical young American tenor Russell Thomas was nothing short of sensational as Belisario’s lost son, while Joyce El Khoury (WNO’s Violetta earlier this year) brought fluent coloratura and viperish intensity to the insidious music for Belisario’s vengeful wife.’  – Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

‘This semi-staged rendering from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Opera Rara, the recording company, had the smack of a triumph from the overture’s urgent first chords. Warning phrases, martial brass, festive clamour and beautifully balanced winds pitchforked us into the drama, and the screw kept tightening during the powerful first act.’ – Geoff Brown, The Times

‘Elder delivered a performance of inexorable momentum and considerable power. The soloists were tremendous, though you could argue that the men were fractionally stronger than the women. Joyce El-Khoury’s Antonina dispatched her arias with thrilling precision. Camilla Robert’s Irene was short on innate nobility, though the lustre in her tone is remarkable. There was singing of extraordinary beauty and insight, however, from Nicola Alaimo’ss Belisario, while tenor Russell Thomas brought the house down as Alamiro.’ – Tim Ashley, The Guardian

Crush Room, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Opera Rara hosted a lunch to celebrate its new release – Bellini’s Il pirata on Thursday 19th April 2012

During the event, we announced our forthcoming world première studio recording of Donizetti’s Belisario.

 Belisario, a triumph on stages during the 19th century, marks the second in our ongoing series of recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and we were delighted that the two sopranos starring in the recording, Joyce El-Khoury and Camilla Roberts, were on hand to entertain guests with excerpts from this rarely-performed opera. Discover how to support our restoration of Belisario. Not only will we produce the long-overdue first ever studio recording of this wonderful work, but we will also provide a rare opportunity for audiences to hear the opera live in concert on Sunday 28th October 2012 at the Barbican Hall, London.

More Information

Please contact the Development Department on
+44 (0)20 7613 2858
or info@opera-rara.com

We recently collaborated with the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and recorded live, in the Linbury Studio Theatre, their performances of Massenet’s rarely heard opera Le Portrait de Manon and Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été. This is an exciting project for all concerned and we’re delighted to be able to give these young singers, and orchestral musicians from the Southbank Sinfonia, the chance to create a professional recording at the start of their careers.

Opera Rara is delighted to announce that the label has been presented with Gramophone Magazine’s coveted Opera of the Year Award for Rossini’s Ermione.

Ermione is without doubt one of the greatest operas by Rossini; but the work was greeted with incomprehension at its one performance in 1819 and was never revived in Rossini’s lifetime. The composer was resigned: ‘It is my little Guillaume Tell in Italian,’ he said, ‘and will not see the light of day until after my death.’

Since its first stage revival in Pesaro in 1987, Ermione has been recognised as a lost masterpiece. Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the opera’s novelties begin with an overture interrupted by a choral lament of Trojan prisoners. Tension and staggering originality are maintained right to the very end.

With its fabulous cast (including Carmen Giannattasio, Patricia Bardon, Paul Nilon, Colin Lee, Bülent Bezdüz, Graeme Broadbent and Rebecca Bottone) accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, the work is conducted by David Parry. The 2 CD set (ORC42) features Opera Rara’s usual beautiful packaging, including a complete libretto with an English translation and article/synopsis by eminent 19th-century musical scholar, Jeremy Commons.

The award was collected by soprano, Carmen Giannattasio and Opera Rara’s managing director, Stephen Revell. In his acceptance speech, Revell said, “This is a very happy and proud day for Opera Rara…I would like to thank the Peter Moores Foundation for its very generous support of our work over many years. Opera Rara is a charity and cannot survive on CD sales alone. We love what we do and I believe that we are doing something very worthwhile. We rely on sponsorship to fund our recordings and, each time we look to record another forgotten masterpiece, we wonder where our funding will come from. We thank all those opera lovers who continue to support our work….I would also like to remember our beloved Patric Schmid, the co-founder of Opera Rara, who sadly did not live to see this day….finally, let me thank Gramophone for giving us this great award, the wonderful artists who made this beautiful recording and my hardworking and dedicated Opera Rara team who made it possible.”

Ms Giannattasio added, “For me, working on Ermione has been what you call a labour of love and, to bring this forgotten glorious music of Rossini to life again, makes me incredibly happy. Working with Opera Rara is like belonging to a warm and loving family and I hope that I can be a member of this family for many years to come. Grazie Mille and Viva Rossini”.

Our recording of Linda di Chamounix received great critical acclaim in the press with Editor’s choice in Gramophone magazine, CD of the Month in BBC Music Magazine and Opera magazine and sensational reviews in all the major publications, here’s what the critics have to say:

‘This opera has been recorded before, but not to this standard. It’s hard to imagine this set ever being replaced or even rivalled’. – Michael Tanner, BBC Music Magazine

‘All in all the strongest possible case for reviving this unjustly neglected piece’ – Hugh Canning, Sunday Times Culture

‘It’s an outstanding release, not least for the obviously painstaking musical preparation, resulting in exceptional fidelity to the composers wishes and careful yet heartfelt interpretations of the music by the whole cast’ – Rodney Milnes, Opera magazine

Opera Rara celebrates the launch of its new release, Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan with a fundraising lunch at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

A lavish lunch for 100 people was given in the Crush Room at the Royal Opera House to celebrate the launch of our November release of Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan. In addition to celebrating the recording the lunch provided an opportunity to fundraise for future Opera Rara projects, focusing on our recording with the Jette Parker Young Artists. Ana James Ji-Min Park, previous Jette Parker Young Artists, entertained the guests with songs from the bel canto repertoire prior to the lunch.