Have you ever wondered what’s involved in reviving a forgotten opera? How we pick our singers? Or how long it takes to prepare for our recording sessions?
Today we launch Ask Opera Rara where we take you behind the scenes with our team of experts who will answer your questions in a myriad of ways including by video, social media, or blog post.
We also welcome you to tell us about your Opera Rara story – whether that be memories of a concert, a recording, how you found out about us or through sharing images of your recording collections or from past Opera Rara events which, with your permission, we may publish on social media.
Our revival of the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra last week in Manchester has received 5 stars from many of the UK’s leading classical music and opera critics. Read some of the quotes below:
It was delivered by the superbly prepared Hallé Orchestra, the rampant Opera North chorus, dozens of students from the Royal Northern College of Music and an exceptional cast under the direction of Mark Elder. He still has a few weeks left of his 24-year reign at the Hallé, but this Boccanegra was surely a crowning glory… The soloists too brought the story to life — none better than the young Argentinian baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara in the title role: a beautifully suave timbre and volatility to go with it. A young tenor, Iván Ayón-Rivas, was thrillingly ardent as her lover Adorno, and William Thomas’s imposing bass ideal for Fiesco.The Times
The result was a triumph with a standing ovation… Eri Nakmura’s Amelia had no trouble standing out with her shining brilliance and total security… the tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas as Gabriele rang out ardently in his love for Amelia while at the bottom of the range William Thomas plumbed the depths as Fiesco, Sergio Vitale was a cool Paolo Albiani, and Germán Enrique Alcántara as Boccanegra himself was magnificently drawn as a tortured man who sings that fire burns through his veins and finally consumes him…The Daily Telegraph
If ever more evidence were needed of Sir Mark Elder’s untiring zest for exploration and love of the thrill of live opera performance, it was this ground-breaking collaborative event with Opera Rara – a performance coupled to a new studio recording of the original version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra… And this is where one must pay tribute to the star qualities of this remarkable cast, beginning with Eri Nakamura as Amelia. She despatched that ending with fire and brilliance of rare quality and brought the house down. Boccanegra himself, Argentinian baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara was equally adept at portraying his pirate-turned-statesman-and-devoted-father role in all its aspects, and his voice quality is rich and multi-faceted. Iván Ayón-Rivas was Gabriele Adorno, Amelia’s lover – an ardent tenor of superb timbre for a young hero and capable of expressing fury, passion and despair. The Arts Desk
Entirely unsurprisingly, though, this superb performance joins the esteemed ranks of some memorable evenings over the years… Leading an unwaveringly strong cast was Argentinian baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara in the title role. He traced a remarkable character development through the evening, from rapturous reunion with long-lost daughter Amelia in Act 1, culminating in an exquisitely tender blessing of her wedding from his deathbed. Eri Nakamura’s Amelia was elegantly sung with fine control throughout her range… Elder, for his part, paced the drama to perfection, dismissing with apparent ease any reservations about the validity of this early version of the opera.Bachtrack
What stands out though in the memory is just how well the voices blend and contend in a work which does not seek to enthrone solo display… It is good to know that a recording of this fine ensemble will be forthcoming on the Opera Rara label, and I would thoroughly recommend it on the basis of this evening. It is hard to see how a better case could be made for this version of the opera. Plays To See
Stepping in at relatively short notice to replace the previously announced Nicola Alaimo, Alcántara gave a hugely commanding performance as Boccanegra and demonstrated a gloriously rich voice, elegance and real star charisma. Nakamura (again stepping in to replace Eleonora Buratto) sang beautifully and was given a fine opportunity to showcase that wonderfully pure soprano voice – full of warmth and colour – working beautifully with Ayón-Rivas, surely one of the finest and most exciting young tenors singing today. Outstanding work too from fellow rising star Thomas who showcased a strong and assured bass voice… A thrilling night of extraordinary music and vocal performances with Elder demonstrating an absolute mastery of control, leading the magnificent orchestra and Chorus of Opera North in a truly outstanding performance of Verdi’s dramatic and richly detailed score.The Arts Shelf
Our Recording of the Month is Donizetti’s Le Duc d’Albe starring American soprano Angela Meade in her recording debut as Hélène d’Egmont.
Recorded in June 2015, Sir Mark Elder conducts The Hallé in the original French version of the opera which only exists in two acts. Donizetti never finished the work due to conflicts of interest with the commissioning Opéra de Paris which led him to abandon the project altogether.
Head over to our YouTube channel here to listen to the Overture as well as to discover more about this opera over the coming weeks:
Opera Rara and the Hallé announce a cast change in their upcoming recording and performance of the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Nicola Alaimo has had to withdraw from the production due to illness and Argentinian baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara will now sing the title role of Simon Boccanegra. Together with Eri Nakamura (Amelia), Iván Ayón-Rivas (Gabriele Adorno) and William Thomas (Jacopo Fiesco), Alcántara will make his role debut with this production. This will also mark his Opera Rara debut and studio recording debut.
A graduate of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artist scheme, Alcántara has been prize-winner in many international singing competitions including the Audience Prize at the Tenor Viñas Competition in Barcelona and First Prize in the Concours Lyrique International ad Alta Voce in Paris. Having recently worked with Covent Garden’s Music Director Sir Antonio Pappano, Alcántara returns to London in July to sing the role of Cesare Angelotti in Puccini’s Tosca.
Opera Rara and the Hallé announce a cast change in their upcoming recording and performance of the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Eleonora Buratto has withdrawn from the production and Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura will now sing the role of Amelia. This will mark Nakamura’s Opera Rara debut, role debut and studio recording debut.
Nakamura first shot to prominence as a Jette Parker Young Artist when she stepped in to replace Anna Netrebko as Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She made her debut with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé in 2022 as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly: ‘The singers were led by Eri Nakamura, the Japanese soprano who has made the role of Cio-Cio San her own in the world’s opera houses. She was wonderful, with glorious tone throughout her range (a low register of extraordinary strength combined with mellowness, and a brilliant top) and a vivid portrayal of young innocence developing into steely determination.’ (The Arts Desk).
We’re delighted to announce our 2024/25 season of live operatic archaeology featuring performances and recording releases celebrating the past made new. Gaetano Donizetti, whose music we’ve returned to time and again since our founding in 1970, is the main focal point of this new season with further recitals and first recording releases as part of our Donizetti Song Project which launched in September 2023. Spearheaded by our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, and curated by our Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker, the multi-year initiative will see us collaborate with some of the world’s greatest singers to record and perform Donizetti’s entire corpus of solo songs, nearly 200 in total, many of which have never been heard before.
On23 May and 2 November 2024, we continue our ‘Donizetti & Friends’ cycle at Wigmore Hall with Artist Ambassador Ermonela Jaho followed by Rosa Feola, both accompanied by Carlo Rizzi at the piano. On 10 March 2025, we return to Cadogan Hall to celebrate the launch of our recording releases with Artist Ambassador Michael Spyres and Marie-Nicole Lemieux with a recital of French songs written in the last 5 years of Donizetti’s life. These recordings released a month prior (February 2025) to the Cadogan Hall concert, follow the first two album releases in our Donizetti Song Project recording cycle available from 27 September 2024 featuring tenor songs with Lawrence Brownlee, and baritone songs with Nicola Alaimo.
Alongside our mainstage recitals, our Salon Series for emerging singers this new season includes an exploration of songs composed by women in Europe during the 19th-century. Denied the same compositional and commissioning opportunities as their male peers, it was within the intimate settings of salon concerts, often presented at home, that songs written by women were performed and celebrated. Presenting four recitals in total, this season’s featured artists will be Katia Ledoux (10 June 2024) and Lluís Calvet i Pey, both of whom recently made their recording debuts with us in Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde(ORC63, Best Opera Recording at OPER! Awards 2024) and Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma (ORC64); Jessica Robinson, who represented Wales in the 2023 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition; and Ellie Neate, a recent graduate from the Guidlhall School of Music and Drama.
Our full-scale opera production for the 2024/25 season will be the revival of the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with The Hallé and our former Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder. 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. A week prior to our performance on 18 April 2024 at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, we will commit the original Simon Boccanegra to disc for the first time ever under studio conditions for release in March 2025. Nicola Alaimo, who appears in our latest release of Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma, takes up the title role and is joined by Eleonora Buratto as Amelia and William Thomas as Jacopo Fiesco, both making their Opera Rara debuts. Iván Ayón-Rivas returns to Opera Rara as Gabriele Adorno following his first collaboration with us in Mercadante’s Il proscritto (ORC62), which won the 2023 International Opera Award for Best Complete Opera Recording.
In addition to our performances and recording releases, we launch our new Discovery Programme, open to Friends and Patrons, which will give our supporters first-hand, behind the scenes experiences to connect them to all aspects of our work and operatic archaeology. This new season will also see the launch of Ask Opera Rara, a new initiative where members of the public can send in their operatic questions to us and its team of musicological experts.
Ermonela Jaho’s Donizetti Song Project recordings and recital are generously supported by Elena Baturina in loving memory of Yury Luzhkov
The Donizetti Song Project is supported by the Colwinston Charitable Trust, Cockayne Grants for the Arts, London Community Foundation and Opera Rara’s Donizetti Syndicate
With special thanks to our Donizetti Patron, His Excellency The Italian Ambassador
‘It is often thought that Donizetti only wrote mad scenes for women but this mad scene is one of his most piercing and innovative’
Donizetti expert and our Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker on the psychologically complex character of Murena sung by Nicola Alaimo in our upcoming release of L’esule di Roma out this Friday 1 March with Britten Sinfonia.
Ahead of Friday’s release, click here to download this exclusive track of what is a truly rare operatic occurence – a mad scene with a bass-baritone:
Earlier this week, our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi was awarded the honour of ‘Grande Ufficiale’ (Grand Officer) of the ‘Ordine della Stella d’Italia’ (Order of the Star of Italy), one of two orders of the Italian Republic, for his commitment and contribution to promoting Italian music and culture internationally.
Last year, Rizzi, who lives in Penarth, was welcomed to The Gorsedd of the Bards in the 2023 Gorsedd Honours in recognition for his contribution to the Welsh language and public life in Wales.
Artistic Director of Opera Rara since 2019, Carlo Rizzi’s next release with us is our 27th complete Donizetti revival, L’esule di Roma (‘The Exile of Rome’), released on Friday 1 March with Britten Sinfonia.
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.
