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 Eleonora Buratto has withdrawn from the production and Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura will now sing the role of Amelia.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.
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.
