In demand across the world, Ermonela Jaho is best known for her portrayals of Verdi and Puccini’s heroines. She returns to her bel canto roots in a recital of rare songs by Gaetano Donizetti, alongside a selection by his contemporaries, with Opera Rara’s Artistic Director and pianist Carlo Rizzi. They will explore repertoire that has been recently restored and rarely, if ever, performed. The programme is complete with two works for violin and piano by Donizetti performed by brothers Marco and Carlo Rizzi.

Promoted by Opera Rara, this recital continues the multi-year Donizetti Song Project, which will see the recording and performance of the composer’s nearly 200 solo songs. Donizetti is currently known for a mere 10-15 solo songs with piano. These are frequently performed and enjoyed; but recent research by Roger Parker, Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant and an internationally known expert on Donizetti, has revealed that the composer wrote nearly 200 such songs, a great many of them completely unknown. In the Donizetti Song Project, Opera Rara plans to create a new edition of the songs and then record them in eight individual albums. This ambitious programme will include live performances by the internationally renowned artists featured on each album, as well as a “salon” series for emerging artists. The Donizetti Song Project, one of the most ambitious in Opera Rara’s 50-year history, aims to add a substantial body of work to the solo song repertoire through recordings and performances, making a claim that Donizetti is one of the genre’s most significant composers in the nineteenth century.

PROGRAMME:

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
“Ah! Ingrato, m’inganni”
“Che non mi disse”
“Eterno amore e fè”
“Venne sull’ali ai zefferi”
–
“Quando il mio ben io rivedrò”
“Amo sì, ma l’amor mio”
“Dormi, fanciullo mio”

Gaetano Donizetti
Sonata for violin and piano

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
La ricordanza
Malinconia, ninfa gentile
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
In solitaria stanza
Brindisi
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Sérénade
Pauline Viardot (1821-1910)
Haï Luli!

Gaetano Donizetti
Impromptu for violin and piano

Gaetano Donizetti
“Ah tradetore, tu m’haje lassata”
“Voga, voga, il vento tace”
“Dell’anno novello”
“Era l’ora che i cieli”

This recital is generously supported by Elena Baturina in loving memory of Yury Luzhkov

with additional support from the Colwinston Charitable Trust, Cockayne Grants for the Arts and London Community Foundation.

The Donizetti Song Project is supported by the Opera Rara Donizetti Syndicate.

With special thanks to Opera Rara’s Donizetti Patron, His Excellency The Italian Ambassador.