This anniversary rebroadcast was recorded live at Wigmore Hall on 23 May 2024.

Opera Rara presents Donizetti & Friends: Ermonela Jaho and Carlo Rizzi with Marco Rizzi.

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. In this recital, recorded at Wigmore Hall on 23 May 2024, the performers 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 is part of 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.

ARTISTS
Ermonela Jaho, soprano
Carlo Rizzi, piano
Marco Rizzi, violin

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

The Donizetti Song Project is generously made possible by Donizetti Syndicate members Philip Eisenbeiss, Carlo Rizzi & Lucy Stout, Jon & Julia Aisbitt, Gerry Wakelin, Allan Heinberg, and The Donizetti Society in memory of its Chairman from 1989 to 2024 Alexander Weatherson, with special thanks to Opera Rara’s Donizetti Patron, His Excellency The Italian Ambassador.