Il proscritto wins an International Opera Award

Last night, Opera Rara won its fourth International Opera Award for best Complete Opera Recording for its studio release of Mercadante’s Il proscritto (ORC62). Representing the company in Warsaw was Opera Rara’s Chief Executive Henry Little,  who said: ‘Our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, currently conducting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, has been the champion and driving force behind this project from the very beginning when he discovered Mercadante’s original autograph score in the Naples Conservatory Library during the pandemic. Our profound thanks to Carlo for his leadership.’

To celebrate this achievement, the recording is now available at 25% off on the Opera Rara website with the code IOA2023 until midnight, Monday 13 November.

Set in Edinburgh at the time of Oliver Cromwell, Il proscritto had not been performed since its premiere in Naples in 1842. Rizzi galvanised Opera Rara to undertake the full restoration of the score in 2020, and two years later, with Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts and Elizabeth DeShong singing the four principal roles, Rizzi and Opera Rara, together with Britten Sinfonia, recorded the work in the studio and presented it at London’s Barbican. Opera Rara released the first ever recording of Il proscritto in April 2023 which was voted Critics’ Choice by an array of international publications including The Guardian, Opera News, BBC Music Magazine, Oper!, Presto Music and Opéra magazine:

‘Chief honours go to Carlo Rizzi who leads a lovingly detailed reading with plenty of orchestral pizazz provided by the Britten Sinfonia. Not only does he tease out the score’s numerous colors (Mercadante’s woodwind writing is especially memorable throughout), his sense of rubato and his supple way of ensuring that singers have expressive wiggle room is first-class. The chorus-writing is rewarding too, with the Opera Rara men splendid as disgruntled Royalist exiles in a nocturnal clifftop scene… the whole thing has been beautifully recorded with impressive depth to the sound and voices perfectly framed against the orchestra. With sleeve notes up to Opera Rara’s usual high standard, this is a thoroughly recommendable rediscovery.’ Opera News

Opera Rara remain record holders in the Complete Opera Recording category having won three times in the past for Offenbach’s Offenbach’s Fantasio (ORC51) in 2015, Donizetti’s Les Martyrs (ORC52) in 2016 and Rossini’s Semiramide (ORC57) in 2019.