Opera Rara features in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World fringe events at The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
- Treasures from The Foyle Opera Rara Collection at The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama on public display for the first time
- Performances with emerging artists: mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek and tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez in recital with pianist James Southall
EXHIBITION: Sat. 10 – Sun. 18 June 2023, Foyle Opera Rara Room, Raymond Edwards Building
GUIDED TOURS: Tue. 13, Wed. 14 & Thu. 15 June 2023 at 12.15pm, 2.30pm and 3.15pm
LUNCHTIME CONCERTS: Tue. 13 & Wed. 14 June 2023 at 1.15pm, Dora Stoutzker Hall
The ongoing partnership between Opera Rara and The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama [RWCMD] finds new voice in June with an exhibition that delves into The Foyle Opera Rara Collection, one of the finest collections of manuscripts, letters and memorabilia relating to 19th century Italian bel canto opera (10-18 June). Two lunchtime concerts by mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek (13 June), tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez (14 June) and pianist James Southall, Interim Music Director of the David Seligman Opera School at RWCMD, include restorations of Donizetti songs from the collection. The concerts and exhibition are part of RWCMD’s programme of fringe events complementing the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
Henry Little, Opera Rara’s Chief Executive states: “Opera Rara thrives because of its partnerships. Following the relocation of our archive to the College in 2018, where it is now the Foyle Opera Rara Collection, we have continued to find connections between our two institutions. Whether that is in presenting the College’s alumni in our series of salon concerts or in our recording projects – giving them their studio recording debut – or by finding new ways to promote the Collection, such as we are doing with the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World fringe events, we look forward to working with the College to provide unique and special opportunities for their students.”
Tim Rhys-Evans MBE, RWCMD’s Director of Music added: “The partnership between RWCMD and Opera Rara is very special because it is as multi-layered as it is meaningful. Housing the Foyle Opera Rara Collection here at the College gives our staff, students, and the wider community, access to some incredible original source material from such an important period in the history of opera. Several of our students have gone on to sing at Opera Rara performances and on Opera Rara recordings, unearthing long-forgotten opera gems and delivering work of the highest quality with our International Chair in Conducting, and Opera Rara Artistic Director, Carlo Rizzi.
This year saw the partnership develop to include Opera Rara Chief Executive, Henry Little join the panel for RWCMD’s Janet Price Opera Prize which celebrates bel canto opera, and this year offers the winner an Opera Rara recital at a London venue. Lastly, for the first time this year, as part of the Cardiff Singer of the World programme of events, Opera Rara will present two recitals at RWCMD, celebrating undiscovered bel canto treasures. The Opera Rara/RWCMD partnership creates fantastic opportunities for our current students, career development for our alumni, and is a big draw to students applying to be part of the David Seligman Opera School.”
The events put the spotlight on the relationship between the College and Opera Rara which began with the purchase of The Foyle Opera Rara Collection in 2018 – now at the centre of the college’s specialist collections – and has continued with a focus on Opera Rara providing professional development opportunities for students and alumni of the David Seligman Opera School. These include the chance to work alongside the world’s finest bel canto singers on stage and in the recording studio; RWCMD alumni, baritone Lluís Calvet i Pey and tenor André Henriques made their debuts in Opera Rara’s recent performance and recording of Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma, and RWCMD alumni will continue to feature in Opera Rara mainstage performances in coming seasons. The winner of the Janet Price Prize at RWCMD, named in honour of the great Welsh soprano who featured in Opera Rara’s first ever recording*, will be presented in recital as part of Opera Rara’s salon concert series (the 2020 prize winner, soprano Elena Zamudio, will give a salon concert recital with pianist James Southall this November).
The close partnership also continues through conductor Carlo Rizzi, who as well as being Artistic Director of Opera Rara, is RWCMD International Chair in Conducting. He comments: “The partnership between Opera Rara and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama is something very close to my heart. As both Opera Rara’s Artistic Director and the College’s International Chair in Conducting, I am able to see first-hand the impact this makes on students, whether they are exploring the Foyle Opera Rara Collection in search of rare new works to perform, seeing an original manuscript of a revered composer, or preparing for their future life as a professional in the industry. With the Collection at the College, we hope in time that this partnership will enhance the world-class education students receive and continue to provide professional opportunities for alumni.”
* Donizetti’s Ugo, conte di Parigi
EXHIBITION
Sat. 10 – Sun. 18 June 2023, Foyle Opera Rara Room, Raymond Edwards Building
GUIDED TOURS: Tue. 13, Wed. 14 & Thu. 15 June 2023 at 12.15pm, 2.30pm and 3.15pm
In the year that Opera Rara marks the 225th anniversary of the birth of Donizetti, there’s a strong focus on the composer in the first public exhibition from the RWCMD Foyle Opera Rara Collection, with letters and signed manuscripts by the composer. The autograph manuscripts in the collection offer captivating glimpses into Donizetti’s creative process, revealing how apprentices worked alongside him and how revision and rewriting were part of his musical practice. The show includes the only known autographed manuscript of Donizetti’s intriguing alternate ending for the final opera staged in his lifetime, Caterina Cornaro, written following the work’s muted reception at its premiere in Naples in 1844.
The exhibition also puts the spotlight on the wider operatic community in the 19th century and the lives and creative practices of its influential musicians, in their own words, in the first public display of a selection of letters (from the hundreds held in the Collection) between composers and librettists, and composers and publishers – alongside watercolour caricatures from the period by artist Frederick Chalon (a firm favourite of Queen Victoria). An ongoing research project at the RWCMD aims to uncover and make more widely accessible the stories behind the letters. The exhibition also outlines the history of The Foyle Opera Rara Collection at RWCMD, some of the fascinating paper conservation work undertaken on key items and ways in which students and academics engage with it in performance and studies. Judith Dray, RWCMD Head of Library Services, will lead three days of tours of the exhibition in the dedicated Foyle Opera Rara Collection Room at RWCMD Raymond Edwards Building (13-15 June).
ABOUT THE FOYLE OPERA RARA COLLECTION
At the centre of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama’s special collections, the Foyle Opera Rara Collection is free to access and open to everyone. Reflecting the interests of Patric Schmid and Don White who founded Opera Rara in 1970, the collection focuses on the great Italian bel canto tradition and features a wealth of material which provides a unique insight into opera production in the nineteenth century.
It includes an extensive collection of operatic manuscripts – many handwritten by the composers themselves, first and early editions of nineteenth-century opera scores, letters written by composers and singers, and a large array of other opera-related archival resources such as pictures, postcards, programmes, playbills, costume designs and press cuttings.
The collection was largely amassed by the founders of Opera Rara who travelled through Europe, scouring music shops and book shops, collecting items they thought were interesting. Because of this, the collection is extremely varied. It includes: early and first edition scores of nineteenth century operas; autograph manuscripts in the hands of Donizetti, Mercadante, Mayr, Pacini and others; early manuscript copies of whole scores and individual numbers; handwritten letters by nineteenth-century composers and singers; early libretti; artwork relating to opera; other opera-related memorabilia; Opera Rara’s own archives including performing scores and designs.
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama was able to acquire the Opera Rara Collection, now named the Foyle Opera Rara Collection, following a major grant from the Foyle Foundation. The Foyle Foundation also generously funded the relocation of the collection and the employment of an archivist for the first year of the collection being in Cardiff. RWCMD is also grateful to the Colwinston Charitable Trust, which has funded work on the Collection, including its storage, cataloguing and care, as well as employing an archivist for a further year. Manuscripts from the Collection have been conserved thanks to a grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, supported by the Welsh Government.
OPERA RARA LUNCHTIME CONCERTS AT DORA STOUTZKER HALL
Tue. 13 June at 1.15pm: Kezia Bienek and James Southall
Wed. 14 June at 1.15pm: Julian Henao Gonzalez and James Southall
TICKETS: £10-£12
As part of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, two Opera Rara lunchtime concerts feature emerging artists, mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek (who recently sung the role of Leontina in Opera Rara’s performance and recording of L’esule di Roma) and tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez, making his Opera Rara performance debut, with pianist James Southall, Interim Music Director of the David Seligman Opera School at RWCMD. Featuring undiscovered bel canto treasures from the Foyle Opera Rara Collection, curated and introduced by Opera Rara’s music consultant Roger Parker, the recitals feature songs and operatic excerpts by Donizetti and contemporaries including Bellini, Rossini and Verdi, mixing well-known repertoire with rarely performed songs from the archive. Both singers will feature in Opera Rara’s Salon Recital Series in London later this year: Julian Henao Gonzalez with pianist Anna Tilbrook on 21 June, and Kezia Bienek with James Southall on 5 October.
PROGRAMMES
Tue. 13 June | 1.15pm
Kezia Bienek, mezzo-soprano
James Southall, piano
Bei labbri by Gaetano Donizetti
Che non mi disse by Gaetano Donizetti
Occhio nero by Gaetano Donizetti
Sull’onda by Gaetano Donizetti
La conocchia by Gaetano Donizetti
La Fiancée by Gaetano Donizetti
Ne me plaignis pas by Gaetano Donizetti
La folle by Saverio Mercadante
La primavera by Saverio Mercadante
La folle by Gaetano Donizetti
“Cruda sorte” from L’italiana in Algeri by Gioachino Rossini
Wed. 14 June | 1.15pm
Julian Henao Gonzalez, tenor
James Southall, piano
Odi Elisa: questa è l’ora by Gaetano Donizetti
Mi lagnerò tacendo by Gioachino Rossini
Sovra il remo sta curvando by Gaetano Donizetti
“Fra poco a me ricovero ” from Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
Vanne o rosa by Vincenzo Bellini
D’ogni più sacro impegno”, from L’occasione fa il ladro by Gioachino Rossini
Morte! Et pourtant hier by Gaetano Donizetti
Oh! ne me chasse pas by Gaetano Donizetti
Il tramonto by Giuseppe Verdi
“Una furtiva lagrima” from L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti