Opera Rara shares its 2023/24 season of live operatic archaeology
With two ground-breaking performances of bel canto rarities, three new highly-anticipated recording releases, a revelatory Wigmore Hall concert and a series of engaging events, our forthcoming season of live operatic archaeology celebrates the past made new and features the biggest names in opera alongside exciting emerging talent.
We return to the recording studio in May for one of Donizetti’s experimental Neapolitan works, L’esule di Roma. Our 47th restoration project, the new critical edition was recently completed by Roger Parker and Ian Schofield and will be our 27th Donizetti revival. Conducted by our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi and in partnership with Britten Sinfonia, we will present a concert performance of this milestone opera on 11 May 2023 at Cadogan Hall. The recording and performance features Albina Shagimuratova, Nicola Alaimo and Sergey Romanovsky.
Continuing our exploration of Donizetti’s lesser-known works, in September we will begin a multi-year project to record and perform all of Donizetti’s solo songs. The Donizetti Song Project, under the artistic leadership of Carlo Rizzi and curated by internationally recognised Donizetti scholar Roger Parker, will bring to light the nearly 200 songs by the composer who was the main source of inspiration for Opera Rara’s founders over 53 years ago. With eight new recital recordings by some of the world’s greatest bel canto specialists, the project will also include performances at London’s Wigmore Hall as well as a salon series showcasing exciting emerging talent. Lost to time and circumstance, many of these songs will receive their first performance in modern times.
Tenor Lawrence Brownlee and baritone Etienne Dupuis are joined by Carlo Rizzi at the piano on 9 September 2023 for the first of our Donizetti & Friends concerts at Wigmore Hall. Opera Rara’s Artist Ambassadors Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres will each record their own recital albums in 2024, and the recordings and performances will continue through the 2025/26 season. Over the course of the project, we aim to record and perform his entire solo song output, expanding the song repertoire for current and future generations. The Donizetti Song Project is generously supported by the Colwinston Charitable Trust, the Cockayne Grants for the Arts of The London Community Foundation and Opera Rara’s Donizetti Syndicate.
We are pleased to welcome H.E. Inigo Lambertini, Ambassador of Italy to the UK, as Opera Rara’s Donizetti Patron, a new patronage created in the 225th anniversary year of the composer’s birth. With the intention of further strengthening our relationship with the UK’s vibrant Anglo-Italian community, from 2023 to 2026 Ambassador Lambertini will champion our work of restoring, performing and recording the lost and forgotten masterpieces of one of Italy’s best-known composers.
Ambassador Lambertini states: “I am honored to be named Opera Rara’s Donizetti Patron, particularly in this special year that marks the 225th anniversary of Donizetti’s birth. As the Italian Ambassador to the UK, and an opera lover myself, I am passionate about fostering closer cultural ties between our two countries. Opera Rara’s work to revive and promote the forgotten operatic gems of Donizetti – and of many other outstanding Italian authors – is an important part of that. I look forward to championing their efforts over the next four years and sharing the beauty and richness of Donizetti’s music with the large and passionate UK’s Anglo-Italian community.”
The 2023/24 season sees the releases of three complete opera recordings. The first is the highly-anticipated recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto. Restored from the autograph manuscript and recorded for the first time ever, it will be released worldwide on 14 April 2023, and features performances by Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, and Elizabeth DeShong with the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Carlo Rizzi. In autumn 2023 we will release our recording of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde, the first recording of Jean-Christophe Keck’s critical edition. Anne-Catherine Gillet and Virginie Verrez lead the ensemble cast with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel. The recording of Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma will be released in spring 2024.
Adding to our year of operatic restorations, we are pleased to continue our Salon Concert and Opera Insider series as well as our online events. In June 2023, we partner with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition to present a set of lunchtime concerts exploring undiscovered bel canto treasures from the Foyle Opera Rara Collection held at the College. Mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek and tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez are joined by pianist James Southall for concerts in the College’s Dora Stoutzker Hall. This will be paired with an exhibition and public tours of the Collection. Bienek, Henao Gonzalez and Southall will also feature in our London salon concert series later in the year alongside other artists.
Later in 2024, we once again partner with the Hallé for another ground-breaking recording and performance in Manchester. Opera Rara’s former Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder returns to conduct this exciting project. We look forward to sharing information on this and many more discoveries with you throughout the year. We invite you to explore our season and the many ways you can join us on a journey of operatic discovery.