Opera Rara to release Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma on 1 March

On Friday 1 March, Opera Rara release its 27th complete Donizetti revival, L’esule di Roma (‘The Exile of Rome’), with Britten Sinfonia conducted by Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi. Nicola Alaimo is Murena, the Roman senator wracked by guilt for having condemned to exile Settimio, portrayed by Sergey Romanovsky, who is the lover of Murena’s daughter Argelia – sung by Albina Shagimuratova. Alaimo, Shagimuratova and Romanovsky are joined by emerging artists Lluís Calvet i Pey, Kezia Bienek, and André Henriques, all of whom make their recording debuts with this release.

Pre-orders for Opera Rara’s latest release will be available from 2 February.

Set in Imperial Rome, L’esule di Roma is one of Donizetti’s experimental Neapolitan works which, like Il Paria (ORC60) and Imelda de’ Lambertazzi (ORC36), was composed prior to Anna Bolena. Roger Parker, Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant, describes L’esule di Roma – which boasts one of the composer’s best bass-baritone roles – as a milestone in Donizetti’s career. Murena’s Act 2 descent into madness is a ‘remarkable anticipation of Donizetti’s mad scenes of the 1830s’, including most famously that in Lucia di Lammermoor.

This premiere studio recording of L’esule di Roma is based on a new critical edition created for Opera Rara by Parker and co-editor Ian Schofield. Following a week of recording in May 2023, Opera Rara presented L’esule di Roma at London’s Cadogan Hall: ‘Rare Donizetti is a roaring success… Opera Rara’s concert performance under the conductor Carlo Rizzi caught the score’s volatile energy and even flares of psychological intensity’ (The Times). Opera Rara’s third project with Britten Sinfonia comes hot on the heels of the International Opera Awards recognising their second collaboration – the world premiere recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto (ORC62), conducted by Carlo Rizzi – as the Best Complete Opera Recording of 2023. A month prior to the release of L’esule di Roma, on 9 February, Rizzi’s Puccini symphonic suite arrangements of Tosca and Madama Butterfly will be released by Signum Classics.