Opera Rara Winter/Spring 2024 Highlights
On 9 September, Opera Rara launched its Donizetti Song Project: an ambitious new multi-year initiative to record and perform Donizetti’s entire corpus of songs, nearly 200 in total of which many have never been heard before. Following the Project’s launch at Wigmore Hall with Lawrence Brownlee and Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, the company presented two further recitals as part of its Salon Series for emerging artists, giving in total thirteen modern-day Donizetti songs premieres to the public this autumn. Opera Rara’s latest release is Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde with London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel. Its April 2023 release of Mercadante’s Il proscritto with Britten Sinfonia conducted by Carlo Rizzi won the International Opera Award for best Complete Opera Recording at the end of November. Below are a list of Opera Rara event highlights for the diary from the start of the New Year.
Thursday 22 February
William Thomas sings Donizetti songs
Opera Rara’s next Salon Series recital for emerging artists this season features British bass William Thomas, finalist in the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize. William, together with pianist Florent Mourier, presents an evening of rare Donizetti songs alongside romanzes by Verdi.
Friday 1 March
Donizetti L’esule di Roma recording release
Donizetti’s 1828 experimental Neopolitan opera, L’esule di Roma, put the composer on the international map according to Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker, who, together with Ian Schofield, created the new critical edition of the opera marking the company’s 27th complete Donizetti revival, and 47th restoration project. Carlo Rizzi conducts Britten Sinfonia with a cast led by Nicola Alaimo, Albina Shagimuratova and Sergey Romanovsky. Also featured are Kezia Bienek, Lluís Calvet i Pey and André Henriques all making their recording debuts with this release. A digital launch will take place on 29 February.
Tuesday 12 March
Opera Rara 2024-25 Season Preview
Opera Rara’s artistic team led by Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi and Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker present a new season of live operatic archaeology including the first two releases in its Donizetti Song Project featuring tenor and baritone songs recorded with Lawrence Brownlee and Nicola Alaimo. This online event is available to Opera Rara’s supporters and press. It will be available on YouTube on Wednesday 13 March.
Thursday 18 April
1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in Manchester
Opera Rara team up with the Hallé and former Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder to present the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Edited by Roger Parker for Casa Ricordi, this new edition of the opera is the first to be based on Verdi’s original autograph score which only recently became available to scholars. Igor Golovatenko takes up the title role and is joined by Eleonora Buratto as Amelia, Iván Ayón-Rivas – who made his Opera Rara debut in Mercadanate’s Il proscritto – as Gabriele Adorno, and William Thomas as Jacopo Fiesco.
Thursday 23 May
Ermonela Jaho sings Donizetti songs at Wigmore Hall
Artist Ambassador Ermonela Jaho returns to Opera Rara for its second ‘Donizetti & Friends’ recital at Wigmore Hall. Jaho, accompanied by Rizzi, presents songs by Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Gounod and Viardot. A week prior to the recital, Jaho and Rizzi will record the Donizetti songs in the studio for release in 2025.