Plans 2013 – Message from Stephen Revell
Dear friends
OPERA RARA 2013
My colleagues at Opera Rara join me in sending you our very best wishes for a happy, healthy and opera-filled new year!
We would like to begin 2013, a year which marks the 35th anniversary of Opera Rara’s first release (Donizetti’s Ugo, conte di Parigi) by sharing with you some of our exciting plans for the year ahead.
Our first release of 2013 is a live recording from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. We have always been passionate about supporting young singers and the February release features a double bill of Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon and Berlioz’s song cycle, Les Nuits d’été, with singers and conductors from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and the Southbank Sinfonia.
June sees the release of Donizetti’s Caterina Cornaro. The first in our new series of studio recordings and performances partnering with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the opera features an all star cast, including Carmen Giannattasio, Colin Lee, Troy Cook, Loïc Félix, Vuyani Mlinde, Sophie Bevan and Graeme Broadbent. The award-winning David Parry conducts.
Later in the year, we will release a studio recording of Donizetti’s Belisario, again with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Opera Rara and the BBCSO presented a semi-staged concert performance of the opera at the Barbican last October. One of the critical highlights of 2012, the work was conducted by Sir Mark Elder with a wonderful cast including Sicilian baritone, Nicola Alaimo, rising Canadian star, Joyce El-Khoury, Welsh soprano, Camilla Roberts, young American tenor, Russell Thomas and internationally celebrated bass, Alastair Miles.
Our 2013 recording plans include Offenbach’s Fantasio and we are delighted to be teaming up once more with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment both for a studio recording and subsequent concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 15 December. Conducted by our Artistic Director, Sir Mark Elder, the cast includes Marlis Petersen, Sarah Connolly and Russell Braun. We are particularly delighted to introduce the Opera Rara Chorus, directed by the Royal Opera House’s Renato Balsadonna.
As most of our supporters are aware, we rely largely on trusts, corporate and individual help to fund our recordings, concerts and administration. Opera Rara is committed to rediscovering the “forgotten” operatic heritage of the 19th century, produces more world première recordings than any other label and regularly presents concert performances of the works it records.
For more information on all our recordings, please visit our new website at www.opera-rara.com and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Finally, I would like to offer enormous thanks to all those who continue to support us.
With very best wishes,
Stephen Revell
Managing Director