(Credit: Eric Bouloumie)

Donizetti wrote nearly 70 operas, many of which have been forgotten. Over the last several years many of his works have been rediscovered thanks in part to concert performances, festivals, or recordings. This week German audiences will get to discover the composer’s 1841 one-act opera “Rita” at the Konzerthaus Berlin. The opera will star a cast of young singers including the rising star Elbenita Kajtazi, who will sing the title role.

The soprano, who hails from Kosovo, returns to Berlin where audiences have gotten to know her over the years. Kajtazi was a young artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2014 to 2016 and performed numerous roles ranging from Verdi, Mozart to Puccini, Janacek, and Humperdinck.

“Rita” will be the soprano’s second Donizetti opera following “L’Elisir d’Amore” which she performed numerous times in Essen, Padova, and Berlin.

The Donizetti opera marks the first role debut of Kajtazi’s 2021-22 season as she will also make her highly anticipated role debut in the title character of Massenet’s ”Manon” in Hamburg. Her season will also include engagements in Dresden and Erfurt

Kajtazi is a 2018 Audience Prize and the 3rd prize winner at the first-ever Glyndebourne Opera Cup and has also won first prize at the Riccardo Zandonai Competition and first prize at the Spiros Argiris Sarzana Festival Competition. This year, the soprano represented Kosovo in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Kajtazi has also performed at the Salzburg Festival and is an ensemble member of the Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen

Recording

For those not familiar with the soprano, here is a clip from her Glyndebourne Opera Cup performance and from the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

Here she is in “La Traviata.”

Here is a clip of the soprano in “L’Elisir d’Amore.”