(Credit: Joan Tomás)

Riccardo Frizza is set to return to the works of Donizetti this fall.

The conductor begins his fall slate at the Donizetti Opera Festival where he will open the season with the composer’s rarely performed work “Belisario” in Ottavio Sbragia’s critical edition. The opera will be performed twice in concert format on Nov. 19 and 26 and will star Plácido Domingo in the title role Simon Lim, Davinia Rodriguez, Annalisa Stroppa, and Celso Albelo. Frizza will conduct the Teatro Regio di Torino’s Orchestra.

Frizza, the music director the festival, will also lead “Marino Faliero” on Nov. 20, 28, and Dec. 6, 2020. The new production will be directed Gianni Forte and Stefano Ricci and will star Michele Pertusi, Javier Camarena, Francesca Dotto, and Bogdan Baciu.

In a statement  Frizza said, he is “enthusiastic and excited” by the 2020 edition, which, despite the circumstances caused by the pandemic “has a very interesting program. The operas will be performed in the stalls at the Teatro Donizetti and the audience will be seated in the boxes; in this way we will be able to follow all the health and safety regulations. This year we will continue to work with great artists, both singers and directors.” He added that the operas “will help audiences to get to know the great mastery of Donizetti a little better, by presenting them with rarely performed operas.”

Frizza will also conduct “The Three Queens Concert” at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. The concert, which is set to be showcased in December, will star Sondra Radvanovsky and will feature the final scenes from Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, “Anna Bolena,” “Maria Stuarda,” and “Roberto Devereux.”