Opera Rara has announced the launch of the Donizetti Song Project on Sept. 9, 2023. The project will feature Donizetti’s entire song output, around 200 in total, showcased in performance and recordings. First up is “Donizetti & Friends” at Wigmore Hall, starring tenor Lawrence Brownlee and Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi. This event will include songs by Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, {…}
For the first time in its history, a performance by Opera Rara will get a broadcast on an American classical music station. The company revealed that Chicago-based network WFMT will broadcast the recording of Mercadante’s “Il Proscritto” on July 8, 2023 starting at 12 p.m. Central time. Additionally, those who tune in will get to hear interviews with Opera Rara’s {…}
Opera Rara and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) have announced that mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek and tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez will be featured in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World fringe events. The concerts and exhibition are part of RWCMD’s program of fringe events which coincide with the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. The {…}
Opera Rara is set to perform Donizetti’s “L’esule di Roma” on May 11 celebrating the composer’s 225 anniversary. The performance will see the company join the Britten Sinfonia at Cadogan Hall for a performance of Opera Rara’s 27th complete Donizetti revival. Conducted by Opera Rara Artistic director, Carlo Rizzi, the opera will see a cast that includes Albina Shagimuratova, Nicola {…}
Opera Rara has announced its 2023-24 season, which will include the launch of a major multi-year project to perform and record almost 200 rarely-heard Donizetti songs. The season will feature a strong focus on the music of Donizetti as it marks the 225th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, baritone Étienne Dupuis, and Opera Rara Artistic Ambassadors, Ermonela {…}
Opera Rara is set to release the new recording of Mercadante’s “Il Proscritto.” In 2020 Carlo Rizzi Opera Rara’s Artistic Director took to restoring the newly found signed score of Saverio Mercadante’s “Il Proscritto.” Once the project was complete leading singers Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, and Elizabeth DeShong, the Opera Rara Chorus, and the Britten Sinfonia recorded the {…}
After last year’s release of Donizetti’s “Il Paria” it is now the turn of Leoncavallo’s “Zingari” to be featured in a flawlessly produced recording by Opera Rara and its artistic director, Carlo Rizzi, at the helm of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. “Zingari” is the British label’s second dive into the veristic treasure-trove of Leoncavallo’s musical oeuvre and, as such, a {…}
Opera Rara is set to present Offenbach’s “La Princesse de Trébizonde” on Sept. 16, 2022 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The opera, which will feature Paul Daniel conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra, will star Anne-Catherine Gillet, Virginie Verrez, Christophe Gay, Josh Lovell, Katia Ledoux, Antoinette Dennefeld, Loïc Félix, and Christophe Mortagne. This marks the UK premiere of the {…}
Opera Rara has announced its 2022-23 season. Here is the rundown of both performances and recordings the company will be making during the coming season. Performances The season opens with a performance of Mercadante’s “Il proscritto” with the Britten Sinfonia and Carlo Rizzi conducting. There will be a studio recording as well. Performance Date: June 28, 2022 The company will record {…}
Opera Rara will conclude its 50th anniversary celebration with a limited-edition boxset of three Donizetti operas composed during the 1830s. The box seat will include “Il diluvio universale,” “Ugo conte di Parigi,” and “L’assedio di Calais” and will feature remastered editions with the highest audio quality and accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by Donizetti specialist and Opera Rara’s Artistic {…}
Opera Rara has announced it will be recording Leoncavallo’s “Zingari.” The record company announced that it will record the rarely performed work and perform it at Cadogan Hall on Dec. 3 with a cast that includes Krassimira Stoyanova, Carlos Álvarez, Łukasz Goliński, and Arsen Soghomonyan. Carlo Rizzi, the company’s new Music Director will lead the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The new {…}