While commentators continue to predict a gloomy future for the classical music record industry, the specialist label Opera Rara has just announced a strong line-up of recordings for the coming twelve months that will surely confound the increasing pessimism.
Complete recordings of bel canto operas by Donizetti, Bellini and Mercadante are contrasted with an operetta by Offenbach and a disc of Rossini songs, culminating in the company's annual concert performance with the London Philharmonic in December 2008.
The year will also see three exciting releases of recordings made in 2007, including Donizetti's Imelda de' Lambertazzi with Nicole Cabell and Mark Elder (February 2008) and Ambroise Thomas's La Cour de Célimène starring Laura Claycomb, Joan Rodgers and Alastair Miles (May 2008), the latter as part of the 'Essential Opera Rara' series.
In September 2008 the company will release Bellini's La straniera. The opera is currently being recorded with a stellar cast headed by the wonderful Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi. Ciofi will be joined by Dario Schmunk, Mark Stone, Enkelejda Shkosa, Graeme Broadbent, Roland Wood and the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir on Saturday 3rd November 2007 for a complete concert performance of the opera at the Royal Festival Hall, starting at 7pm. The work is a showcase for a strong dramatic soprano; I have live recordings with Montserrat Caballé and Renata Scotto already in my collection, but the piece has long deserved a high-quality studio recording.
Earlier in the year I spoke to Ciofi about the project: 'It's a very difficult opera and a hard role! The challenge is that it's a very dramatic character in places, and very lyric and ecstatic in others. I'm a lyric coloratura soprano, so I'll find the lighter colours easier to get than the dramatic parts. I'll try to underline certain words and moments to bring out the drama, while bringing out the lyric parts. I have the same approach to Donna Anna. And of course, this is a concert performance. If it had been a staged performance, I would probably have turned it down because it's very challenging for me with my capabilities. But for this one-off performance, I am absolutely relishing the challenge!' It promises to be a great occasion and should not be missed.
In February 2008, the label will be recording Mercadante's Virginia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maurizio Benini. Benini's previous collaborations with Opera Rara include a splendid recording of Rossini's La donna del lago; in January he'll be conducting Anna Netrebko in La traviata at Covent Garden. Mercadante has always been on the periphery of the repertoire, but several of Opera Rara's previous recordings of his works (such as Maria Stuarda) have revealed a dramatic immediacy and melodic invention that bring to mind Donizetti and even Verdi. Virginia was the last of Mercadante's operas to be performed in his lifetime; its theme of political corruption was too controversial for its time and the censor demanded changes. Opera Rara presented a concert performance of the work at the Queen's University Festival on 27 November 1976 with a cast including John Tomlinson, Janet Price and Bonaventura Bottone, but only a private live recording was made. This eagerly anticipated new recording has a strong cast including Susan Patterson, Paul Charles Clarke, Charles Castronovo, Stefano Antonucci, Andrew Foster Williams, Mark le Brocq and Katherine Manley.
The next opera to be recorded in the 'Essential Opera Rara' series is Federico Ricci's Corrado d'Altamura. Ricci is virtually forgotten today, yet he had a fascinating career which found him studying in Naples, teaching in St Petersburg and presenting French comedies in Paris. One of his most admired works is La prigione di Edimburgo, which is based on Sir Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian. He also had a composer brother, Luigi Ricci, with whom he collaborated on several works. Corrado d'Altamura was a huge success in its day. Based on the same subject as Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di san Bonifacio, Julian Budden reports in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera that Corrado is 'widely considered to be his masterpiece in the tragic genre'. Furthermore, it was the only one of his serious operas to be printed outside Italy. Opera Rara's new recording of highlights from the work features the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Roland Böer. The cast for this June 2008 project includes Dimitra Theodossiou, Ann Taylor, Dmitry Korchak, James Westman, Andrew Foster Williams, Cora Burggraaf, Camilla Roberts and Mark Wilde.
The Opera Rara 'Il Salotto' series has reaped some interesting discs in recent times, including a recent recital of music written for and by Pauline Viardot, who was possibly one of Gabriel Fauré's lovers. Next July the label turns to Rossini's songs, which he spent the majority of his adult life writing for his Parisian soirées. Some of them were performed in a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall earlier this year. For this new recording, Opera Rara has brought together a number of talented singers including Jennifer Larmore, Mireille Delunsch, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Lawrence Brownlee and Brindley Sherratt, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau.
One of the label's most engaging recent releases was a two-disc selection of excerpts from Offenbach's operas and operettas entitled Entre Nous - Celebrating Offenbach. In September 2008, the company returns to this repertoire with a recording of Vert-Vert. Set in a girl's boarding school and the town of Nevers, the opera deals with the exploits of Valentin. He is the nephew of the headmistress Mlle Paturel and has been nicknamed 'Vert-Vert' after the parrot who was the mascot of the school and has died from constipation; the opening scene shows several of the characters in the school garden burying the poor parrot! The London Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by long-time Opera Rara collaborator David Parry, while the cast includes, Jennifer Larmore, Loïc Felix, Anne Marie Owens, Sébastien Droy and Mark Stone.
Finishing the year on a high, in November the company will be recording Donizetti's Parisina, again with the LPO and David Parry. Again stepping into the shoes of Montserrat Caballé (whose live recording of the piece in the 1970s we reviewed here), Patrizia Ciofi returns to the company after La straniera and is accompanied by José Bros, Nicola Alaimo, Marco Vinco and Ann Taylor. The studio recording of the opera will be followed by a concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall on 6 December 2008.
Still largely unrivalled for its detailed, loving and imaginative programming, Opera Rara is nothing but good news for the repertoire in which it specialises. Don't miss the performance of La straniera on 3 November 2007 - and keep a look out for forthcoming CD releases.
See Opera Rara's home page here for more information on current releases.
To book tickets for Bellini's La straniera at the Royal Festival Hall on 3 November 2007, visit the SBC website here.