Opera Rara

Opera Rara is a British record label, founded in the early 1970s by Americans Patric Schmid^[1] and Don White^[2] to promote concerts of rare and/or forgotten operas by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Donizetti and such other "bel canto" composers as Giovanni Pacini, Saverio Mercadante, and Federico Ricci.^[3]

The label's activities were later expanded to include the "Verdi Originals" series, which included the BBC's presentations of original versions of operas by Giuseppe Verdi which are better known in later, revised versions.

For many years Opera Rara was sponsored heavily by the Peter Moores Foundation. In 2011 Stephen Revell, the managing director of Opera Rara announced that conductor Mark Elder would join as new artistic director with lawyer Ian Rosenblatt as president.^[4]

Discography

The label's first "complete" opera, Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto, was performed in concert in 1972 and featured the soprano Janet Price. It was the work's first revival in over 100 years, and was of such great interest to record collectors that it was almost immediately issued by several "pirates". Donizetti's Maria Padilla (again featuring Price) followed soon afterwards.

Other early concerts included Maria de Rudenz, Torquato Tasso, and Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (Donizetti), L'Etoile du Nord (Meyerbeer)), as well as two Mercadante operas:Orazi e Curiazi and Virginia. All of these represented the first performances of these works in many years. Concert performances, leading to the issuance of recordings by the company, continue to be given at London's Southbank Centre with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Prominent amongst conductors of these works is David Parry and Mark Elder.

In 1977, Opera Rara issued its first recording of Donizetti's Ugo, conte di Parigi, with a cast including Janet Price, Yvonne Kenny, Della Jones, and Christian du Plessis.

Other singers who have participated in Opera Rara's recordings include Renée Fleming, Jennifer Larmore, Nelly Miricioiu, Vesselina Kasarova, Chris Merritt, Marco Lazzara, Mark Stone, James Westman, Bruce Ford, and Anthony Michaels-Moore.

World premiere recordings

The label's biggest contribution to classical recordings is the large number of "world premiere recordings" in their catalogue. Listed by composer, these include:

Donizetti Ugo, conte di Parigi ORC1 Gabriella di Vergy ORC3 Ne m'oubliez pas ORC4 Maria Padilla** ORC6 Emilia di Liverpool ORC8 L'assedio di Calais ORC9 Rosmonda d'Inghilterra** ORC13[5] Zoraida di Granata ORC17 La romanzesca e l'uomo nero ORC19 Francesca di Foix ORC28 Mayr Ginevra di Scozia ORC23

Mercadante Emma d'Antiochia ORC26 I Normanni a Parigi* ORR249 Maria Stuarda* ORR241 Orazi e Curiazi** ORC12 Virginia**ORC39 Zaira* ORR224 Meyerbeer Il crociato in Egitto ORC10 Dinorah ORC5 L'esule di Granata* ORR234 Margherita d'Anjou ORC25 Offenbach Christopher Columbus ORC2[6] Robinson Crusoe ORC7 Vert-Vert ORC

Pacini Alessandro nell'Indie ORC35 Carlo di Borgogna ORC21 Maria, regina d'Inghilterra ORC15 Paer Sofonisba* ORR237 Ricci La prigione di Edimburgo* ORR228 Corrado d'Altamura* ORR246 Rossini Ricciardo e Zoraide ORC14 Thomas La Cour de Célimène ORC37 Jean-Baptiste Wekerlin La Laitière de Trianon chamber opera

The recordings indicated by one asterisk (*) are excerpts.

The recordings indicated by two asterisks (**) are technically not world premiere recordings, since they had been performed earlier by Opera Rara, and these earlier performances were issued by pirates. However, they are included in this list since the world premiere recording is still an Opera Rara performance.

See also

• List of record labels

References

1. ^ Elizabeth Forbes, "Obituary: Patrick Schmid: Co-Founder of Opera Rara", The Independent (London), 14 November 2005
2. ^ Elizabeth Forbes, "Obituary: Don White", The Independent (London), 6 May 1995
3. ^ L'opera teatrale di Gaetano Donizetti: atti del Convegno ... ed. Francesco Bellotto, Riccardo Allorto, Gabriel Dotto - 1993 - pp419 Patric Schmid "Opera Rara and its Donizetti Recordings" - "Since 1970 Opera Rara has been performing the operas of the nineteenth century. In those twenty-two years, we have revived operas by Mercadante, Offenbach, Pacini, and Meyerbeer."
4. ^ Interview in Spanish "Durante gran parte de la historia de Opera Rara, el sello se ha beneficiado de la filantropía de Peter Moores, hombre de negocios con 79 años a sus espaldas, quien ofreció a la entonces joven Joan Sutherland la cantidad de dinero necesaria para que interpretase roles de óperas desconocidas. Revell concluye que “con la desaparición del apoyo que nos otorgaba la Peter Moores Foundation, hemos tenido que reinventarnos para seguir llevando a cabo la visión de Patric. Necesitamos sobrevivir y desarrollarnos como una entidad de importancia, plena de salud y vigor.”"
5. ^ Excerpts on Donizetti Divas Penguin Guide to Compact Discs 2002 "Unlike most Opera Rara issues, this one does not provide texts"
6. ^ "an entirely new opera with text by Don White and music by Offenbach from La Boîte au lait and other sources", Elizabeth Forbes, The Independent obituary.

External links

• Opera Rara website