Our final Episode 6 of Lives in Song: Puccini is out today 🎙️ Flora Wllison is once again joined by Ditlev Rindom to discuss the final, 1921 version of La rondine - the focus of our next 💿 this autumn 👀 From 5pm BST/6pm CET: https://ow.ly/4Wtb50YyjLE

Our Donizetti Song Project highlights series this month comes to an end with this wonderful studio clip from Rosa Feola and Carlo Rizzi ✨ This is 'La zingara "Fra l'erbe cosparse"' - track 8 from our most recent Volume 7 release 💿

Last November, we released two additional Donizetti song tracks with Canadian soprano Sarah Dufresne - one in French and one in Italian - with Carlo Rizzi. You can listen to both on your favourite streaming platform or via our YouTube channel 🎶

Get your diaries out! This summer, we'll be streaming 10 of our concerts for free on our YouTube channel. Starting Friday 26 June with Nicola Alaimo, Carlo Rizzi and Hetty Snell recorded on 16 June at Wigmore Hall The full schedule of streams can be found here: https://ow.ly/9ntT50YBFr4

'What makes this set superior is David Parry’s sensational conducting' - San Francisco Examiner Enjoy our May Recording of the Month now in full, remastered as part of our 'Rossini in 1819' Opera Rara Classics boxset 🎶 https://ow.ly/fRTX50Yy3lL

A song can be no less difficult than an aria from an opera - and our second pre-release track from Donizetti Songs Volume 8 is a case in point ❗ 'Le Départ pour le chasse' with Nicola Alaimo, Carlo Rizzi and Nicholas Korth - now available on all streaming platforms ahead of 5 June release🎧

'Carlo Rizzi, a profound connoisseur of this muscle world, accompanies Ermonela Jaho o on the piano with impeccable skill' - Ritmo More than an accompanist, our Artistic Director's skills at the piano can be heard here in 'Au tic-tac des castagnettes' - Vol. 6, track 2 🎹

Earning us our third International Classical Music Award, Pizzicato magazine said: 'Each of the 17 songs in this collection is a jewel when sung by Jaho' This is track 11, Donizetti Songs Vol. 5, 'Ah tradetore, tu m'haje lassata' performed by Ermonela Jaho and Carlo Rizzi 🏆

In one month's time, we present our final public performance of our 55th season. It'll also be our final 'Donizetti & Friends' recital at Wigmore Hall ❗ With Nicola Alaimo, Carlo Rizzi and Hetty Snell: https://opera-rara.com/event/donizetti-friends-nicola-alaimo-and-carlo-rizzi-with-hetty-snell

Happy Friday! We'd like to remind the world today of our art songs playlist in which you can explore not only songs from our Donizetti Song Project but other hand-picked tracks from our back catalogue of Il Salotto albums 🎶 🎧 https://ow.ly/jANT50YvqmS

'The combination of Carlo Rizzi and Michael Spyres is a match made in heaven' - Limelight We continue with our Donizetti Song Project studio 💿 highlights this week with Vol. 3 🎶 This is from track 8 - 'Berglied "Rings ruht die grüne Alpenhut"

Before the Donizetti Songs with Nicola Alaimo, there was L'esule di Roma restored by our Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker and released in 2024 with Nicola as the Roman senator Murena. L'esule di Roma will be performed this autumn at the 2026 Donizetti Opera Festival ❗

The gift of 🎶 this Friday from us to you - Volume 8 of our Donizetti Song Project is now available to pre-order feat. Nicola Alaimo and Carlo Rizzi Get ready to complete your collection - this is our 1st pre-release track 'Addio Brunetta' available now on streaming platforms 🎧

Before the songs for bass-baritone, we released the songs for baritone in Donizetti Songs Vol. 2 with Nicola Alaimo 💡 This is Nicola in the studio with our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi and cellist Hetty Snell recording track 7 - 'L'amor funesto'

As the final volume of our Donizetti Songs cycle approaches, we’re looking back at some studio highlights from the past three years ✨ We start with Lawrence Brownlee and Carlo Rizzi - this is from track 1, Volume 1 🎶 'Brownlee phrases like a true connoisseur of bel canto’ - American Record Guide

"A natural extension of Paris was Vienna... where Donizetti got offered the position of Kammerkapellmeister" to Emperor Ferdinand I in 1842. 💡 Find out about composer's last years, in our final episode of Lives in Song: Donizetti with Flora Willson and Roger Parker: https://ow.ly/9JXB50YzAlN

Happy Monday opera lovers! Our May Recording of the Month has been revealed - it's Rossini's Bianca e Falliero feat. Majella Cullagh & Jennifer Larmore 📸 in the title roles. Recorded in 2000, this was our very first collaboration with the London Philharmonic Orchestra: https://youtu.be/BVigtjwrwIo

Toi toi toi to everyone performing with our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi this Sunday 3 May celebrating 80 years of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales! Here's a welcome message from Carlo himself ✨ ow.ly/MAFp50YQCVw

"Volume 7 feat. Rosa Feola and Carlo Rizzi is one of the finest achievements of the series" - said Musica magazine of the penultimate installment in our #DonizettiSongProject 🙏 Our next major project with Rosa and Carlo in May 2027 is now on sale via @lporchestra.bsky.social and selling fast 👀 ⤵️

'Giacomo Puccini' and 'Artificial Intelligence'? Yes, Puccini and AI, and the composer's love for experimentation is explored in the latest episode of Lives in Song: Puccini, now available to watch in full on our YouTube channel. Our host Flora Willson spoke with music historian Ditlev Rindom ⬇️

Check out 👀 our album of photos from our recording sessions with Nicola Alaimo and Carlo Rizzi + special guests for Volumes 8 and 2 of our Donizetti Song Project 🎶 Pre-order details for the final Volume in the cycle, coming up... shortly! https://ow.ly/whQC50YR0Z0

Toi toi toi to everyone performing with our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi this Sunday 3 May celebrating 80 years of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales! Here's a welcome message from Carlo himself ✨ youtube.com/shorts/TX_7o...

Happy Monday opera lovers! Our April Recording of the Month - Pacini's Carlo di Borgogna featuring Bruce Ford, Elizabeth Futral and Jennifer Larmore is now on YouTube 👀 'Any lover of Italian opera will find this 💿 an absolutely essential purchase' - American Record Guide ⬇️ ow.ly/clXQ50YQA8Z

And if you'd rather a spot of Puccini tonight instead, the 5th episode of Lives in Song season 2 airs from 6pm CET. Ditlev Rindom & host Flora Willson trace the composer's later years starting with the disastrous premiere of Madama Butterfly in 1904. ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQX3bxnL-lc

Tonight from 7pm CET comes part 2 of our collaboration with the 2025 Donizetti Opera Festival - feat. their young artists in Donizetti songs curated by our Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker & Giulio Zappa. Available, along with part 1, until 17 May 🎶 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI-GbvAliIs

About last night... thank you so much to everyone who joined us at Bechstein Hall for our final Salon Series recital this season with Anna Tilbrook, @sorayamafi.bsky.social and Robert Lewis. 🎶

Happy birthday Ruggero Leoncavallo who was born in Naples #onthisday in 1857. He is most famous for his debut opera Pagliacci but he wrote many more like Zingari which premiered in London at the Hippodrome in 1912. This is tenor Arsen Soghomonyan as Radu in our 2022 studio recording 🎶

The main topic of our April newsletter is probably quite obvious but there's also a list of all the events taking place up until the end of our 55th season 👀 Explore here: https://ow.ly/i3Lq50YNVe5

📢 Revealing our 56th season 🎶 Offenbach's Barkouf: UK premiere @thehalle.bsky.social 🎶 Mercadante's Il campo de' crociati: modern-day premiere @lporchestra.bsky.social 💿 Puccini's La rondine (final, 1921 version): world premiere recording with BBCSO Led by our Artistic Director @CarloRizziMusic

If you're joining us this Thursday at Bechstein Hall for our final Salon Series recital this season, you can read our digital programme in advance ⬇️ @sorayamafi.bsky.social, Robert Lewis & Anna Tilbrook in songs and duets by Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Liszt, Quilter, Sullivan, Bishop & Donizetti 🎶

Tomorrow we'll be... revealing details of our 56th season ✨ Hosted by our Chief Executive Henry Little and Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi who will be joined by some special guests. From 12pm EDT/5pm BST/6pm CET on YouTube: opera-rara.com/event/2026-2...

'Carlo Rizzi conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with vigour and power, unleashing the dynamic extremes to drive home an emotive intensity true to Puccini’s spirit' 👏👏👏 ⬇️

🥁 Revealing this afternoon the cover of the final Volume in our Donizetti Songs cycle with Nicola Alaimo and Carlo Rizzi. Released on 5 June, Vol. 8 features 14 songs for bass-baritone 🎶 Nicola of course also appears on Vol. 2 dedicated to songs for baritone 💡

Thank you so much to all the critics who have reviewed Volume 7 of our Donizetti Songs cycle already - it's not even been a month since it was released, but we've been so happy to read so many positive reviews. See for yourself here, featuring Rosa Feola and our Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi 🎶

Will you be joining us next Thursday 23 April at Bechstein Hall? We're looking forward to working with @sorayamafi.bsky.social for the first time. Sample the beauty of her voice in this video of her in Handel's Alcina at Glyndebourne: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6W-...

Imagine writing over 50 songs in the last 5 years of your life... well that's exactly what Donizetti did. Musicologist Roger Parker talks to Flora Willson about the composer's French songs - an excerpt from Lives in Song: Donizetti, Episode 5, now available on all podcast platforms 🎧

The Opera Rara family past, present and future. Bravo Rosa Feola, Iván Ayón-Rivas, William Thomas and Sir Mark Elder currently performing in Verdi's Rigoletto at London's Royal Ballet and Opera 👏👏👏

Wishing our Artist Ambassador Michael Spyres a very happy birthday for yesterday, Sunday 12 April! 🎶🙌 12 April is also the date our co-founder Patric Schmid was born in 1944. #OperaFacts

For all you Rosa Feola fans out there! If you're in London, catch her as Gilda in Royal Ballet and Opera's Rigoletto from tomorrow until 20 April. Also tomorrow will be broadcast Rosa's WFMT Listening to Singers interview 🎶 https://www.wfmt.com/2026/04/11/an-interview-with-rosa-feola

"I chose the pieces to showcase the fact that 'traditional' repertoire can pair beautifully with Latin-American repertoire... When it comes to relating to our basic emotions and having empathy for others, borders need not exist." Catch Julieth Lozano Rolong and Anna Tilbrook's recital...

Bruce Ford, Jennifer Larmore and Elizabeth Futral in a rare opera by Pacini - what more could you ask for in opera heaven? Our April Recording of the Month is Carlo di Borgogna, the only recording in existence of Pacini's romantic melodrama of 1835 👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB5l...

We're running one more poll today for our #AskOperaRara section, ahead of recording Episodes 5 and 6 of Lives in Song: Puccini next week❗️ Which question would you like to ask our experts Ditlev Rindom and Flora Willson directly❓ 1. What exactly is a cultural historian?

"You’re always acting with music rather than just making pretty sounds, and that’s as true in his songs as it is in the operas." - Rosa Feola speaking to @prestomusic.bsky.social on recording Donizetti Songs Vol. 7. Read the full interview here: www.prestomusic.com/classical/ar...

Later this month, we'll be recording Episodes 5 and 6 of Lives in Song: Puccini with Flora Willson and Ditlev Rindom - for our #AskOperaRara section, we're asking our followers to choose which❓to ask them about in relation to Puccini: 1. What did Puccini learn from the theatre of his time… ?

📢A final reminder today that we're hiring 📢 Deadline for our new Digital Content Manager role is next Tuesday 7 April at 5pm UK time. Full details ⬇️

Thank you to the 100K viewers of our latest Salon Series recital available for another two weeks to stream on our YouTube channel 🎼 Julieth Lozano Rolong was such a captivating communicator, telling us a little bit about each song she sang with Anna Tilbrook at Bechstein Hall last month in London.

Where it all started... Donizetti's Ugo, conte di Parigi, our first ever recording release of 1978 is now available on YouTube. A critic at the time said, 'Opera Rara now has launched a new kind of record club... its first choice proves nothing short of genius': www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk7M...

#Throwback to last week when our Artist Ambassador Ermonela Jaho performed at the International Classical Music Awards, picking up our Award for Donizetti Songs Vols. 5&6 🏆 Watch her performance of 'Lamento per la morte di Bellini' here: https://www.youtube.com/live/wrQrvWEFJq#Throwback

Tonight from 7pm CET, the Donizetti Opera Festival stream our first joint concert together filmed last year feat. their young artists in Donizetti songs curated by our Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker & Giulio Zappa. Available till 17 May to enjoy 🎶 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D_VzyudG2U

'Rosa Feola... with glittering top notes and deft ornamentation adds a suitably Donizettian sparkle... Carlo Rizzi springs the composer’s surprises on us like a master magician.' Donizetti Songs Volume 7 is BBC Music Magazine's April Vocal Choice 🥳 ow.ly/umMX50Yz8BF