Celebrating 40 Years

Opera Rara 40th Anniversary Celebration.

The disc, featuring some of Opera Rara’s finest singers, is dedicated to Sir Peter Moores and the Peter Moores Foundation in recognition of their invaluable support over the years.

Since its foundation four decades ago, Opera Rara has enriched the lives of generations of opera lovers and has altered perceptions through its dedication to exploring and reviving rare works from the Italian bel canto period and from the middle decades of the 19th-century French tradition.

By far the majority of Opera Rara recordings have been world premiere recordings. In many cases, the work itself will have been rediscovered by Opera Rara after decades (and, in some cases, more than a century) of total neglect. Reviving such works requires patient and expert musicological endeavour to ensure that all sources are collated and compared, so that the best possible edition can be assembled, rehearsed and recorded.

This compilation features excerpts from the works of the most significant composers who are at the centre of Opera Rara’s output: Donizetti, Rossini, Mercadante, Meyerbeer, Pacini and Offenbach. The excerpts are taken from the first Opera Rara recording by each composer and from the most recent. Opera Rara have tried to shine the spotlight on as many as possible of the greatest stars who have recorded for us over the years. This is a fascinating and delightful survey of the richness that is Opera Rara.

Featuring excerpts from: Donizetti’s Ugo conte di Parigi (1977) and Parisina (2008); Rossini’s Ricciardo e Zoraide (1990) and Ermione (2009, not yet released); Meyerbeer’s Dinorah (1979) and Margherita d’Anjou (2002); Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoe (1980) and Vert-Vert (2008); and more.