Concert Programme: Mercadante's Il proscritto

Mercadante's Il proscritto Carlo Rizzi conductor Ramón Vargas Giorgio Argyll Iván Ayón-Rivas Arturo Murray Irene Roberts Malvina Douglas Elizabeth DeShong Odoardo Douglas Sally Matthews Anna Ruthven Goderdzi Janelidze Guglielmo Ruthven Susana Gaspar Clara Alessandro Fisher Osvaldo Niall Anderson An official of Cromwell Opera Rara Chorus Britten Sinfonia

ACT I INTERVAL ACT II ACT III

50 mins 20 mins 55 mins 20 mins

Barbican, London Tuesday 28 June 2022 at 7.30pm

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Welcome Welcome to tonight’s performance of Mercadante’s opera Il proscritto. Not heard since its premiere in Naples in 1842, Il proscritto was rediscovered by Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi during the early lockdown months of 2020. Following two years of painstaking restoration, we are excited to present this daring and innovative score for 21st-century audiences to enjoy. This is Opera Rara’s third complete recording of Mercadante’s work and their second collaboration with Britten Sinfonia.

Opera Rara and Britten Sinfonia first worked together on our acclaimed recording and concert of Donizetti’s Il Paria in the summer of 2019. Partnerships with great orchestras are at the heart of Opera Rara’s work, and we are both thrilled to continue this rich relationship between our two organisations.

We are delighted to welcome tonight an international cast of soloists, including Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Irene Roberts, Elizabeth DeShong and Goderdzi Janelidze, all of whom are making their debuts with Opera Rara. Soprano Sally Matthews leads a trio of British singers alongside Alessandro Fisher and Niall Anderson, all of whom are working with us for the first time. We welcome back Susana Gaspar after her performance in

Opera Rara’s 2016 recording and concert of Semiramide.

Opera Rara is honoured to dedicate tonight’s performance to the memory of Anthony Bunker, whose support of our work as a trustee and donor was loyal and generous. Tony’s passionate commitment to so many cultural causes was inspiring, his insight was always perceptive and his humour was infectious.

It is a pleasure for Opera Rara and Britten Sinfonia to be working together and to welcome you to what promises to be an historic evening.

MEURIG BOWEN Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Britten Sinfonia HENRY LITTLE Chief Executive, Opera Rara

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On stage tonight BRITTEN SINFONIA FIRST VIOLINS Thomas Gould Cecily Ward Deborah Preece Michael Jones Rebecca Scott Takane Funatsu Antonia Kesel Phillip Granell Jaga Klimaszewska Alicia Berendse Anthony Poon Daniel Stroud SECOND VIOLINS Miranda Dale Judith Stowe Georgina Leo Ikuko Sunamura Eloise MacDonald Eluned Pritchard Coco Inman Stella Di Virgilio Will McGahon Victoria Gill VIOLAS Clare Finnimore Bridget Carey Catherine Bradshaw Francis Gallagher Mircea Belei Thomas Kirby Kim Becker Freya Hicks

CELLOS Juliet Welchman Joy Hawley Chris Allan Rebecca Herman Desmond Neysmith Matthew Forbes DOUBLE BASSES Lynda Houghton Lucy Shaw Melissa Favell-Wright Siret Lust FLUTES Laura Lucas Sarah O'Flynn PICCOLO Daniel Shao OBOES Peter Facer Emma Feilding CLARINETS Joy Farrall Oliver Pashley BASSOONS Charlotte Cox Simon Couzens HORNS Andrew Littlemore Lindsay Kempley Richard Dilley Kirstey Howe Richard Stroud TRUMPETS Chris Deacon Sam Kinrade

TROMBONES Andrew Connington Emma Hodgson BASS TROMBONE David Eaglestone CIMBASSO Sasha Koushk-Jalaji TIMPANI William Lockhart PERCUSSION Tim Gunnell Ben Fullbrook HARP Sally Pryce BANDA TRUMPETS Aaron Akugbo Katie Smith Catherine Knight Shane Brennan Tom Freeman-Attwood Jo Harris Louis Barclay Emily Mitchell TROMBONES Becky Smith Jayne Murill BASS TROMBONES Sam Freeman Joe Arnold PERCUSSION Sam Walton

OPERA RARA CHORUS SOPRANOS Jo Appleby Yvonne Barclay Sian Jones Katherine Liggins Claire Pendleton Eiry Price Jane Read Leah Redmond Hannah Sawle Emma Silversides Elizabeth Thomson Nicola Wydenbach MEZZO-SOPRANOS Morag Boyle Judy Louie Brown Rhonda Browne Tamsin Dalley Deborah Davison Vanessa Heine Anna Jeffers Helen Johnson Emily Kyte Melanie Lodge Gemma Morsley Kate Warshaw

TENOR Allan Adams Robert Carlin Philip Clieve Jonathan Cook Neil Gillespie Ben Kerslake Graeme Lauren Henry Moss Anton Rich Ed Saklatvala Pablo Strong Adam Sullivan BASSES Owain Browne Michael Burke Dominic Calver Dominic Felts Spiro Fernando Simon Grant Richard Immerglück Jerome Knox Martin Nelson Jack Redman Redmond Sanders Christopher Speight

CHORUS DIRECTOR Stephen Harris CHORUS MANAGER Steve Phillips CHORUS REPETITEUR Stephen Westrop

Synopsis GIORGIO ARGYLL tenor

ACT ONE

ARTURO MURRAY tenor

Richly illuminated gardens: to one side magnificent steps leading to the castle, in front of which is a platform with orchestra; a lake in the background, strewn with boats from which alight ladies, knights and relations of the Murray family; the Ruthven family proceed from the castle, giving them a festive welcome: Osvaldo is with the guards who surround the scene.

ANNA RUTHVEN soprano GUGLIELMO RUTHVEN, her son, bass ODOARDO DOUGLAS, son from Anna’s second marriage, contralto MALVINA DOUGLAS, daughter from Anna’s second marriage, mezzo-soprano CLARA, Malvina’s maid, soprano OSVALDO, first among the Castle guards, tenor AN UFFICIALE OF CROMWELL bass

The gathered assembly celebrates the marriage about to take place between Malvina and Arturo (Chorus: ‘D’amistà le soavi catene’). Guglielmo, however, warns Osvaldo to remain alert, as Royalist rebels have been seen in the vicinity.

Arturo arrives and declares his love for Malvina (Cavatina: ‘Son del tuo volto immagine’).

Women and knights of the Murray and Ruthven families, exiles, castle guards, archers

A large room in Malvina’s apartments; on the right a door that leads into internal rooms; on the other side an entrance that leads to a corridor.

THE STORY The events take place in a castle near Edinburgh and in its surroundings. The epoch is in the second half of the seventeenth century, during the rule of Oliver Cromwell. Some time before the action begins, Malvina Douglas was married to Giorgio Argyll (a supporter of the Royalist cause); but he was caught up in a shipwreck and is believed dead. Malvina’s mother, Anna, and Anna’s son by an earlier marriage, Guglielmo Ruthven (a supporter of Cromwell), then urge her to marry Arturo Murray (also a Cromwellian). The action opens on the day of Malvina’s and Arturo’s planned wedding.

The scene opens with a discussion between Clara, a former servant of Giorgio, now Malvina’s maid, and Odoardo, Malvina’s younger brother, who has hastened back from London on news of her impeding wedding. Malvina enters and describes to Odoardo the shipwreck in which Giorgio and their royalist father perished, and then tells of her mother’s and Guglielmo’s plans to marry her to the Cromwellian Arturo. Her first thought had been to poison herself, but meetings with Arturo gradually blossomed into mutual love. She is, though, torn by guilt at the thought of her former husband. Odoardo tries to comfort her (Duet: ‘Il mar fremente’). Women appear and lead Malvina to her wedding.

Giorgio arrives, ushered in by Osvaldo. Giorgio asks to see Clara but refuses to give his name.

Osvaldo departs, his suspicions aroused. Giorgio rejoices in anticipation of seeing his beloved Malvina (Romanza: ‘L’aura ch’io spiro’), feeling sure that, after his travails, none of the other guests will recognise him. Malvina arrives and immediately screams in horror, overcome at meeting Giorgio face to face. Hearing others approach and fearing for his safety, she ushers him into her rooms.

The assembled company arrives, Osvaldo whispering to Guglielmo that the castle’s unknown guest must now be in Malvina’s rooms. Malvina attempts to deny her evident agitation but halffaints into the arms of the surrounding women.

Everyone onstage explores their conflicting emotions – of despair (Malvina), perplexity (Odoardo, Arturo), suspicion (Guglielmo, Osvaldo) or concern (Anna, Clara) (Concertato: ‘Omai l’arcan terribile’).

Guglielmo and Osvaldo order armed men to search Malvina’s rooms, but Odoardo places himself before the door. Swords are drawn, but suddenly Giorgio appears. He does not reveal his identity, but says that they can know the truth about him from the widow of Giorgio Argyll.

Guglielmo orders the stranger taken prisoner, Giorgio resists but eventually gives his sword to Odoardo, inviting his opponents to kill him and place his head before the bridal couple. The act ends in an ensemble of general confusion (‘Il cor ne avvampa’).

ACT TWO A room in the apartments assigned to Arturo, who is sitting at a table on which lies a paper with writing on it.

Osvaldo tells Arturo that Guglielmo has gone to Edinburgh to marshal troops who will escort the stranger there. After Osvaldo leaves, Arturo reads a letter he has received from Malvina, asking him to help the stranger, who she says is a friend of her deceased husband. Giorgio is shown in and, when they are alone, Arturo offers to release him; but Giorgio angrily refuses, also revealing that he was once loved by Malvina, a confession that tips the two men into open conflict (Duet: ‘Ah! perché rovente acciaro’). Arturo promises Giorgio a sword: at break of day they will fight a duel to the death.

Rugged cliffs, some of which lean out over the sea.

It is night, the moon is covered with clouds. From a cave whose entrance is hidden by thickets men emerge, wrapped up in cloaks: they are the exiles, Giorgio’s companions.

The exiles evoke the dark night and their wandering state (Chorus: ‘Ha steso la notte’). They hear bagpipes, first in the distance, then coming closer. Odoardo appears, saying he can help them rescue Giorgio. As proof of his good faith, he narrates to them how Giorgio saved his and Malvina’s father, rescuing him from Cromwellian executioners by pleading for his life (Aria: ‘Ah! del giorno sanguinoso’). The exiles agree to Odoardo’s rescue plan and depart for the castle.

Inside a tower: a balcony at the back, a door to the side.

Giorgio is asleep, dreaming uneasily of Malvina, as Odoardo and Malvina appear. Odoardo throws down a rope ladder from the balcony, warns Malvina that dawn is approaching, and departs.

Giorgio awakes and Malvina tells him that his companions are waiting for him. In a passionate duet (‘Stretto agli avanzi fragili’), Giorgio tells her of his desperate times after the shipwreck and of his pain at now seeing her; but when she says she will escape with him, he begs her to remain with her new partner rather than join him in a vagabond life. She refuses and moves to the balcony, but they are interrupted by Arturo, Guglielmo and his followers. Arturo accuses his fiancée of treachery but Giorgio defends her honour, saying that she was escaping with her husband. This revelation of his identity precipitates another grand ensemble (Concertato: ‘Come sol raggio l’onore di costei’). An officer then gives Arturo a letter from Cromwell, ceding to him the interrogation of the prisoner and, if he is found guilty, his execution.

Malvina, Odoardo and the chorus beg Arturo to show mercy; but both he and Giorgio continue implacably opposed.

ACT THREE A large room next to the tower, with a door at the back.

Giorgio is seated, Malvina is near the threshold as if waiting with the greatest impatience; two sentries patrol beyond the door.

Giorgio and Malvina are waiting for Arturo’s decision. Giorgio is eager for death, but Malvina makes him swear that he will elect to live if she demonstrates to him that all his fears about her future with Arturo are baseless. Odoardo enters, reporting that Arturo has sent for Giorgio. Giorgio exits with Odoardo.

Malvina, left alone, decides that she must kill herself, but is interrupted by Arturo, who announces that she is free to leave with Giorgio (Duet: ‘Vanne dunque… a te concedo’). Malvina rejects the offer, finally admitting that – in spite of Giorgio’s return – she continues to love Arturo. The latter is overjoyed, but Malvina tells him solemnly that they can only be united in heaven.

Malvina departs, and almost immediately Giorgio rushes on, having overheard the final part of their conversation. He again challenges Arturo, who tries to placate him but is finally goaded into accepting a duel to the death. They are about to rush off when Malvina staggers on, deathly pale.

She says she has taken poison and entreats them both to fulfil their vows to her. As she falls to the ground, Giorgio rushes to her and signals Arturo to depart. His final words are: ‘Spenta o viva è mia tuttor!’ (Dead or alive, she is mine forever!).

Synopsis © Roger Parker

Saverio Mercadante Il proscritto (1842) Melodramma tragico in three acts Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano Critical edition published by Opera Rara Edited by Roger Parker and Ian Schofield Distributed by Casa Ricordi Note from the conductor “When I found the autograph manuscript of Il proscritto in the Naples Conservatory archives, I was immediately struck by its musical qualities and originality. We at Opera Rara look through and discuss a huge amount of unknown music, and often we decide that “forgotten” operas have some frailty that makes them unlikely to communicate with today’s audiences. But it became immediately clear to me that Il proscritto was something different: here was a work that could have a powerful effect. What makes the opera so compelling for me is its melodic inventiveness, its fascinating orchestral textures and its unique vocal sound world. The impressive choral opening, with its off-stage band, and the two big concertati at the end of Acts 1 and 2, are among the grandest inspirations in Italian opera of this period; but there are also lyrical, intimate arias such as those of Arturo and Giorgio in Act 1; a marvellous series of confrontational duets; and intensely dramatic scenes such as the poignant death of Malvina at the end of the entire drama.

There is so much musical variety for audiences to enjoy. I feel sure that, in this first ever performance for nearly 200 years, Mercadante’s opera will offer the public a fascinating and dramatically involving evening of music.”

Carlo Rizzi

(1795-1870)

Mercadante and Il proscritto: from bel canto to Reform Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), certainly the most successful nineteenth-century Italian opera composer outside the “big four” (Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi), had a chequered career. Born illegitimate (his noble father and domestic servant mother might themselves have peopled an operatic plot), he managed to gain an education at the Naples conservatory and around 1820 transitioned to an operatic career, inevitably as a follower of Rossini. His greatest earlier success was with the comic opera Elisa e Claudio, whose triumph at Milan’s La Scala in 1821 led to many new commissions. International achievement seemed assured when the Neapolitan impresario Domenico Barbaja engaged him to feature in a season at Vienna’s Kärtnerthortheater in 1824. But that went badly (the Rossini-obsessed Viennese were as yet unwilling to contemplate an Italian successor) and by the time Mercadante returned to Naples a rival composer, Giovanni Pacini, had established himself there. And so the rollercoaster went on. Successful stints in the Iberian peninsula again raised his stakes, and in 1833 he was appointed maestro di cappella at Novara Cathedral, a position that, while it clearly required the production of religious music, also allowed him periodic leave to continue his operatic career.

A further watershed moment occurred in 1836: Rossini, by then retired and eminence grise of the Théâtre Italien in Paris, arranged for him to give a premiere in that most prestigious of theatres (as had Bellini and Donizetti in the previous year). But the impact of the opera he produced, I briganti, was only modest.

The major consequence of Mercadante’s Parisian trip came from his attendance at one of the most influential premieres of the entire nineteenth century, that of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. In the wake of that experience, Mercadante returned home determined to reform Italian opera along the lines of Meyerbeer’s spectacular brand of grand opéra. His very next work, Il giuramento (first performed to great acclaim at La Scala Milan in 1837), was meant to be the spearhead, and in a letter to his Neapolitan friend Francesco Florimo, he laid out an ambitious manifesto:

expense of melodic fluency and even dramatic cohesion. Although on occasions much-praised, the “reform” operas did not take decisive root, the old, singer-centred way of doing things remaining stubbornly in place. In 1840, at another watershed, Mercadante was appointed director of the Naples Conservatory (a position that Donizetti had long lobbied for) and began to devote increasing time and energy to the composition of instrumental music. He toyed with the idea of giving up operatic composition entirely, but eventually returned to composing for the stage, although at a much slower rate.

“With Il giuramento [I have] varied the forms, abolished trivial cabalettas, exiled the crescendos; concision, less repetition, some novelty in the cadences; due regard paid to the dramatic side; the orchestration richer, without swamping the voices; long solos in the ensemble numbers avoided, as they obliged the other parts to stands coldly by, to the detriment of the dramatic action; not much bass drum and cymbals, and very little banda [stage band].”

Il proscritto, first performed at Naples’ Teatro San Carlo on 4 January 1842, was the first opera to emerge in this new phase of Mercadante’s life. It augured well, not least because of a fine libretto

by Salvadore Cammarano, based (as was usual at the time) on a recent French mélodrame. At the centre of the drama is a classic love triangle, set in the “exotic” location of Scotland during the rule of Oliver Cromwell. The tortured heroine Malvina is torn between two political opponents: Giorgio, her first husband and a passionate royalist, is believed dead at sea; Arturo, now her betrothed, is – of course – a convinced Cromwellian. The fourth principal is a so-called “trouser role”, Malvina’s younger brother Odoardo. The cast chosen to impersonate these warring characters was indeed stellar. Malvina was sung by mezzo soprano Antonietta Ranieri Marini, who had in the preceding years been the female lead in Verdi’s first two operas. Giorgio was baritonal tenor Giovanni Basadonna, who some years earlier had created the title role in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux; Arturo was another tenor, Gaetano Fraschini, then near the start of an important career that would see him develop into an

The proclaimed distance from the Donizettian/ Bellinian norm of the 1830s was clear and provocative, and in the three years following Il giuramento, Mercadante produced a series of further “reform” operas: Elena da Feltre, Il bravo and La vestale. All of them were well-received, and some commentators in the wider European musical community saw them as marking a new seriousness of purpose in a genre that was otherwise dangerously popular. But, even at the time, critics in Italy often thought there was a price to pay for the “reform” agenda: they claimed that the operas’ exploration of harmonic and orchestral complexity sometimes came at the

imposing tenore di forza (he created the title role in Verdi’s Stiffelio and was the first Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera). The fourth principal was Eloisa Buccini, a prima donna contralto who plied her trade in many distinguished opera houses during this period.

Alas, and in spite of such persuasive interpreters, all reviewers agreed that the première didn’t go well: the first act was applauded, but the other two were received with indifference. One long review in the journal Teatri, arti e letteratura is unequivocal about the reason: it was that the music “imitates the Germans, who care about instruments rather than voices”. Warming to the polemic, the critic continued: “the theatre is not a cathedral in which one preaches the rules of counterpoint”. At subsequent performances, however, there were distinct signs of a public turn-around, perhaps as the opera’s unusual musical idioms became more familiar. Certainly the Naples correspondent of the Revue et gazette musicale reported public acclaim gradually emerging and boldly stated that “everything suggests a long and glorious future for this work”. He could not have been further from the mark. Perhaps in part because of the highly unusual vocal line-up (two tenors, a mezzo and a contralto) the opera was never revived, either in Naples or elsewhere.

What are we to make of Il proscritto as it emerges after nearly 200 years of complete obscurity? One point needs stressing immediately. The fact that the opera was not revived is not at all unusual and should not be granted undue significance: this fate, after all, befell the majority of operas in early nineteenth-century Italy. In a cultural economy in which (a little like today’s cinema) the greatest interest was always attached to new creations,

works especially written for the occasion, many operas had to be cast aside to make room for the constant influx of the new. On the other hand, it is clear from the reviews and reports of the public response that Mercadante’s idiom was unusual and considered somewhat “difficult”. Worst of all, perhaps, at a time when the great Neapolitan school of opera was in evident decline, the composer was accused in this opera of betraying his homeland and seeking to emulate “northern” influences. Why this accusation was particularly attached to Il proscritto remains a mystery, but – whatever the case – we are dealing with distinctly local concerns; the Neapolitan judgements of 1842 are hardly likely to impinge much on us, 200 years later, with the history of all that has occurred operatically since then wringing in our ears. We must try to think afresh.

In this context, what is immediately striking and paradoxical is that, in some senses at least, Mercadante’s new opera rowed back on his “reform” agenda of the previous decade. For example, the solo numbers (notably for Arturo and Giorgio in the first act) are full of lyric inspiration, and while they do indeed have some ear-catching harmonic and orchestral diversions, these serve to support rather than undermine the melodic outpouring. What’s more, and contrary to Mercadante’s manifesto quoted earlier, the opera has its fair share of exuberant cabalettas, starts with a prominent racket from the banda and is (when the mood demands it) liberal with the bass drum and cymbals. However, it is also true that one of the great glories of the score is its sequence of duets, and here the “reform” agenda is more visible. A partial exception is the Act 1 duet between Malvina and Odoardo, whose slow movement (an Andante sostenuto) is a

wonderful addition to the tradition of two-women duets that grace the Italian nineteenth century.

But in Acts 2 and 3 (that is, in the acts that froze the audience into disapproval on first night) there are three scenes of angry confrontation, between Malvina and each of her two lovers, and between the lovers themselves. And here, although one can sometimes trace shards of the conventional series of “movements” that most duets shared in the period, Mercadante’s typical procedure was to explore a more dynamic conception of musical drama, in which fluidity of emotional response and declamatory outbursts are brought to the fore.

There is so much more to say about this remarkable opera. About how its unusual blend of lead singers, its two warring tenors and its concentration on the lower reaches of the female voice, is matched by a consistent preference for “dark” tonalities (as far as D flat minor in the second finale). About the sheer daring of some of the harmonic excursions: listen out for deft harmonic touches in many orchestral passages, in one case even a lingering on the Tristan chord; or the extraordinarily atmospheric orchestral opening of the Malvina-Giorgio duet in Act 2, which illustrates Giorgio’s troubled sleep. About the continual inventiveness of Mercadante’s Perhaps even more radical, though, are the opera’s “bridge” passages between lyrical sections, three finales. These act-ending moments were which never lapse into routine and often present those in which Italian composers of the period a level of musical originality entirely unusual in displayed their “science”: their ability to blend such circumstances. Above all, perhaps, about voices and themes skilfully, and to undertake long, the manner in which the music responds to complex harmonic unfolding. Typically, though, this the unusual psychological complexity of the “science” would be tempered by the delights of principal characters. Malvina, Giorgio and Arturo solo song, one of the principal characters initiating all begin the opera in what we might call classic the whole adventure with a winning melody (the melodramatic situations; but in each case their Duca di Mantova’s “Bella figlia dell’amore” from beliefs are called into question, causing strange Act 3 of Verdi’s Rigoletto is a classic case). In the reversals and creating situations in which they first two finales of Il proscritto, Mercadante stuck show a psychological depth which is rare indeed to his “reform” by banning any lengthy indulgence in this operatic period. Mercadante responds to an individual singer: each finale begins with magnificently to the challenge of this complexity, the choral ensemble, the first with fragmented, in particular through his ability to sustain shocked utterances, the second with a dark, prolonged moments of free-form declamation in brooding unison theme; and each rises to great which the emotional attitudes of the characters heights of communal emotion in climaxes as are in flux. The result is an opera which, although grand as any created by his more famous Italian it disappeared from view almost immediately after contemporaries. And then the final act’s ending is it was created, can nevertheless communicate utterly different: much like Verdi’s Nabucco, which powerfully to a contemporary audience, perhaps was premiered in Milan only a couple of months even causing a rethink of the historical landscape later, the opera ends with the fractured voice of a that produced so much of our staple operatic dying woman, in this case punctuated only by the repertoire. distraught cries and melodramatic excesses of her two lovers: it was a bold decision after all the © Roger Parker choral magnificence, but one that surely makes dramatic sense in the larger context.

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Carlo Rizzi Carlo Rizzi enjoys a long-standing reputation as one of the world's foremost operatic conductors, in demand as a guest artist at the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals. Equally at home in the opera house and the concert hall, his vast repertoire spans everything from the foundation works of the operatic and symphonic canon to rarities by Bellini, Cimarosa and Donizetti to Giordano, Pizzetti and Montemezzi. Combining a deep expertise in the vocal art with theatrical flair and the practical collaborative skills honed over decades of experience in the world's finest theatres, he is acclaimed by singers and audiences alike as a master of the operatic craft.

Born in Milan, Rizzi studied at the city’s conservatoire, and following his graduation was employed as a repetiteur at the legendary Teatro alla Scala. He launched his conducting career in 1982 with a production of Donizetti’s L’ajo nell’imbarazzo, and has now performed over a hundred operas, with a broad repertoire that is rich in Italian works in addition to the major titles of Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, Britten, Mussorgsky, Martinů and Janáček.

In September 2019 he was appointed Music Director of Opera Rara, the UK-based company devoted to resurrecting and returning to the repertoire undiscovered and undervalued works from opera’s celebrated and neglected composers. In 2022 they undertake a new recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto, and future seasons will see performances and recordings of rarities by Offenbach, Donizetti and Verdi. Since 2015, Rizzi has been Conductor Laureate of the Welsh National Opera, following his tenure as Music Director (1992-2001 and 2004-8) during which he was widely credited with overseeing a dramatic increase in the company’s artistic

standards and international profile. He also has held long-standing relationships with the Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and his career has seen him leading numerous productions at the most distinguished operatic addresses including the Opera National de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, the Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro, the Netherlands Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New National Theatre Tokyo, Opernhaus Zürich, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Brussels.

Rizzi’s recent highlights include opening the Canadian Opera Company’s 19/20 season with a new production of Turandot, his debut with the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Firenze, in performances of Un Ballo in Maschera and La Traviata, his debut at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia for La Cenerentola, new productions of Les vêpres siciliennes for Welsh National Opera and Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini for Deutsche Oper Berlin, and his debut at the Norwegian Opera in Oslo in a new production of Rigoletto. In the 21/22 season he opened the Welsh National Opera season with a production of Madama Butterfly, conducted symphonic concerts with the Manchester Hallé and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and returned to the Metropolitan Opera with productions of Tosca and La Bohème; and to the Bayerische Staatsoper with productions of Tosca and Macbeth.

Rizzi will open the new season at the Metropolitan Opera conducting a new production of Cherubini's Médée this Autumn.

Ramón Vargas

Iván Ayón-Rivas

One of the most sought-after tenors worldwide, Ramón Vargas was born in Mexico City. In 1982 he made his debut in Haydn's Lo Speziale, in Monterrey, Mexico. His breakthrough came in 1983, when the Mexican conductor Eduardo Mata hired him to sing Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff, and then Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Upon winning the Enrico Caruso Tenor Competition in Milan in 1986, he moved to Austria where he completed his vocal studies at the school of the Wiener Staatsoper under the guidance of Leo Müller, then in Milan with the renowned vocal coach Rodolfo Celletti.

Iván was born in 1993 in Perù. He has studied opera under the tutelage of María Eloisa Aguirre, Juan Diego Florez, Ernesto Palacio, Vincenzo Scalera, Maurizio Colaccichi and Luigi Alva. He is currently studying in Italy with baritone Roberto Servile.

Ramón Vargas’ international debut took place in 1992, when the New York Metropolitan Opera asked him to sing Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor opposite June Anderson, substituting Luciano Pavarotti. This was soon followed by a debut on the stage of La Scala, in 1993, where he sung Fenton in Strehler's new production celebrating the centenary of Falstaff, conducted by Riccardo Muti. He regularly performs at all the world leading opera houses, such as Royal Opera House London, Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra National de Paris, Liceu de Barcelona and many others.

He was awarded the Lauri Volpi Award for the Best Opera Singer of the 1993 Italian season, and in 2000, British Opera Now declared Ramón Vargas Artist of the Year.

Recent performances include Luisa Miller at Staatsoper Hamburg, Don Carlo at Vienna State Opera, La Gioconda at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Roberto Devereux at Los Angeles Opera, and Les contes d’Hoffman at Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires. This is his debut with Opera Rara.

In 2013 he won the second prize at the Peruvian National competition for Opera Singers, and in 2014 he sang in many solo recitals in Perù. In November 2015 he won the third edition of the Concorso Internazionale di Canto “Premio Etta Limiti”. He sang in Mercadante’s Francesca Rimini at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca conducted by Fabio Luisi, where he came back the following year in Un giorno di regno.

Among his recent and future engagements: La Traviata in Venice, Rimini, Florence, Rome, Falstaff in Turin, L’Arlesiana in Berlin, Il Corsaro in Piacenza, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Rome, and at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, L’elisir d’amore in Las Palmas and Bari, Rigoletto in Florence under the baton of Fabio Luisi, in Turin and in Palermo directed by John Turturro, in Rome under Daniele Gatti, in Venice, Tokyo and in Liège, L’elisir d’amore in Bari and Las Palmas, Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi at the Liceu in Barcelona, Eugene Onegin at the Wiener Staatsoper, Faust in Venice, Les contes d’Hoffmann in Sydney and his debut with Macbeth at La Scala.

He won First Prize, the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela and the Rolex Prize of the Audience at the Operalia Competition 2021. This is his debut with Opera Rara.

Iván Ayón Rivas’s performance in Mercadante’s Il proscritto is generously supported by Islée Oliva Salinas.

Irene Roberts

Elizabeth DeShong

American mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts continues to enjoy international acclaim as a singer of exceptional versatility and vocal suppleness. A resident artist with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Roberts’ many roles this season include the title in Carmen, Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Fenena in Nabucco, and Dulcinée in Don Quichotte. She recently made her debut at Teatro La Fenice in the role of Amneris in Aida and at the Macerata Opera Festival as the title role in Carmen.

Opera News wrote of Elizabeth DeShong's performance as Sesto in the Los Angeles Opera's production of La Clemenza di Tito: "Elizabeth DeShong took pride of place as Sesto. DeShong sang with the range, expressiveness and musical precision that captured the hysterical extremes of her character. Much of Sesto’s music lies in the cellars of DeShong’s mezzo-soprano, where the intensely deep contralto tones she commands contrasted startlingly with the dazzling coloratura runs at the top of her range.”

Roberts has a close relationship with the San Francisco Opera where she made her debut in Les contes d’Hoffmann in 2013. She has since returned as the title role in Calixto Bieto’s US debut production of Carmen, and in the world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber. Recent engagements have included Le nozze di Figaro and Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Les contes d’Hoffmann, and Ariadne auf Naxos at Palm Beach Opera, L’Italiana in Algeri with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Marschner’s Der Vampyr at New Orleans Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia with Atlanta Opera, and Gounod’s Faust with Lyric Opera Baltimore.

DeShong initially trained as a pianist and subsequently studied singing at Oberlin College.

She has sung several roles for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, including Arsace (Semiramide), Wardrobe Mistress/Schoolboy/Page (Lulu), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Enchanted Island) and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly). Her other appearances include Fenena (Nabucco) and Adalgisa (Norma) for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Angelina (La Cenerentola), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Suzuki for Glyndebourne Festival, Ruggiero (Alcina) for Washington National Opera, Arsace in Bordeaux, Suzuki for Bavarian State Opera, Angelina for Wiener Staatsoper, Calbo (Maometto II) for Canadian Opera Company, Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel) for Edinburgh Festival, and Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) for Los Angeles Opera. In 2010 she received Washington National Opera’s Young Artist of the Year Award for performances as the Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos).

Among recent and future engagements: Carmen, Nabucco, Madama Butterfly and Tristan und Isolde in Berlin, Julie in Opéra nationale Lorraine, Così fan tutte in San Francisco, Parsifal in Hannover, and Tannhäuser in Klagenfurt and Lyon. This is her debut with Opera Rara.

Irene Roberts’ performance in Mercadante’s Il proscritto is generously supported by Michael Buckley.

DeShong has sung with major US and European orchestras in concert, in repertory including Adam’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Elgar’s The Kingdom, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony, Handel’s Messiah and Verdi’s Requiem.

This is her debut with Opera Rara.

Sally Matthews

Goderdzi Janelidze

Sally Matthews was the winner of the 1999 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and went on to become a member of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Young Artist Programme.

Georgian bass Goderdzi Janelidze is the winner of the First Prize at the 2017 Elena Obraztsova International Competition, the Main Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 International Fyodor Chalyapin competition and the First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 International RimskySally has appeared on many other great opera Korsakov Competition. He was previously a stages, including La Monnaie, Brussels, Dutch member of the ensemble at the Bolshoi Theatre National Opera, Theater an der Wien, the of Moscow, where his roles included Monk in Don Bayerischer Staatsoper and Glyndebourne Festival Carlo, Colline in La bohème, and Brander in La Opera in roles including Norma; Madeleine damnation de Faust.

Capriccio, Daphne and Marschallin; Jenufa, Rusalka and Tatyana; Eugene Onegin, Donna Anna In the 2021-22 season he makes his house in Don Giovanni, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus debuts at Opéra national de Paris (Sparafucile dem Serail and Countess in Le nozze di Figaro as in Rigoletto) and the Royal Opera House Covent well as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes.

Garden (Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila).

She sings regularly with orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony with conductors Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Robin Ticciati, François-Xavier Roth and Mikko Franck, in works which include Mahler Symphonies Nos 2, 4 and 8, Strauss Vier letzte Lieder, Schumann Paradies und die Peri, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Mendelssohn Lobgesang and Berg Seven Early Songs. She also appears regularly at the BBC Proms.

She has appeared in recital with pianist Simon Lepper in venues including Wigmore Hall, La Monnaie, Brussels, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and New York’s Carnegie Hall. This is her debut with Opera Rara.

Recent highlights include Colline in La bohème (his house debut at Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona); Vodnik in Rusalka (Vlaanderen Opera); title role in Don Quichotte (Wexford Festival Opera); Tom in Un ballo in maschera (Teatro Real, Madrid); Sparafucile in Rigoletto (Bregenzer Festspiele, Canadian Opera Company, Teatro Colòn); Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin (Vancouver Opera); Konchak in Prince Igor (Bolshoi Theatre); Verdi’s Requiem (Teatro Colòn, Berlin Cathedral); and Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Creon in Cherubini’s Medea (Al Bustan Festival, Lebanon). This is his debut with Opera Rara.

Susana Gaspar

Alessandro Fisher

Portuguese soprano Susana Gaspar’s recent engagements include Vitellia in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, 1st Nymph in Dvorak’s Rusalka, and La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho, for Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. Also Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata for Nevill Holt Opera, Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for Diva Opera, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust for Valladolid Opera, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 conducted by Bruno Borralhinho in concerts in Madrid and Galizia, a recording of Portuguese songs by Fernando Lopes-Graça with Nuno Vieira de Almeida, and soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Hastings Philharmonic.

Awarded a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Associate Artist of The Mozartists and a former member of the BBC’s New Generation Artists Scheme, Alessandro Fisher won First Prize at the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar at Clare College, furthering his studies at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Susana was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme 2011-13 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, singing Barbarina in Le nozze di Fìgaro, Contessa Ceprano in Rigoletto, Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, First Innocent Minotaur, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Voce dal Cielo in Don Carlo and Aurore in Le Portrait de Manon (Meet the Young Artists Week).

Susana represented Portugal in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World finals.

Recordings include Portugal Matinas do Natal for Paraty, Fanny Mendelssohn's songs with Malcolm Martineau, opera arias and duets with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Renato Balsadonna, and Semiramide, Le portrait de Manon and Les nuits d’été for Opera Rara.

He made his Salzburg Festival debut as Lucano in L’Incoronazione di Poppea and his operatic engagements have further included Delmiro / Alindo in Hipermestra for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Fabio in Berenice for the Royal Opera, London, the title role in Dardanus for English Touring Opera and Fenton in Falstaff for The Grange Festival.

His recordings include L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Les Arts Florissants on Harmonia Mundi, Bastien und Bastienne with The Mozartists on Signum and Roussel’s Évocations with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos.

Engagements in 2021/2022 include the Bach's Mass in B Minor with the New London Orchestra, Mendelssohn's Elias at the Badisches Staatstheater Klagenfurt, Monteverdi's Vesperae della beate Vergine with La Nuova Musica at London’s Wigmore Hall, Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 3 and On Wenlock Edge with the BBC Philharmonic, First Brother in The Seven Deadly Sins on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (London, Cologne, Essen) and a New Generation Artist Recital at Stoller Hall. This is his debut with Opera Rara.

Niall Anderson

Opera Rara

Originally from Fife, Niall Anderson has recently graduated from the Académie at the Opéra National de Paris. He began his vocal studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Glenville Hargreaves and Jonathan Papp.

Opera Rara’s mission is to restore, record, perform and promote the lost operatic heritage of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

He was a soloist in the RAM/Kohn Bach Cantata Series, performing with the Song Circle on numerous occasions and winning the 2019 Pavarotti Prize. His roles have included Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, Somnus in Semele, Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen, Le Philosphe in Chérubin, Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas and Bertrand in Iolanta.

A keen performer of new music, he has premiered works by Thomas Lavoy and was Soloist in the Welsh première of Paul Mealor’s Symphony No.1, Passiontide. His concert engagements have further included performances at Salisbury Cathedral, Wells Cathedral and London’s Wigmore Hall, his repertoire including Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Requiem and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle.

Engagements during 2021/2022 include Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production of Bernstein’s A quiet place at the Palais Garnier, to be conducted

by Kent Nagano, as well as Ballades du Nord, Classiques Américains and Concert de fêtes at the Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen – Opera Bastille. Engagements in 2022 / 2023 currently include Second Priest / Second Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte for the Opéra national de Paris and Allazim in Zaide for Angers Nantes Opera.

This is his debut with Opera Rara.

Opera Rara is a unique combination of opera company, recording label and live operatic archaeologist. We search for neglected operatic masterpieces and restore them to life for contemporary audiences to enjoy. Working with the best singers, conductors, orchestras and musicologists, we are at the cutting edge of the opera world, leading the expansion of the repertoire and encouraging other opera companies to explore new and unknown operatic jewels.

2020 marked Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary, halfa-century of ground-breaking work. Our artistic success has been publicly recognised through major awards, notably at the International Opera Awards (Best Opera Recording) for Rossini’s Semiramide (2019), Donizetti’s Les Martyrs (2016) and Offenbach’s Fantasio (2015); International Classical Music Award for Semiramide (Best Opera, 2019) and for Ermonela Jaho’s debut recital album Anima Rara (Best Vocal Music Recording, 2021); Opus Klassik (Best Recording) for Semiramide (2019) and at the OPER! Awards (Best Recording) for Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida (2019).

The Opera Rara catalogue comprises over 100 titles, including 60 complete opera recordings.

Our work has led to a fundamental revaluation of the reputation of Donizetti, Pacini, Offenbach and Mercadante, changing the way in which these composers are perceived internationally.

Following our world premiere concerts in July 2018, Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida received its first

professional staging in Bergamo in November 2019 and Offenbach’s Fantasio has received several stagings throughout Europe since our recording in 2015, including at the Garsington Festival. Opera Rara’s latest studio recording, Donizetti’s Il Paria, with Albina Shagimuratova, René Barbera and Britten Sinfonia conducted by Sir Mark Elder, was released in January 2021 to wide critical acclaim.

Following Sir Mark Elder’s departure as Artistic Director, after a remarkable seven-year period in which the company’s artistic reputation worldwide was extraordinarily high, internationally acknowledged 19th-century opera specialist Carlo Rizzi was appointed his successor in 2019. Future plans include a studio recording of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde, conducted by Paul Daniel, which will be performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in September, and the release of Rizzi's recording of Leoncavallo's Zingari, his first recording as Opera Rara’s Artistic Director, and his world premiere recording of Mercadante’s Il proscritto.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Carlo Rizzi CHIEF EXECUTIVE Henry Little BOARD OF DIRECTORS Charles Alexander CBE, Chairman Glenn Hurstfield Adolfo Laurenti Simon Mortimore QC Alison Nicol Islée Oliva Salinas Terence Sinclair Nicholas Thomas Louis Watt ARTISTIC PATRON Renée Fleming LABEL & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Aurelie Baujean FINANCE DIRECTOR Irene Cook DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Zachary Vanderburg CONSULTANTS Kirstin Peltonen, Development Consultant Jesús Iglesias Noriega, Casting Consultant Macbeth Media Relations, Press and PR Roger Parker, Repertoire Consultant INSTAGRAM opera.rara FACEBOOK OperaRaraOfficial TWITTER operarara info@opera-rara.com www.opera-rara.com

Opera Rara is a registered charity, no 261403 Company Limited by Guarantee, no 982535

Thank you Opera Rara’s projects are only made possible by the generosity of our supporters, who believe in our mission to restore, record, perform and promote the forgotten operatic heritage of the 19th and early 20th centuries. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those individuals and foundations who have made a gift to our Annual Fund*. Their continued support is vital.

GUARDIAN SOCIETY Carlo Grosso Stefan Olsson and John Tierney CIRCLE MEMBERS Charles Alexander CBE Michael Hartnall Islée Oliva Salinas and Michael Buckley Carlo Rizzi and Lucy Stout Sir Simon and Lady Virginia Robertson PATRONS David Bernstein Roger Bramble Sir Anthony Cleaver Marco Compagnoni Timothy Congdon Eleanor Cranmer and Nick Thomas Jeff and Emily Fergus Hamish Forsyth Edward Gasson Allan Heinberg Malcolm Herring Glenn Hurstfield Alan Jackson Adolfo Laurenti and Juliet Petrus Hal Lindberg David McCue Chris and Dominique Moore Simon Mortimore QC Alison Nicol Peter Rosenthal Imogen Rumbold Terence and Sian Sinclair Martin and Patricia Spiro Gerry Wakelin and Ivor Samuels Mark Walker Louis Watt

FRIENDS Claus Ambos Sir David Bean David Buchler Barry Buttifant Marian Gilbart Read David Grant Robert Gray Yvonne Horsfall-Turner Sarah and Christopher Knight Christopher Leslie Michele Leuenberger Margaret and Oscar Lewisohn Hal Lindberg Sir Timothy Lloyd Bruce and Sara Mauleverer Lady Carolyn Newbigging John Nickson Lady Jane Rayne Christopher and Lucie Sims Zachary Vanderburg and Felipe Ramos Barajas Richard Anwyl Williams And our many Contributor and Member Friends *The Annual Fund list is comprised of donors who gave at the Connoisseur level or higher from November 2020 to May 2022

LIFETIME GUARDIANS Opera Rara is particularly grateful to those individuals and organisations who have been exceedingly generous and have been guardians of our work since 1970.

Charles Alexander CBE Arts Council England Foyle Foundation Carlo Grosso Michael Hartnall Glenn Hurstfield The Monument Trust Sir Peter Moores and the Peter Moores Foundation Stefan Olsson & John Tierney Sir Simon and Lady Virginia Robertson

A full list of Opera Rara’s current Annual Fund supporters can be found at: opera-rara.com/our-supporters TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS Foyle Foundation John Ellerman Foundation

Anoushka Shankar and Britten Sinfonia Superstar sitar player Anoushka Shankar performs dazzling arrangements of her own music with Britten Sinfonia, percussionist Manu Delago and conductor Jules Buckley.

Barbican

Sat 15 Oct

St Giles Cripplegate

Sat 15 Oct

Barbican

Mon 12 Dec

Magnum Opus showcase Britten Sinfonia’s year-long composer development programme, Magnum Opus, comes to a climax with the premieres of new chamber concertos by Aileen Sweeney, Jonathan Brigg and Nathan James Dearden.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio Britten Sinfonia, Polyphony Soloists and Stephen Layton come together for a performance of Bach’s joyous Christmas masterwork.

Find out more and book tickets at brittensinfonia.com

Britten Sinfonia In 1992, Britten Sinfonia was established as a bold reimagining of the conventional image of an orchestra. A flexible ensemble comprising the UK’s leading soloists and chamber musicians came together with a unique vision: to collapse the boundaries between old and new music, to collaborate with composers, conductors and guest artists across the arts, focussing on the musicians rather than following the vision of a principal conductor; and to create involving, intelligent music events that both audiences and performers experience with an unusual intensity.

The orchestra is named after Benjamin Britten, in part a homage to its chosen home of the East of England, where Britten’s roots were also strong.

But Britten Sinfonia also embodies its namesake’s ethos. Its projects are illuminating and distinctive; characterised by their rich diversity of influences and artistic collaborators; and always underpinned by a commitment to uncompromising quality, whether the orchestra is performing in New York’s Lincoln Center or in Lincolnshire’s Crowland Abbey. Britten Sinfonia musicians are deeply rooted in the communities they work with, with an underlying philosophy of finding ways to reach even the most excluded individuals and groups.

Today Britten Sinfonia is heralded as one of the world’s leading ensembles and its philosophy of adventure and reinvention has inspired a new movement of emerging chamber groups. It is an Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican, Resident Orchestra at Saffron Hall in Essex and has a regular season in Norwich. It performs regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall and at major UK festivals including the Aldeburgh, Brighton, Norfolk and Norwich Festivals and the BBC Proms. The orchestra has performed

ONLINE Join us outside the concert hall to share your thoughts on the performance and stay up to date with the latest Britten Sinfonia news. For videos, podcasts, recordings, news stories and links to our blog visit brittensinfonia.com or follow our social media pages.

a live broadcast to more than a million people worldwide from the Sistine Chapel, and toured to the US, Asia and much of Europe. It is a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast Partner and has an impressively broad discography on labels such as Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi and Signum – from Handel’s Messiah with Stephen Layton and the complete Beethoven symphonies with Thomas Adès to Vaughan Williams, Britten and MacMillan.

Recent and current collaborators include Keaton Henson, Abel Selaocoe, Anoushka Shankar and Alison Balsom. Britten Sinfonia has been involved in over 200 commissions and world premieres, most recently working with composers such as Thomas Adès, Gerald Barry, Shiva Feshareki, Emily Howard, Brad Mehldau, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Dani Howard, Alissa Firsova and Tansy Davies. The orchestra was a commissioning partner in a ground-breaking partnership between minimalist composer Steve Reich and visual artist Gerhard Richter in a new work that was premiered in October 2019.

Outside the concert hall, Britten Sinfonia musicians work on creative and therapeutic projects with pre-school children, teenagers, young carers, people living with dementia, life-time prisoners and older people at risk of isolation. The orchestra has two talent development schemes for composers: Opus 1, for composers near the start of their compostion journey and Magnum Opus, for composers who have achieved some success and are looking for more support to take the next step in their career.

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FIRST VIOLINS Thomas Gould Leader Supported by Charles Rawlinson MBE & Jill Rawlinson Jacqueline Shave Leader Supported by Richard Plaskett Marcus Barcham Stevens Co-Leader Supported by Barry & Ann Scrutton Róisín Walters Clara Biss Ruth Ehrlich Supported by Janis Susskind OBE Martin Gwilym-Jones Beatrix Lovejoy Fiona McCapra Katherine Shave Supported by Penelope Robson

FLUTES Emer McDonough Supported by Delia Broke Thomas Hancox Supported by Richard Plaskett Sarah O’Flynn

SECOND VIOLINS Miranda Dale Supported by an anonymous donor Nicola Goldscheider Supported by Andrew & Rosemary Tusa Alexandra Caldon Supported by Patrick Meehan Anna Bradley Marcus Broome Suzanne Loze Judith Stowe Supported by William & Judith Bollinger

BASSOONS Sarah Burnett Simon Couzens

VIOLAS Clare Finnimore Supported by Anna & Kamal Ahuja Sascha Bota Bridget Carey Supported by David Green Rachel Byrt CELLOS Caroline Dearnley Supported by Elizabeth Goodchild Ben Chappell Joy Hawley Supported by Elizabeth Goodchild Julia Vohralik Supported by anonymous donor DOUBLE BASSES Stephen Williams Supported by Dr & Mrs Jerome Booth Roger Linley Benjamin Russell

OBOES Nicholas Daniel Peter Facer Emma Feilding CLARINETS Joy Farrall Supported by Andrew & Jane Sutton Oliver Pashley Supported by Richard & Fiona Walford

HORNS Martin Owen Supported by Dame Mary Archer DBE Tom Rumsby Alex Wide TRUMPET Paul Archibald Supported by Lord Archer TIMPANI William Lockhart HARP Lucy Wakeford PIANO Huw Watkins HARPSICHORD Maggie Cole Supported by Roger Bamber BRITTEN SINFONIA VOICES DIRECTOR Eamonn Dougan Supported by an anonymous donor

MANAGEMENT Meurig Bowen CEO & Artistic Director Supported by Hamish & Sophie Forsyth James Calver Concerts Director Hannah Bates Orchestra Personnel Manager Hazel Shah Concerts & Tours Manager Rachel Wilkinson Creative Learning Manager Cheryl Davis Production Assistant Lauren Hill Production Assistant Elaine Rust Finance Manager Nick Brealey Development Director Shoël Stadlen Marketing Director Anna Kent Marketing Coordinator Alice Walton Special Projects Advisor Sophie Cohen National Press & PR Agent TRUSTEES Janis Susskind OBE Interim Chair Professor Helen Odell-Miller OBE Professor John Last OBE Sreeja Nedungadi Richard Plaskett Judith Serota OBE Rebecca Trumper DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Judith Serota OBE Chair Anna Gustafson Caroline Jarrold Patricia Morison Sreeja Nedungadi Barry Scrutton

Thank you Britten Sinfonia is proud to acknowledge the support of numerous individuals, trusts and foundations, corporate partners and public funders who enable us to play outstanding concerts to audiences across the UK and the rest of the world.

Everything we do – each and every concert, project, collaboration and partnership – benefits from the vision and generosity of all those listed and those who wish to remain anonymous.

For more information about giving to your orchestra, please contact the Development Team on 01223 558501 or email support@brittensinfonia.com

BENEFACTORS Rob Hammond & Charlotte Sankey Nicholas & Caroline Dixey Susan May Sue & Frank Paice Dr Peter Stephenson Thomas Ward GOLD FRIENDS Chris & Mary Ash Sarah Knights & Tony Barnett Susan Costello Sally & Michael Fowler Professor John Last Isobel Lee Diana Hiddleston Robert Burton Roger Rowe

PRINCIPAL FUNDER

PRINCIPAL SPONSOR

PUBLIC FUNDERS & PARTNERS Cambridgeshire Music Partnership Norfolk & Norwich Festival Bridge Norfolk Music Hub Peterborough Music Partnership SINFONIA CIRCLE Dr Claire Barlow & Professor Jim Woodhouse Barry & Ann Scrutton Dame Mary Archer DBE Hamish & Sophie Forsyth Dr & Mrs Jerome Booth Charles Rawlinson MBE & Jill Rawlinson

SILVER FRIENDS Sue & Tim Burton Sarah Garnier Mike Holley Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner John Robins & Patricia Morison Dave Plummer & Lesley Whitby Christine & Peter Wall S Bradfield Janet Brealey J Ceybird Dennis Davis Shirley Ellis Dr Anna Guy Maureen Hanke Richard Hopkin Susan Maddock Dr Colin Matthews Ruth Rattenbury Judith Rattenbury Dr Paul A Sackin Alan Sainer Richard Somerford Mary Anne Sutherland Kay Warbrick Merlin & Imogen Waterson Christine Webber Colin Willis Paddy Wilson Plus Bronze Friends and anonymous donors

TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS Britten Sinfonia is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner supported by PPL Mila Charitable Organisation Cockayne - Grants for the Arts The London Community Foundation The Patrick Rowland Foundation John S Cohen Foundation The Behrens Foundation The Paul Bassham Charitable Trust Hinrichsen Foundation