Opera Rara

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

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 rediscoveries.

2020 marked Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary: half a century of ground-breaking work. Our artistic success has been recognised through major awards 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).

Our catalogue comprises over 100 titles, including more than 60 complete opera recordings. Our work has led to a fundamental revaluation of the reputation of composers such as Donizetti, Pacini, Offenbach and Mercadante, changing the way in which these figures are perceived internationally. The most recent example is Opera Rara’s premiere recording of Mercadante’s opera Il proscritto, painstakingly restored from the original manuscript over two years, which was released worldwide in April 2023.

Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi was appointed in 2019. Since then he has recorded the original 1912 version of Leoncavallo’s Zingari as well as Il proscritto, whose discovery and restoration he championed. In 2022, marking Donizetti’s 225th birthday, we announced Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres as Artist Ambassadors, commemorating their long and acclaimed work with the company. Over the next three years, we will record and perform all of Donizetti’s solo songs, many of which have never been heard by modern audiences. Led by Rizzi, the project will see eight new recordings featuring renowned artists including Jaho and Spyres: in addition, concerts at Wigmore Hall, the first on 9 September 2023, will feature Lawrence Brownlee and Etienne Dupuis with Rizzi at the piano. Opera Rara’s next release will be the studio recording of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde conducted by Paul Daniel, in autumn 2023.