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Opera Rara present
DONIZETTI SONGS VOLS. 1&2 (ORR254&255)
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor | Nicola Alaimo, baritone | Carlo Rizzi, piano
RELEASE DATE: Friday 4 October, pre-order link here
ONLINE LAUNCH: Thursday 3 October, register here
ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT LINK: to audio files, PDF booklets with essays and more, access here and here
EXPLORE: Opera Rara’s Donizetti Song Project YouTube playlist here
On Friday 4 October, Opera Rara releases the first two volumes in its Donizetti Song Project recording cycle. Vol. 1 features 28 tenor songs performed by Lawrence Brownlee, and Vol. 2 features 26 baritone songs sung by Nicola Alaimo. Both artists are accompanied by Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi – nominated in the Best Conductor category at the 2024 International Opera Awards – who spearheaded the multi-year initiative upon hearing of the company’s Repertoire Consultant, Roger Parker’s lockdown project four years ago:
When I learned that Roger was preparing a new critical edition of the songs, I asked him to show me the scores and was immediately struck by the huge variety within the collection. Melodic beauty is there, of course, but the songs range from extreme simplicity to those that are complex and experimental. I immediately thought that recording them would be the perfect project for Opera Rara, not only to reveal more about a composer who has always been so important to us, but also because of the significant musical value and interest of the works.”
Over the course of two years, Parker’s detective work led him to track down Donizetti’s entire corpus of solo songs, nearly 200 in total, many of which have never been heard in modern times. This involved research in archives and collections worldwide, from Italy, France and the UK to Austria, Sweden and Australia. His new edition of the Donizetti solo songs, completed in collaboration with Ian Schofield, will be published by Casa Ricordi and made publicly available for the enjoyment of artists, scholars and audiences alike. The overall aim of the project is to continue to reshape the world’s view of Donizetti and embed these songs into the art song repertory, which has long been dominated by German and French composers.