Coming Soon, Four rarities from Opera Rara

I spent a rather lovely lunchtime over at English National Opera last week, attending the launch of Opera Rara's new recording of Offenbach's Fantasio (complete with live performances from its stars Brenda Rae and Sarah Connolly, both delightful advocates for a gorgeous but hitherto neglected work). There was also some intriguing news in the offing from the label's Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder, who revealed several forthcoming projects with Opera Rara (and managed to be wittier on the subject of French bel canto than I'd hitherto thought possible!): complete studio recordings of Leoncavallo's Zazà (a 1900 tale of a chanteuse and her lover, with a score heavily influenced by French music-hall) and Gounod's 1860 opéra comique La colombe, which has never had an outing in the studio until now.

First up, though, there's an imminent new recording of Donizetti's Les martyres (the French version of Poliuto, which by chance is also scheduled for next year's Glyndebourne Festival), made in studio ahead of next month's concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall and starring Michael Spyres and Joyce El-Khoury in the demanding roles of Polyeucte and Pauline.

Also in the pipeline is a recording of Donizetti's Le Duc d'Albe in its original, incomplete French incarnation (Donizetti finished only two acts of the score, which became popular in the mid-twentieth century in its Italian version, first in a completion by the composer's pupil Matteo Salvi and later in a reconstruction by the conductor Thomas Schippers). Casting-details for all three projects to follow!

Other recent recordings from Opera Rara