The rental material of the renowned music publisher Ut Orpheus Edizioni, founded and based in Bologna in 1993, will now be distributed worldwide by Alkor-Edition, with the exception of Italy. The attractive catalogue, dedicated primarily to early music, includes the complete editions of Francesco Geminiani, Luigi Boccherini (portrait) and Muzio Clementi. Of particular interest is the “Napoli e l‘Europa” series initiated by Riccardo Muti, featuring previously unpublished operas and oratorios of the Neapolitan School, including “I due Figaro” by Saverio Mercadante and “Demofoonte” by Niccoló Jommelli, A real gem is the Dramma per musica “Francesca da Rimini” by Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870), premiered in 2016 at the Festival della Valle d'Itria Martina Franca. It will be performed for the first time beyond the Alps in the current season as a co-production of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl and Oper Frankfurt, in Erl from 28 December 2022, in Frankfurt from 26 February 2023.

Cavalli's opera "Scipione Affricano" offers many possibilities for realisation on stage. In addition to the love plot, the opera also deals with the themes of freedom and slavery. The new edition which is part of the critical edition “Francesco Cavalli-Opere” offers opera houses a dependable basis.

The new edition of Antonín Dvořáks masterwork presents not a “new” Rusalka – conductors, performers, and audiences will find the same Czech masterpiece that has been enjoyed for over 100 years but the oprea in its definitive form, with all practical and musicological issues considered, well-documented, and clearly presented.

“La Jolie Fille de Perth” has been published by Fishergate Music as volume 3 of the series “Bizet's Other Operas”. The editor is Hugh Macdonald. Like “Carmen” and “Les Pêcheurs de perles”, the opera is full of brilliance and ingenuity. This new edition of “La Jolie” has removed all later additions, thus offering a reliable basis for performances.

The premiere in 1749 was a failure, but the second version of 1756 was highly acclaimed. Jean-Philippe Despite optimal production conditions and context, the premiere in 1749 was not a success. Only with the second fundamentally revised version of his “Zoroastre” did Jean-Philippe Rameau win the affections of the public. The theme of Louis de Cahusac’s libretto, drawn from ancient Persian sources, is the battle between good and evil, fought out here by the religious reformer Zoroastre and his adversary, the ambitious sorcerer Abramane. This drastic dualistic juxtaposition enabled the librettist to introduce elements of ritual and belief from Freemasonry. With Graham Sadler’s new edition of the second version, published as part of the “Opera Omnia Rameau”, and the performance material available on hire, this successful performance tradition can now be continued.

The new editorial project “Bizet’s Other Operas”

Fishergate Music is publishing successive critical new editions of Georges Bizet’s lesser-known operas, which are available in unreliable editions, if at all. The editor and publisher is the renowned British musicologist Hugh Macdonald, who has contributed significantly to the establishing of Hector Berlioz’s entire output in the musical repertoire in recent years with his “New Berlioz Edition”, published by Bärenreiter. This is also the aim of the series “Bizet’s Other Operas”. The first works, “Djamileh” and “Don Procopio”, are already available in score, vocal score and orchestral parts. “La Jolie Fille de Perth”, “La Maison du Docteur”, “Le Docteur Miracle” and “Ivan IV” will follow. The performance material, available on hire, can be obtained from Bärenreiter · Alkor.

The Emperor Napoleon, like Hernán Cortés, saw himself as the conqueror of great empires. Gaspare Spontini was intended to bring the fame of Cortés to the operatic stage. Hence the genesis of the opera “Fernand Cortez”. But when the Emperor was defeated, a complicated series of reworkings of the opera began. Theater Dortmund is now staging the third version of 1824 on 7 April 2022.

The idea of composing the opera “Fernand Cortez” was thanks to a commission from Emperor Napoleon I following the successful premiere of Gaspare Spontini’s “La Vestale” (1807). The intention was to pave the way for Napoleon’s Spanish campaign through a propaganda piece. The libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy was based on various historical and dramatic sources and took as its subject the conquest of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, by the Spanish commander Hernán Cortés. The autograph, which is preserved in Paris, reveals that Spontini first set the libretto in its original version. But shortly before rehearsals began, the interior minister demanded a reworking of the text, which was carried out in collaboration with Joseph-Alphonse d’Esménard, eliminating in particular the character of Montezuma as originally envisaged.