Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2016

Opera
August 2016
Recording of the Month

Ermonela Jaho (Zazà), Stephen Gaertner (Cascart), Riccardo Massi (Milio), Patricia Bardon (Anaide), David Stout (Bussy)

BBC Symphony Orchestra, Maurizio Benini

Zazà is Opera Rara’s first recording venture into the musical world of Leoncavallo and the operatic tradition of verismo. Maurizio Benini leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ermonela Jaho in her recording debut as the eponymous Zazà. Jaho is joined by Riccardo Massis as her lover Milio; Stephen Gaertner as her onstage partner and former lover Cascart and Patricia Bardon as her mother Anaide.

Written in 1900 for the Teatro Liricio di Milano and conducted at its première by Toscanini, Zazà was Leoncavallo’s most popular opera after Pagliacci. In the 20 years following its première, Zazà received over 50 new productions in opera houses around the world. Opera Rara’s revival of Zazà is based on Leoncavallo’s own 1919 revision of his score which has been carefully researched by Maurizio Benini.