| Thursday 23 April 2026 | 19:00 |
| Programme to include: | ||
| Works by Donizetti, Gaetano (1797-1848) |
| Soraya Mafi | Soprano |
| Robert Lewis | Tenor |
| Anna Tilbrook | Piano |
| Roger Parker | Curator |
Opera Rara’s final Salon Series recital of its 55th season sees British tenor Robert Lewis join forces with British-Iranian soprano Soraya Mafi at London’s Bechstein Hall on 23 April 2026. They will be accompanied once again by the series’ featured collaborator and pianist Anna Tilbrook.
Winner of the 2025 Tenor Viñas Competition’s Domingo Prize, Robert Lewis will make his Opera Rara debut singing the role of Gobin in the final, 1921 version of Puccini’s La rondine at London’s Barbican Centre in December 2025. Opera Rara’s studio recording of Puccini’s opera will also mark Lewis’s recording debut.
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal College of Music, Soraya Mafi is a former Harewood Artist at English National Opera. During the 2025/26 season, she can be heard at Welsh National Opera as Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide and at Komische Oper, Berlin as Nitocris in Handel’s Belshazzar.
For this recital, Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker, and curator of the charity’s Donizetti Song Project, has selected several newly discovered and restored duets by Donizetti, which will be presented to the public for the first time.
