The music of Gaetano Donizetti has been a source of inspiration for the founders of the Opera Rara, the company that restores, records, and performs neglected vocal repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Spearheaded by Artistic Director Carlo Rizzi, the Donizetti Song Project is curated by musicologist and Opera Rara’s Repertoire Consultant Roger Parker. Over the course of two years, Parker tracked down Donizetti’s entire corpus of solo songs, nearly 200 in total, many of which have never been heard in modern times. “[This repertoire] makes a powerful argument for the importance of the Italian ‘school’ in a field long dominated by German and French composers.” says Parker. The third volume of the Donizetti Song Project features 16 songs for tenor and piano performed by tenor Michael Spyres and Carlo Rizzi with an additional two songs featuring a violin or harp obbligato. Michael Spyres joins WFMT to share selections from this new album on March 15.