Sonas Duo set to launch new album Opera Reimagined
Irish-based Italian musicians Davide Forti and Francesca De Nardi, performing as Sonas Duo, have announced the upcoming release of their new album Opera Reimagined, available on all major streaming platforms from 25 September 2026.
The duo will celebrate the release with an album launch on Thursday, 1 October at 7:00pm at the Fr McNally Recital Room, Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT). The event is free, with booking required.
Opera Reimagined explores opera from an intimate new perspective, transforming well-known arias, duets and operatic themes for cello and piano. The project is rooted in the belief that opera is not a museum language, but a living and universal form of storytelling—one that continues to speak through themes of love, longing, humour, joy and tragedy.
At the centre of the album is the cello as a human voice. Its vocal quality allows the characters and emotions of the original operas to remain present, while the piano takes on the role of an orchestra, creating an intimate form of musical theatre without words.
The album brings together music by composers including Verdi, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Wagner, Puccini and Gershwin, alongside arrangements by Sonas Duo and an original Fantasy on La Traviata written by Forti and De Nardi.
Both musicians were born in Italy and met in 2015 while studying at the Conservatorio G. Tartini in Trieste. Now based in Ireland, they have performed extensively as a duo in Ireland and Italy and have received several prizes.
Davide Forti is a cellist, conductor and educator, and teaches at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and Music Generation Louth. Francesca De Nardi is a pianist and violinist active in chamber music, performance and education. She collaborates with the Royal Irish Academy of Music and teaches at DkIT and Music Generation Louth.
The album launch will feature live performances, stories behind the project and an opportunity for the audience to meet the musicians and ask questions about the music and the recording process.
Event Information
Opera Reimagined – Album Launch
Thursday, 1 October 2026 | 7:00pm Dundalk Institute of Technology
Fr McNally Recital Room, Carroll’s Building
Free event – booking required via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/opera-reimagined-album-launch-tickets-2000873894681
Album release: 25 September 2026
Sonas Duo: Davide Forti, cello & Francesca De Nardi, piano
