Baritenor

Product Information

Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust, Michael Spyres- Faust, Joyce DiDonato- Marguerite, Nicolas Courjal- Méphistophélès, Alexandre Duhamel- Brander, Les Petits Chanteurs de Strasbourg, Maîtrise de l'Opéra National du Rhin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, conducted by John Nelson. 2 CD + 1 DVD Warner classics 2019. Diapason d'or.

Handel, Theodora, Lisette Oropesa (Theodora), Joyce DiDonato (Irene), Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian (Didymus), Michael Spyres (Septimius), John Chest (Valens), Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev A recent comment on Reddit’s opera forum summed it up: “Just – how! It’s not fair on the rest of us that he can do this. Who else before the public today has a technique to match Spyres?”

As someone who’s made your name in nineteenth-century repertoire, how challenging was it to really get to grips with Baroque performance-practice?

Donizetti, Le Duc d'Albe, Michael Spyres (Henri de Bruges), Angela Meade (Hélène d'Egmont), Laurent Naouri (Le Duc d'Albe), David Stout (Sandoval), Opera para Chorus, Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. 2 CD Opera rara 2015

But the American star is not the first ‘baritenor’ – in fact, the voice type has a long history. It was much more common in the Baroque era, and later found its own in the 1800s, in the mingling of voice and grand drama in the works of Berlioz and Rossini. But by the 19th century, the singing style was largely lost. Berlioz, Benvenuto Cellini, Michael Spyres ( Benvenuto Cellini), Sophia Burgos (Teresa), Maurizio Murano (Balducci), Adèle Charvet (Ascanio), Lionel Lhote (Fieramosca), Tareq Nazmi ( le Pape Clément), Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, directing Noa Naamat, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. 1 DVD Château de Versailles spectacles 2019 Giacomo Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots, Andrew Schroeder (Count de Nevers), Michael Spyres (Raoul de Nagis), Peter Volpe (Marcel), Marie Lenormand (Urbain), Erin Morley (Marguerite de Valois), John Marcus Bindel (Count de Saint-Bris), Alexandra Deshorties (Valentine), American Symphony Orchestra, Leon BotsteinBrodie, Susan. "Old French Delight Is Polished Anew By Opéra Comique". Classical Voice North America . Retrieved 25 April 2019. Robert Schumann: Scenes from Goethe's 'Faust', American Symphony Orchestra, Twyla Robinson, Andrew Schroeder, Kyle Ketelsen, Concert Chorale of New York, Michael Spyres, Matt Boehler, Leon Botstein

George Frideric Handel, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, HWV46a, Sabine Devieilhe (Bellezza), Franco Fagioli (Piacere), Sara Mingardo (Disinganno), Michael Spyres (Tempo) with the participation of Christine Angot, Le Concert d'Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm (conductor) & Krzysztof Warlikowski (stage director) Gioachino Rossini Messa di Gloria, Eleonora Buratto (soprano), Teresa Iervolino (contralto), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor), Michael Spyres (tenor), Carlo Lepore (bass), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Coro dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano

A little bird (Christophe Rousset!) told me you have another album in the works which will focus on forgotten nineteenth-century repertoire…

The title’s a little tongue-in-cheek: historically, the Brits would sometimes refer to countertenors as ‘contra-tenors’, but really it’s a play on words because this music goes against all your ideas of just holding one high note like you do in the church tradition! And there’s a certain symmetry with Baritenor, which I thought was nice… To my knowledge, no one else has really explored the sheer virtuosity of Borosini and John Beard before. Because I’d already traversed the crazy world of French grand opera and Rossini’s opera seria, where the level of virtuosity is just immense, I figured I had a sporting chance of exploring that angle and getting it right! And I would definitely consider this to be part of the same tradition, because I’m not someone who believes that bel canto was just a fifty-year historical period – it’s a school of singing, and the ability and mastery of voice that one needs in the Baroque period is definitely bel canto. Are there direct links between this generation of singers and those who created the bel canto roles you've explored on previous recordings?