Michael Spyres - BariTenor
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MOZART / MEHUL / OFFENBACH / LEONCAVALLO / LEHAR / WAGNER / RAVEL / etc
Michael Spyres - BariTenor
Michael Spyres (baritone/tenor) / Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, Marko Letonja, Choeur d'hommes de l'Opéra national du Rhine
[ Erato Classics / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 1 October 2021
This item is only available to us via Special Import.
"Spyres really is a tenor - and a baritone, it seems - who has the operatic world at his feet." Gramophone Award WINNER 2022 - Vocal & Ensemble
An album with a mission to defy classification, BariTenor is a tour de force for Michael Spyres. It ranges wide, encompassing repertoire normally assigned to both tenors and baritones. Programming 18 arias by 15 composers, it covers three centuries of opera in Italian, French and German, setting mainstream works beside relative rarities, and rediscovering Étienne Méhul's Ariodant, first heard in 1799.
Michael Spyres has achieved renown as a multi-faceted tenor, but 'baritenor' is the term he uses to describe his voice, which balances brilliant high notes with a robust lower register.
"Having started off as a baritone, I spent 10 years turning myself into a tenor. Voices like mine have existed as long as opera has existed, and the entire programme of this album is linked by the baritenor technique. I am making an honest attempt to explore the baritenor as a forgotten vocal phenomenon ... For me, this album is more than a dream come true."
Joining Spyres are the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under its Chief Conductor Marko Letonja, and the male singers of the chorus of the Opéra du Rhin.
"Spyres has a remarkable range and is a consummate vocal chameleon too...in a truly remarkable finale to his 'Largo al factotum', Rossini's Figaro is indeed all things to all men vocally. What Spyres brings to each role here is a pitch-perfect sense of character as he teaches a familiar lesson, that the voice is always in service of the role - however you choose to categorise it." BBC Music Magazine Awards 2022 Shortlisted - Vocal
"The range of roles is astonishing, but then so are these performances...Spyres really is a tenor - and a baritone, it seems - who has the operatic world at his feet." Recording of the Month Gramophone Awards issue 2021
"Spyres never barks, and chases after everything with enthusiasm, firmly supported by the conductor Marko Letonja and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra." The Times
"A revelation in equal part of artistic identity and artistic ideals, in the way very few such recordings turn out to disclose…Even more than the pleasure one derives from seeing (as it were) this gallery of characters all personified by the same performer, there's immense reward to be gained from the splendidly accomplished way in which that performer has brought off such a challenge." Opera
"One can take nothing away from Spyres's variety of tone, and he's a quick-change artist moving easily from pathos to comedy, from heroics to seductiveness. Nor can one find weak spots in his technique, which possesses the full arsenal of runs, trills, and high notes.This album is a tour de force that few singers on the present scene could hope to rival." Fanfare
Gramophone Award WINNER 2022 - Vocal & Ensemble
Tracks:
Mozart: Idomeneo, K. 366, Act II: "Fuor del mar" (Idomeneo)
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492, Act III: "Hai gia vinto la causa?" (Il Conte d'Almaviva)
Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527, Act II: "Deh, vieni al la finestra" (Don Giovanni)
Méhul: Ariodant, Act III: "Oh, Dieux! Ecoutez ma prière" (Edgard)
Spontini: La Vestale, Act III: "Qu'ai-je vu! Quels apprêts" (Licinius)
Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Act I: "Largo al factotum" (Figaro)
Rossini: Otello, Act I: "Ah si, per voi già sento" - "Premio maggior di questo" - "Amor, dirada il nembo" (Otello, Iago, Chorus)
Adam: Le Postillon de Lonjumeau, Act I: "Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire" (Chapelou, Chorus)
Donizetti: La fille du régiment, Act I: "Ah! Mes amis, quel jour de fête!" - "Pour mon âme" (Tonio, Chorus)
Verdi: Il trovatore, Act II: "Tutto è deserto" - "Il balen del suo sorriso" (Il Conte di Luna)
Thomas, Ambroise: Hamlet, Act II: "C'est en croyant revoir" - "Oh, vin! Dissipe la tristesse" (Hamlet, Marcellus, Horatio, Chorus)
Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Act I: "Va! pour Kleinzach" (Hoffmann, Nathanaël, Chorus)
Wagner: Lohengrin, Act III: "Aux bords lointains" (Lohengrin)
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci, Prologue: "Si può? Signore! Signori!" (Tonio)
Lehár: Die lustige Witwe, Act I: "O Vaterland du machst bei Tag" - "Da geh ich zu Maxim" (Danilo)
Ravel: L'heure espagnole, M. 52: "Voilà, ce que j'appelle une femme charmante" (Ramiro)
Orff: Carmina Burana, Pt. 4 "Cour d'amours": Dies nox et omnia
Korngold: Die tote Stadt, Op. 12, Act I: Lied. "Glück, das mir verblied" (Marietta)
