Michael Spyres
Tenor Michael Spyres has amassed an impressive record of major operatic and concert performances in the 2010s and early 2020s. He has appeared on various opera recordings and has issued several distinctive recital albums.
Born in 1980, Spyres is a native of the small town of Mansfield, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains in the southern part of the state. Both of his parents were music teachers. His entire family was musical, and he was named after an uncle who had hoped to become an opera singer but died of throat cancer before he could do so. Spyres grew up singing regularly at weddings and funerals, and he gained early experience on the operatic stage, appearing for the first time at the nearby Springfield Regional Opera when he was 18. Local opera helped launch Spyres' career: by the time he was 22, he had appeared in six full-scale operatic productions, many more than other voice students he met around that time. When Spyres was 24, he moved to Austria and studied at the Vienna Conservatory (now the Private University of Music and Art of the City of Vienna).
Spyres made his debut at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 2006, playing Jaquino in Beethoven's Fidelio. He then appeared as Alberto in Rossini's La gazzetta at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival in Germany and went to Japan as part of a touring production of La Traviata. Invited back to Bad Wildbad, he scored a breakthrough in the title role of Rossini's Otello in 2008. Since then, Spyres has appeared in major opera houses, including La Scala and Covent Garden, under the likes of Riccardo Muti, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, and Emmanuelle Haïm. In addition to appearing on recordings of operas by Donizetti, Rossini, Berlioz, and Giovanni Simone Mayr, Spyres has released the recital albums A Fool for Love (2011) and Espoir (2017). He returned to his hometown as artistic director of the Springfield Regional Opera in 2016. In 2020, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Faust in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.
Spyres' Espoir album explored the repertoire of 19th century tenor Gilbert Duprez, who sang both French and Italian opera. In 2019, he was heard as the tenor soloist on a Philharmonia Orchestra recording of the Berlioz Requiem, Op. 5, conducted by John Nelson. He returned the following year with Rossini: Amici e Rivali, a collection of Rossini duets for two tenors on which he teamed with Lawrence Brownlee. In 2021 and 2023, respectively, Spyres released the albums BariTenor and Contra-Tenor, exploring works for unusual voice types. By the early 2020s, he was known as a specialist in virtuoso tenor repertory.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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In the Shadows
Michael Spyres, Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques
Opera Extracts - Released by Warner Classics on 1/03/2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Contra-Tenor
Michael Spyres, Il Pomo D'oro, Francesco Corti
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 21/04/2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Theodora, HWV 68
Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Il pomo d’oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 28/10/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été, Op. 7 - Harold en Italie, Op. 16
Michael Spyres, Timothy Ridout, Orchestre Philharmonique De Strasbourg, John Nelson
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 18/11/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Baritenor
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 24/09/2021
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto
Michael Spyres, Sabine Devieilhe, Elsa Dreisig, Marc Minkowski
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 29/10/2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Amici e Rivali
Michael Spyres, Lawrence Brownlee, I Virtuosi Italiani, Corrado Rovaris
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 13/11/2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Otello (Intégrale)
Opera - Released by Naxos on 26/04/2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Fool for Love (Michael Spyres, ténor)
Classical - Released by Delos on 6/09/2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Baritenor - Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia: "Largo al factotum" (Figaro)
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 27/08/2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Espoir
Michael Spyres, Carlo Rizzi, Hallé Orchestra
Classical - Released by Opera Rara on 8/09/2017
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: Les Martyrs
Joyce El-Khoury, Michael Spyres, David Kempster, Brindley Sherratt, Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment, Mark Elder
Classical - Released by Opera Rara on 1/01/2015
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Contra-Tenor - Orphée et Eurydice: "J'ai perdu mon Euridyce"
Michael Spyres, Il Pomo D'oro, Francesco Corti
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 3/03/2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Les Nuits d’été, Op. 7: I. Villanelle
Michael Spyres, Timothy Ridout, Orchestre Philharmonique De Strasbourg, John Nelson
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 28/10/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Theodora, HWV 68: "To Thee, Thou Glorious Son of Worth"
Lisette Oropesa, Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Il pomo d’oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 14/10/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Al destin, che la minaccia"
Michael Spyres, Sabine Devieilhe, Elsa Dreisig, Marc Minkowski
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 17/09/2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra: "Sposa amata" - "Saziati, o sorte ingrata ?"
Michael Spyres, Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 16/02/2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Se di lauri il crine adorno"
Michael Spyres, Sabine Devieilhe, Elsa Dreisig, Marc Minkowski
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 8/10/2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Contra-Tenor - Latilla: Siroe, re di Persia: "Se il mio paterno amore"
Michael Spyres, Il Pomo D'oro, Francesco Corti
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 31/03/2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Baritenor - Adam: Le Postillon de Lonjumea "Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire"
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 10/09/2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Méhul: Joseph: "Champs paternels"
Michael Spyres, Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 2/02/2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo