Baritenor

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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... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2021, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 24th Sep 2021
Catalogue No: 9029515666
Label: Erato
Length: 84 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

24th September 2021
BBC Music Magazine

November 2021

Opera Choice
Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2021

Recording of the Month
Diapason d’Or

October 2021

Nouveauté
Opera

December 2021

Disc of the Month
Presto Recordings of the Year

Winner 2021
International Classical Music Awards

2022

Nominated - Vocal
Sunday Times

10 Best Classical Albums of 2021
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2022

Shortlisted - Vocal
Gramophone Awards

2022

Winner - Voice & Ensemble

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Mozart: Fuor del mar ho un mar in seno (Idomeneo)

Work length5:59

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Mozart: Hai gia vinta la causa! (from Le nozze di Figaro)

Work length4:59

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Mozart: Deh! vieni alla finestra (from Don Giovanni)

Work length1:59

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Méhul: O dieux, écoutez ma prière (from Ariodant)

Work length4:20

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Spontini: Qu'ai-je vu! quels apprets! (from La vestale)

Work length3:14

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Rossini: Largo al factotum (from Il barbiere di Siviglia)

Work length5:12

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Rossini: Premio maggior di questo…Amor, dirada il nembo (from Otello)

Work length6:57

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor), Sangbae Choï (tenor)
Choeur de l'Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Adam: Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire (from Le Postillon de Lonjumeau)

Work length4:58

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Choeur de l'Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Donizetti: Pour mon âme quel destin! (from La Fille du Régiment)

Work length4:22

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Choeur de l'Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Verdi: Il balen del suo sorriso (from Il Trovatore)

Work length4:38

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Thomas, Ambroise: O vin, dissipe la tristesse (from Hamlet)

Work length5:54

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor), Fabien Gaschy (baritone), Nicolas Kuhn (tenor)
Choeur de l'Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Offenbach: Va pour Kleinzach...Il était une fois à la cour (from Les Contes d'Hoffmann)

Work length5:23

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor), Mario Montalbano (tenor)
Choeur de l'Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Wagner: In fernem Land (from Lohengrin)

Work length6:13

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

sung in French as 'Aux bords lointains'
Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Leoncavallo: Si può? (from I Pagliacci)

Work length5:43

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Lehár: Die Lustige Witwe: O Vaterland

Work length2:45

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Ravel: Voilà, ce que j'appelle une femme charmante (from L'heure espagnole)

Work length2:27

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Orff: Carmina Burana: Dies, nox et omnia

Work length2:29

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

Korngold: Glück, das mir verbleib 'Marietta's Lied' (from Die Tote Stadt)

Work length6:48

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Michael Spyres (tenor)
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja

About
Reviews
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About

Interview, Michael Spyres on Baritenor

2nd November 2021

The American singer talks to Katherine about moving between tenor and baritone repertoire on his new album, and why he believes that the fach system often 'does our voices and artistry an injustice'.

Recording of the Week, Michael Spyres - Baritenor

24th September 2021

The maverick American singer mixes tenor and baritone repertoire with joyful (but historically-informed) abandon, ranging from Donizetti's stratospheric Tonio to his namesake in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

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.

Reviews

November 2021

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.

March/April 2022

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.

November 2021

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.

December 2021

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.

24th September 2021

Spyres’s programme is no gimmick or grab-bag of show-stoppers, but a carefully-plotted journey through the evolution of the male zwischenfach voice…And there’s never so much as a hint that he’s pushing his instrument beyond its comfort-zone for the sake of novelty: instead, we’re left with the impression of a singer exploring everything his remarkable voice has to offer.

17th October 2021

Most of these 85 minutes of music are staggeringly good. Spyres is unique in my experience; a tenor with a baritone extension...I know baritones with less “ping” in their timbres. He also has huge fun with Figaro’s funny voices...Astounding.

29th September 2021

Spyres never barks, and chases after everything with enthusiasm, firmly supported by the conductor Marko Letonja and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Baritenor

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Contents

Interview, Michael Spyres on Baritenor

Recording of the Week, Michael Spyres - Baritenor

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