Michael Spyres (baritenor)
BariTenor
Male choir of L’Opéra national du Rhin
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra/Marko Letonja
rec. 25-29 August and 14-15 October 2020, Salle Erasme, Palais de la musique et des congrès, Strasbourg
ERATO 9029515666 [84:30]
Three of my colleagues have already reviewed this disc, mostly very enthusiastically, even if Ralph Moore had some reservations, so there is little more for me to do than join in with a few additional impressions.
I loved it too. It’s an intelligent look at some exhilarating repertoire from an inspirational singer. In fact, it’s almost as though Spyres is setting out to trumpet his own uniqueness by taking on a spread of repertoire that should, by rights, be beyond the compass of a single singer.
His Idomeneo is pleasingly commanding. Here the voice occupies a strong middle ground: he sounds like neither Ian Bostrige nor (heavens!) Pavarotti, but he still feels like a tenor. However, he then sounds unmistakably like a baritone for the Count in Figaro, though he does allow himself Mozart’s later revision of the aria which contains a few upwards transpositions to be on the safe side. Furthermore, all the technique is there for the leaps, roulades and lunges. It’s pretty extraordinary, really, and really rather wonderful, and it helps that his Don Giovanni sounds properly seductive.
I loved the drama and energy of the early French numbers: the widespread dismissal of this repertoire means listeners have definitely been short-changed! The scene from La Vestale should set your pulse racing, in particular, while the section from Adam’s Le Postillon de Lonjumeau shows Spyres also knows how to have fun. His Rossini arias bulge with character, be it the exuberant good humour of Figaro or the high drama of Otello, and Donizetti’s Tonio, his other bel canto adventure, sounds heroic rather than light. The nine high Cs sound terrific, before you ask.
Going from those into the Count’s “Il Balen” is, for me, the biggest shock of the disc, but it’s remarkably successful, showing that Spyres can compass the baritone range with beauty and warmth. He brings something similar to the French Romantic items (Hamlet and Hoffmann) as well as, perhaps most surprisingly, Lohengrin, whose Grail Monologue is sung in French and sounds surprisingly good in that guise.
Listening to the final five tracks on the disc led me slightly to prefer Spyres’ colour as a baritone rather than as a tenor. He sound delightfully rich as Pagliacci’s Tonio, there is an attractive chuckle to the voice in The Merry Widow, there is a touch of sleaze to L’Heure Espagnole, and he lets the Carmina Burana aria stretch between the top of his baritone range and the bottom of his tenor range in a way that sounds rather magical. Paul’s (or should that be Marietta’s?) song from Die Tote Stadt is a marvellously luxurious way to end the disc.
However, that doesn’t detract from the fact that the disc is a remarkable achievement, marking Spyres out as a remarkable singer. Adding to his list of talents, Spyres writes his own booklet notes, for which he appears to have done his own research, suggesting a deep and committed interest in the subject rather than a passing fancy to sell a few records. That booklet also contains the full texts and translations of each aria, though they appear in a rather strange order, not the order of the tracks on the disc (and it wasn’t a misprint in my copy: I checked the page numbers). The orchestral and choral support is excellent, too, and the uncommonly generous running time of the CD helps add to the attractiveness of the package.
Simon Thompson
Previous reviews: Michael Cookson ~ Paul Corfield Godfrey ~ Ralph Moore
Contents
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
1. Idomeneo, K. 366 (1780-81) Act 2: "Fuor del mar" (Idomeneo) [5:59]
2. Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 (1785–86) Act 3, "Hai gia vinto la causa?" (Il Conte d'Almaviva) [4:59]
3. Don Giovanni, K. 527(1787) Act 2: "Deh, vieni al la finestra [1:59]
Étienne-Nicholas MÉHUL (1763-1817)
4. Ariodant (1799) Act 3: "Oh, Dieux! Écoutez ma prière" (Edgard) [4:21]
Gaspare SPONTINI (1774-1851)
5. La Vestale (1805) Act 3: "Qu’ai-je vu! Quels apprêts" (Licinius) [3:14]
Giocchino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
6. Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) Act 2: "Largo al factotum" (Figaro) [5:12]
7. Otello (1816) Act 1: "Ah si, per voi già sento" - "Premio maggior di questo" - "Amor, dirada il nembo" (Otello, Iago, Chorus) [6:57]
Adolphe ADAM (1803-1856)
8. Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) Act 1: "Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire" (Chapelou, Chorus) [4:58]
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848)
9. La fille du régiment (1838-40) Act 1: "Ah! Mes amis, quel jour de fête!" - "Pour mon âme" (Tonio, Chorus) [4:22]
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
10. Il trovatore (1853) Act 2: "Tutto è deserto" - "Il balen del suo sorriso" (Il Conte di Luna) [4:38]
Ambroise THOMAS (1811-1896)
11. Hamlet (1868) Act 2: "C'est en croyant revoir" - "Oh, vin! Dissipe la tristesse" (Hamlet, Marcellus, Horatio, Chorus) [5:54]
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819-1880)
12. Les Contes d'Hoffmann (1880) Act 1: "Va! pour Kleinzach" (Hoffmann, Nathanaël, Chorus) [5:23]
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
13. Lohengrin (1845-48) Act 3: "Aux bords lointains" (Lohengrin’s narration) [6:13]
Ruggero LEONCAVALLO (1857-1919)
14. Pagliacci (1892) Prologue: "Si può? Signore! Signori!" (Tonio) [5:43]
Franz LEHÁR (1870-1948)
15. Die lustige Witwe (1905) Act 1: "O Vaterland du machst bei Tag" - "Da geh ich zu Maxim" (Danilo) [2:45]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
16. L'heure espagnole, M. 52 (1907) "Voilà, ce que j'appelle une femme charmante" (Ramiro) [2:27]
Carl ORFF (1895-1982)
17. Carmina Burana (1936) Part 4: “Cour d'amours: Dies, nox et omnia" [2:29]
Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD (1897-1957)
18. Die tote Stadt, Op 12 (1919) Act 1: Lied. "Glück, das mir verblieb" (Marietta) [6:48]
