American operatic tenor (born 1979)
Michael Spyres (born 1979) is an American operatic baritenor. He is particularly associated with the bel canto repertoire, especially the works of Rossini, and heroic roles in French grand opera.
Biography.
Michael Spyres was born in Missouri, US, and studied singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria. He won acclaim and international recognition for his performance in the title role of Rossini's "Otello" at the Rossini in Wildbad festival in Germany in 2008. He made his debut at La Scala, Milan, in Rossini's "Il viaggio a Reims" in 2009 and appeared the same year in the demanding leading role of Raoul in Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots" at Bard SummerScape in New York. Since then, his career has taken him to the Royal Opera House, London, in the title role of Mozart's "Mitridate, re di Ponto", to the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and La Monnaie, Brussels, as Arnold in Rossini's "Guillaume Tell", to Opéra National de Bordeaux for the title role in Berlioz' "La damnation de Faust" and to the Liceu, Barcelona, in the title role of Offenbach's "Les contes d'Hoffmann", among many other engagements both in concerts and staged operas. Spyres won widespread praise for his performance of the role of Vasco da Gama in Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine" at the Oper Frankfurt in 2018. He sang the title role in a new production of Adam's "Le postillon de Lonjumeau" at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in March 2019. Spyres made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in a concert performance of "La damnation de Faust" as Faust in 2020.
His many recordings include Berlioz's "Les Troyens" (title role of Énée), Requiem, the song cycle "Les nuits d'été", "La damnation de Faust", Rossini's "Otello", "Guillaume Tell" and "Le siège de Corinthe" for Naxos Records, "Les Huguenots" for American Symphony Orchestra and the solo albums "Espoir" (2017) for Opera Rara, "Baritenor" (2021) for Erato, "In the Shadows" (2024) with Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset.
Spyres is the artistic director of Ozarks Lyric Opera (formerly Springfield Regional Opera) in Springfield, Missouri.
Selected recordings.
Complete operas.
 ;templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/ ;
Orchestral works.
 ;templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/ ;
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;