![\"\"](\"https:\/\/myscena.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Michael-Spyres-and-Christophe-Rousset-recording-In-the-Shadows.-Photo-Edouard-Brane-cmyk.jpg\")
And so, In the Shadows<\/i> takes the listener chronologically from early 19th-century French works like \u00c9tienne M\u00e9hul\u2019s Joseph<\/i> (1807) right up to Wagner\u2019s own Lohengrin <\/i>(1850), tracing a path that unexpectedly links a composer more associated with bombast to lyrical predecessors like Rossini, Auber and Bellini. \u201cMany people don\u2019t realise that Wagner was so influenced by bel canto. You can see within the scores, there are markings that are only (found) in bel canto,<\/i>\u201d says Spyres. Listening to the tenor\u2019s gorgeously lyrical account of Lohengrin\u2019s Gralserz\u00e4hlung (Grail narrative), the album\u2019s final track, corroborates Spyres\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n
The tenor found further proof in the careers of historic tenors, those who sang this repertoire when it was new. \u201cIf you really look at the first Wagnerians like (Bohemian tenor) Josef Tichatschek, they were singing (Meyerbeer\u2019s) Les huguenots<\/i>, Rossini\u2019s Otello<\/i>, Berlioz\u2019s Benvenuto Cellini<\/i>\u2014all of these things that barely anybody can sing nowadays.\u201d He continues: \u201cThat\u2019s why this lineage has been a very logical one for me. I\u2019ve always looked in the record books and asked, \u2018What were these men doing in their early 30s? Before Wagner came about?\u2019 Ah, lots of bel canto and French Grand Opera!\u201d<\/p>\n
Spyres\u2019s own career is closely linked to that of his illustrious tenor predecessors, who sang much more wide-ranging roles than do most singers today. As he points out, male singers sang a very wide repertoire before the Fach system was adopted in the mid-19th-century, which slotted singers into very specific role categories. \u201cMost men didn\u2019t have the luxury of being able to perform on stage, because most of them were working or in wars.\u201d As a result, with fewer male singers available, they \u201chad to be much more flexible with their voices. If you look at tenors, or baritones \u2014which didn\u2019t truly exist\u2014many of them would switch between low bass roles, up to haute contre<\/i> (very high tenor)\u2014all within a couple of Handel roles.\u201d<\/p>\n Spyres traces his current wide repertoire to studies undertaken in his late 20s and early 30s when he \u201cstarted to understand what the French call voix mixte appuy\u00e9e <\/i>(supported mixed voice). It\u2019s absolutely the best,\u201d he continues, \u201cand the only way to really approach bel canto and also French Grand Opera. Once I started integrating that, it opened the door to all of these other things.\u201d When asked why his performance calendar might look quite different from that of most of his contemporaries he says, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s much that I\u2019m doing differently. It\u2019s just that most people who have larger voices, or darker voices \u2026 get pushed into a place where they\u2019re already doing Wagner when they shouldn\u2019t be doing it, (when they\u2019re young) in their 20s in their early 30s.\u201d And yet, despite having proven his remarkable versatility on the world\u2019s greatest stages, Spyres admits \u201cthrough the rest of my career, there are people who will still think of me as a Rossini tenor.\u201d<\/p>\n This brings us back to the endpoint of In the Shadows<\/i>, namely, Wagner. Spyres\u2019s carefully plotted album mirrors his current real-life career trajectory. Having recently made his role debut as Lohengrin with Strasbourg\u2019s Op\u00e9ra national du Rhin, this summer marks his first Siegmund in Die Walk\u00fcre<\/i> at the ultimate Wagner venue, the Bayreuth Festival. All of this has been carefully calibrated. His choice to include Lohengrin\u2019s \u201cMein lieber Schwan\u201d rather than the more familiar \u201cIn fernem Land\u201d on his album stems from his desire to \u201cshow the kind of the duality of voice that you had to have up until Lohengrin,<\/i> which was the end of an era with Wagner\u2014the last work that he called an opera. Everything else after that was a dramatic musical, Gesamtkunstwerk<\/i>. Up until Lohengrin<\/i>, you have to use these two different types of techniques\u2014this bel canto and this darker baritenor or heldentenor.\u201d<\/p>\n Spyres will venture into this darker heldentenor realm with his Bayreuth debut as Siegmund. Despite the expectations of hard-to-please Wagnerites and the legendary status of the theatre, the tenor is feeling optimistic. \u201cI\u2019ll obviously be singing it belcanto-y because that\u2019s what Wagner wanted,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if you look back at my career, I\u2019ve sung Candide, and Licinius in La vestale<\/i>\u2014so many roles that are low like Siegmund. I thought: I can do this. It\u2019s going to be scary, only having two days of rehearsal, but I think I will do it justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Spyres\u2019s In the Shadows<\/i> is currently available for purchase and streaming. For more information go to www.warnerclassics.com\/release\/shadows<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Spyres will appear at the Bayreuth Festival (July 25-Aug. 27), as Siegmund in Die Walk\u00fcre<\/i>. More on this performance, and Sypres\u2019s upcoming engagements, can be found on his website. www.michaelspyres.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/myscena.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/MichaelSpyres_phMarcoBorrelli_240920_0717932572-cmyk.jpg\")
\n
Playlist<\/h4>\n