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Michael Spyres – In The Shadows

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This is a luxury recital indeed. Over 84 minutes, we are presented with twelve operatic scenes, performed complete with chorus when required and another soloist (in the shape of tenor Julien Henric) who plays Flavio in the scene for Pollione from Norma. Furthermore, we are vouchsafed sung texts and translations into English, French and German, which is important as many of the scenes are not exactly familiar. Clearly all concerned have taken their task seriously.

In the accompanying notes, Spyres talks of his journey towards Wagner and states that the album “endeavours to illuminate the composers who languish in Wagner’s shadow: those who formed the foundation of the compositional aesthetic and sculpted the framework of vocal writing that would become the Wagnerian tenor.”

Thus, we start with Joseph Méhul (1763-1817) and work our way forward roughly chronologically via Beethoven, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Spontini, Bellini and Marschner to Wagner himself in the shape of arias from his early Die Feen and Rienzi, finishing up with Lohengrin. Of the arias chosen, only those from Fidelio, Norma and Lohengrin could be called in any way familiar, so the recital is certainly valuable for introducing us to some little heard music.

The disc has been reviewed in these pages by Göran Forsling (review) and was even a recording of the month back in April, and I largely agree with that review with one or two caveats.

I actually heard Spyres live at a Prom in 2017, in a performance of Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust with the Orchestrre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and, whilst impressed with his interpretation and musicality, I didn’t think the voice was particularly large. Now of course this was seven years ago, and there is a good chance that the voice has grown since then, but I’m not so taken with his singing in those roles that require a bit more dramatic thrust, like Florestan and Pollione. I hear a somewhat artificial darkening of the timbre, which results in a rather throaty sound. He sounds as if he is forcing his lyrical voice, and his tone lacks squillo. Comparisons with Vickers in the former and Corelli in the latter find Vickers singing with a deal more intensity and Corelli, whom I had just recently been listening to in the second Callas recording, much freer on top.

When we get to Wagner himself, Mein Lieber Schwann from Lohengrin is sensitively sung, but there is no ring to his tone when he opens out in the more dramatic parts. GF makes comparison with Gedda, who sang Lohengrin a couple of times in his native Sweden. Ultimately Gedda thought it an unsuccessful experiment, and he never sang the role again, evidently thinking the role too heavy for his essentially lyrical voice. However, as can be heard in his recording of the aria, Gedda’s tone had a good deal more squillo. That said, I heard Gedda live in the Verdi Requiem towards the end of his career and his voice had a great deal more cutting power than Spyres.

With his three albums, Batitenor, Contra-Tenor and now In The Shadows, Spyres is showcasing his versatility, but I just wonder how much of that versatility is a product of the gramophone. Given the encomiums he has been receiving of late, I hate to be the one dissenting opinion, but I do wonder if his voice is being forced into places it shouldn’t necessarily go.

Contents
Etienne-Nicolas Méhul (1763 -1817)
1. Joseph en Égypte, « Vainement Pharaon… Champs paternels
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
2. Fidelio, « Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!… In des Lebens
Gioacchino Rossini (1792 – 1868)
3. Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, « Della cieca fortuna… Sposa amata… Saziati, o sorte ingrata ?
Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 – 1864)
4. Il crociato in Egitto – « Suona funerea
Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1824)
5. Der Freischütz – « Nein, Länger Trag Ich Nicht
Daniel François Esprit Auber (1782 -1871)
6. La muette de Portici- « Spectacle affreux …
Gaspare Spontini (1774 – 1851)
7. Agnes von Hohenstaufen, « Der Strom wälzt ruhig seine dunklen Wogen
Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835)
8. Norma – « Meco all’altar di Venere…Me protegge, me difende (with Julien Henric (tenor))
Heinrich Marschner 1795 – 1861)
9. Hans Heiling op. 80 – “Gonne mir ein wort der Liebe” 
Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883)
10. Die Feen WWV 32 – « Wo find ich dich, wo wird mir Trost?
Richard Wagner
11. Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen WWV 49, « Allmächt’ger Vater, blick herab
Richard Wagner
12. Lohengrin WWV 75, « Mein lieber Schwan

 

Michael Spyres (tenor): In The Shadows (Erato)
Posted on by tsaraslondon

Nelson’s Les Troyens

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I love this opera, though I’ve never actually seen it staged. The first time I heard it live was in two halves at a couple of Proms concerts in 1982. It was conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and starred Jessye Norman as Didon, Felicity Palmer as Cassandre and Richard Cassilly as Enée. I didn’t know the opera as well then as I do now, but I remember even then I loved it. People often moan that it is too long, hence why it is often split into two parts, but it’s no longer than some of Wagner’s operas (and shorter than one or two). Subsequently I heard it twice at the Barbican under Sir Colin Davis, for whom Berlioz was something of a lifelong passion. Indeed without him it is quite possible that Berlioz would still be underappreciated today. I’ve also long enjoyed both Davis’s first pioneering recording for Philips, with Josephine Veasey and Jon Vickers, which was based on performances at Covent Garden, as well as his later recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, recorded at concerts at the Barbican, with Ben Heppner, Petra Lang and Michelle DeYoung.

It is a magnificent score, Berlioz’s greatest achievement, and it is a terrible shame he never got to hear it performed in its entirety. According to the Berlioz scholar, David Cairns, it is

an opera of visionary beauty and splendour, compelling in its epic sweep, fascinating in the variety of its musical invention… it recaptures the tragic spirit and climate of the ancient world.

As always with Berlioz, the orchestration is superb and he writes brilliantly for major and minor characters alike, one of the most haunting moments in the score being given to the young sailor Hylas, as he laments for his homeland at the beginning of Act V.

This recent set has garnered some great reviews, so I was keen to hear how it measured up to the Davis recordings. From an orchestral point of view it is certainly very fine, but the singers are all a little light of voice for my taste. I heard Michael Spyres singing Berlioz’s Faust at the Proms not so long ago, and I found him a wonderfully musical and intelligent singer. I wonder though whether his voice might be a tad too small for Aeneas. There were times at the Proms that I thought his lyrical voice a little too small even for Faust. Maybe I’ve become too used to more heroic voices like Vickers and Heppner, but the role of Enée was in the repertoire of the great Georges Thill, who also had a rather more beefy voice than Spyres. Lemieux is also a light voiced Cassandre, though she’s a great improvement on Lindholm, who is on the first Davis recording. I wouldn’t prefer her to Lang on the second Davis recording, nor Deborah Voigt, who sings Cassandre on the less successful Dutoit recording and also on a live Met recording, with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Didon.

DiDonato is probably the most successful of the soloists. Some find her vibrato distracting, though it doesn’t bother me unduly, and she is thoroughly inside the role. However she doesn’t evince the sort of innigkeit you find in Janet Baker, who can be heard in incomparable versions of the final scenes conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson, and also in a couple of live performances under Davis, nor of Hunt Lieberson, who can be heard in the live Met performance under Levine, mentioned above. That said, I don’t know of anyone else around today who could sing it better.

Nor do I wish to be too picky about a recording that is a considerable achievement for all concerned. It gets a cautious thumbs up from me; certainly the best since Davis I and II, with my preference still being for Davis I.