| Biography | Michael Spyres was born in Mansfield (Missouri) where he grew up in a family of musicians. He began his studies in the U.S.A. and continued them at the Vienna Conservatory.
Spyres first sprang to international attention in 2008 in the title role of Rossini's Otello at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival and as an ensemble member of Deutsche Oper Berlin where he made his debut as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte.
Since then he has debuted at some of the most prestigious opera theatres and festivals worldwide such as the Teatro alla Scala (Belfiore in Il viaggio a Reims and subsequently Rodrigo in La donna del lago), at the Salzburg Festival (Betulia Liberata), the Semperoper Dresden (Gianetto in La gazza ladra), the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro (Baldassare in Ciro in Babilonia, a solo recital, Rodrigo in La donna del lago and the title role of Aureliano in Palmira), the Liceu in Barcelona (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (La donna del lago), the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Die Fledermaus) and La Monnaie (Arnold in Guillaume Tell).
Upcoming engagements include Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the London Proms, the title role of La damnation de Faust at the Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André and in Warsaw, Polyeucte in Donizetti's Les Martyrs in London, Arnold in Guillaume Tell in Bologna, Conte di Libenskoff in Il viaggio a Reims in Amsterdam, Baron de Mergy in Hérold's Le pré aux clercs in Paris, Pirro in Ermione in La Coruna, Tempo in Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as well as the title part of Mitridate, re di Ponto in Paris (Théâtre des Champs Elysées), London (Covent Garden) and Brussels (La Monnaie).
He has worked with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Alberto Zedda and Evelino Pidò.
Michael Spyres has recorded Rossini's La gazzetta, Otello and Le siège de Corinthe(Naxos), Mazzoni's Antigono (Dynamic), Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots (ASO), Schumann's Faust-Szenen (ASO), Verdi's Otello (CSO) and his solo album A Fool For Love (Delos). Ciro in Babilonia from Pesaro (Opus Arte) and Les Contes d'Hoffmann from Barcelona (Erato) are available on DVD/Blu-Ray. (August 2014) |