MICHAEL SPYRES singing Don Ottavio's aria "Il mio tesoro" from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera DON GIOVANNI. Recorded on 7 August 2021. www.fischerartists.com www.michaelspyres.com
Michael Spyres is marvellous. The stage director must be fired and banned permanently from opera staging. Who is the stage director? People should know their heroes!
It’s hundredth time I’m coming back to listen to him. That incredible contrast between this pure and heroic vocalizing and extravagant presence just enforces the impression. The great master of singing and self ironing Michael Spyres!
Its good but nowhere near john mc cormack who is critically considered the best,also luigi alva and dermot troy,all are better sung,give them a listen,you might be surprised
Michael Spyres magnificent and inimitable in the belcanto tradition, staging as usual these days ludicrous. I also like the soave conducting of this beautiful and difficult aria.
Not only is he the real deal, There is nobody that he reminds me of. His William Tell is off the charts! This is the operatic version of he can sing the phone book.
He must have great technique, with all of the heavier singing he has done the fluidity and tonal depth of his voice is still quite phenomenal. If he was burning his voice out he wouldn't be able to do the runs in this aria.
He’s incredible. Surely the best in this repertoire today. You have the best roster Helmut! Can someone explain the hideous severed limbs connected to his chest? Also why the cast of thousands? Classic case of a director not trusting the piece, thinking it needs their genius intervention to make it “work”. Even with a vocal genius like Spyres guiding us through.
Amazing singing. What a distraction. (Guess this staging is refreshing if you’ve directed/produced countless productions) No idea on the extra arms unless it’s to represent walking around with “arms/sword” but not being of any use with out the daring to use them. The ladies are probably a “living set” the embodiment of Leporello’s list of DG’s conquests.
@@stevegrabe9863 The chorus of naked people was a bit distracting yes lol. I really legitimately do not think the arms meant anything. Just like the basketballs getting dropped between scenes. Probably some avant garde commentary on how "logic" and "basic sanity" are aspects of the human condition or something. But, you know. No ACTUAL reason a human being would consider valid....
Micheal Spyres è indubbiamente uno dei tenori più interessanti di questi tempi. È unica la sua estensione vocale associata ad una capacità di controllo della voce su ogni timbro. Non riesco a trovare alcun tenore del passato che abbia le medesime caratteristiche. Credo quindi egli abbia una dote naturale unica. Bravo.
Muti is NOT conducting! I can’t recall a performance of this piece with more ornamentation. It doesn’t sound forced or vulgar, but in a way is Mozart via Handel. Breath control and overall line of singing are superb. I give it all four hands up.
Listened to several versions of this piece, like McCormack and primarily Björling, who is my favorite singer, but this version stands out. I find interpretations of this piece oftentimes manage to convey the first part pretty well, sounding gentle and comforting as the text implies along with the florid notes. However, even Jussi, who surely had the voice to sound as such if he liked to, doesn't really convey the triumphant and ominous meaning of the second part of the song, the passion and righteous anger (though maybe the old recordings don't capture his register properly). Making that transition/distinction just doesn't seem to come that easy for many. Spyres nails it however. Power and clearness, his voice a proud golden timbre. What is remarkable is that I listened to Dalla Sua Pace by him as well, and in that piece he isn't only perfectly capable of singing softly even at high notes, but he also achieves that remarkable clear silvery tone which is the goal of any tenor to achieve. If I had but one complaint it's the overemphasis on consonants, especially the Ns and Ds and rolling Rs, since I think it interrupts and obstructs the tone of the voice. Still amazing, will listen to Spyres a lot more in the future!
I think that if the director had had Don Ottavio singing from an enormous bathtub filled with rubber duckies, the whole scene would have suited the arc of the libretto to far greater perfection: the great "sea" of neon yellow representing DO's fundamental timorousness, the ducks symbolizing the quacky, squawky nature of his complaints, and the bathtub his never-ending wallowing in his own misery. And besides, you could dump the pointless extras and buy the rubber duckies from Amazon at a fraction of the cost. One question: Why was I not hired to direct instead of this expensive fool? I'm cheap! 😂
*/\]Because you didn't specify whether Ottavio is naked, wearing men's underwear, or wearing women's underwear. For this kind of production, those details matter! I assume that your production would also feature people lying on the stage, at least one character heavily pregnant, at least one character smoking, strange use of colors, and if not Don Ottavio, another male lead wearing women's underwear and/or bondage gear. Yes? Hired!
@@afbastet I've chewed over your suggestions and have decided to incorporate them - after some appropriate mutilation - into my vision. Singing from their bathtub, signorx Ottavix will feature full-frontal male furnishings on one side, female on the other, also full-frontal, there being no backside. We shall dress them in transparent lingerie/underwear in a whimsical fashion - I've always been drawn, personally, to bras worn on the head. Ottavix will be rotated - first clockwise, then counterclockwise - by three chorus members dressed in multisex harlequinx regalia, ALL of them smoking cigars. When Ottavix finishes his song, they cough repeatedly as they sink to the floor and hack their last. Ottavix exits the bath, drops a rubber ducky on each one, and quacks as he climbs off the stage, walks down the center aisle, and exits the theater through the center door, which features the large sign "NO EXIT." Of course, my vision is both pro and contra Satre's position on rubber duckies, but you will have already intuited that.
Spyres is a rare talent for sure. Rare Bari-tenore. I think the "runs" that really are signature to this piece could be sung more openly or with a a better "vowel"....I'm not a nit-picker; I 'd be thrilled to see this performance, or rather his, live. The staging is ridiculous. But, those notes, or at least the opening notes called my attention to them as "unblended" with those that followed and I've heard many tenors without Spyres talent take these runs on more delightfully. That's all.....If he's not already "HUGE" in US....he will be.
Another sublime performance by one of the finest tenors of the last 90 years. Michael would have been considered outstanding during any of the "Golden Ages". As for the production, it is sacrilege. If the director is not on drugs, please prescribe some. A concert performance would at least not have spoiled it. It is quite interesting that when folks say "best singer of our time but best of all time are Bjorling or Wunderlich or Alva or Simoneau that speaks hugely for itself that so many feel that he shares such an elevated position in the pantheon of the greatest singers.
Ma perché ha la corona? Le braccia appese davanti cosa vogliono dire, che è un manichino buono a nulla? Tutto chiacchiere e distintivo? Al di là di questa simbologia inquietante, la messa in scena mi sembra quella che facemmo ad una festa del vino come "presunti" artisti di strada. Mamma mia che livello.... Spyres, quando è in forma, come stavolta, è forte.
@Lady Izolda no, the problem is that you use too many words, you are boring. And more important: you are not italian, you understand NOTHING of opera. Shut up and don't dare to talk. This is Mozart, no ornaments allowed if not written
@@munkustrap79 That's not true. Singers have always added ornaments in Mozart. There are indications in the Scores - the Bärenreiter Urtexts - that say where to add something if one chooses.
J'en ai assez de toutes ces mises en scène totalement tordues| De la si belle musique et un si grand artiste obligé de se plier à cet accoutrement RIDICULE! 😖
Really fine singing, but what on earth has this production to do with Da Ponte's libretto or Mozart's music? (Any descendents of the librettists should sue the ass off of these deconstructionist stage directors! 😊)
This is a classic modern opera production: idiotic, puerile staging and costuming elements designed to undermine the music at every turn. The only answer is to shut your eyes - and your ears to the silly ornamentation which destroys the line of the music.
I cannot agree more. This is another case for singers to demand to know what sort of rubbish they are going to be subjected to before signing a contract.
I agree that the production is wacky-but not necessarily more than is needed to offset the "egregious" political incorrectness of Mozart's opera😉. Thank goodness there was *_Mozart_* before there was [ahem] ... "me" ... "two."
We all know about about the "little black dress" affair that happened to Deborah Voigt. Do opera stars today really have this little power to revolt against such silly productions and costumes? I remember Ileana Cotrubas, who, after a performance of "La Traviata" 1987 in Zurich, addressed the audience and apologized for the horrible production!
Qué cosa más ridícula. *Edito. Me refería a la vestimenta cuando lo escribí antes de oírlo porque pensé que Spyres estaría impecable, como casi siempre. Pues no. Las florituras, ridículas también.
Las florituras serán cosa del director. Es muy típico, en las interpretaciones de conciertos, por ejemplo, añadir apoyaturas, trinos, etc. que no están la primera vez que se presentan dichas secciones y motivos melódicos. Se supone que en la época se hacía así en base a lo que se dice en determinados tratados musicales, y que en las partituras anteriores al siglo XIX eso no se indicaba porque se consideraba una obviedad. Pero no es algo seguro. Nunca se podrá saber con tanta certeza como en el repertorio de siglos posteriores lo que querían los compositores.
@@triciaerimo, pero existe una cosa llamada “tradición" en la ópera que no sólo admite, sino que alienta toda clase de agilidades en una cavatina de Rossini (de hecho la costumbre data de la época del propio autor), por ejemplo, pero que desaconseja vivamente tratar de “mejorar" a Mozart.
@@robert111k Si la "tradición" es no "mejorar" a Mozart, ¿por qué es tradición que algunos bajos terminen "in diesen heil'gen hallen" en una nota grave que no está escrita? ¿Por qué era tradición a inicios del siglo XX terminar "Der Hölle Rache" en un sobreagudo? Algunas tradiciones vienen y van.
@@triciaerimo, pues fíjese que, ahora que lo he vuelto a oír, resulta que Spyres empieza con lo que a mí me parecen "cosas raras" justo cuando acaba de evitar hacer toda la frase anterior (ya sabe, _...Nunzio voglio tornar)_ en una solo _fiato._ Curioso. En cuanto a los ejemplos que cita, una cosa es meter un grave en el final de un aria de bajo o un sobreagudo en una de soprano para demostrar facultades (a veces, incluso, fuera del papel pero dentro del, llamémosle, sentido del espectáculo que no deja de ser la ópera: me viene a la cabeza la super nota no escrita de Caballé en el finale del Don Carlos) y otra cosa es cambiar media aria a base de gorgoritos que no añaden nada a la música y, además, hacerlo justo después de haber demostrado que tus facultades actuales no te dan para cantar el aria _come scritto._ Pero si a Vd. le parece bien, cosa suya. Pues no faltaba más. Al final ya sabe, _ca'uno es ca'uno con sus ca'unás._
I think I would have walked out of this absurd production. Everything possible to distract from the music. No matter how well sung, the production turns the whole into an embarrassment.
I'm convinced that modern means cheap!!! Even when the MET does a modern version of a classic opera, it clearly involves less detail on the costumes and the sets.
Don Ottavio will never be able to win ! No matter the beauty of his two arias or two extra arms -- w / hands ! This production proves that the days when singers had power ... are definitely over ! Why would this distinguished singer let the production manager make him look so ridiculous AND the crown ?! At least, Spyres has added some dramatic weight to this very useless character ; although, it doesn't sound like Mozart. I should have tried smoking something to, at least, try to understand this destruction of this opera. If this section is any representation of the rest of the opera & the singers ... someone in the cast must have two heads ?!
Si sta superando ogni limite di ridicolo, inoltre questo cantante, farebbe molto meglio a smettere, perché canta davvero male, e mette note che non ci sono affatto!
