Michael Spyres, singing the act 4 duet Raoul / Valentine "Tu m'aimes ... Tu l'as dit" in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Opera Les Huguenots. Recorded in August 2009. More info about the tenor can be found at: www.fischerartists.com/michael...
Les Huguenots is the grandest of all grand opera. This is an excellent performance of the duet scene. Listen to all of the opera. It is full of beautiful, grand music.
This is intelligent singing on any level. Spyres shows he can sing "full out". when he has to. A big sound is not necessarily the sign of a great singer. I would gladly take Spyres on my roster instead of singers who consistently force their voice to obtain volume. There are too many of them on today's operatic stages the world over. An outstanding singer takes many years and hard work to develop. Spyres is the real deal.
@Shlomo Hoffert. In one of his interviews he said that he went to a music academy in the USA right at the beginning and after that went to Vienna Conservatoire for 2 1/2 years but after that he worked by himself in training his voice. If you listen to his interview with Scena Musicale’s Don Adriano you will find out how single minded and obsessive he is about his singing and the many years of hard work he put into getting where he is today. And to learn to sing how Rossini required his singers to sing. If nothing else you can admire his patience, perseverance and commitment into getting things right.
+Paolo Ferraro. Intelligent singing is never an excuse for a half voice. It does, however, connote an appropriate and judicious use of the voice as the situation dictates. It is far more difficult to control the volume of the voice than to sing full out. Spyres hits the C# tack on and at his full volume; that is what nature gave him. The duet is beautifully sung. If you wish you can find the Teschemeyer-Wittrisch (1930"s) recording on YT. It is the benchmark performance of this marvelous duet.
thanks, this is good news. In Berlin, I managed to hear him only in the small part of Arturo (Lucia). Hope to hear him soon at the MET (am going there every year). Look forward to the commercial recordings!
Qué absurda e incomprensible escena de sexo. Le arrancaron de cuajo toda la poesía y belleza de la música y el texto. ¿Cómo la gente puede soportar tantas atrocidades de parte de los regisseurs?
I have just seen this opera for the first time at La Monnaie, Brussels in a fabulous production with a very strong cast-but this tenor is much better!!
He is FANTASTIC, I must say, and I am very hard to please. But NO WAY he is self-taught. It might sound good for PR to say that, but any tenor worth his salt knows that is not a self-taught voice. Ultimately it does not matter who taught him. He is a splendid singer. Great musicality and technique.
Lupo A. Janelli. He studied at the Vienna Conservatoire. He may well no longer be using a voice teacher but Vienna is a great place for musicians to get their grounding
mi chiamo nicola,sono del 56,cresciuto a pane e sogni,spesso solo sogni;ci siamo inebriati dei dischi pirati di recite leggendarie dove la Simionato dava a Valentine i suoi languori e Corelli le sue isterie a Raoul;in questo video,quello che si ascolta da Spyres è molto,molto,molto altro.Grazie.nicola moccia
Superbe. Michael Spyres est aujourd'hui l'un des meilleurs ténors belcantistes, sinon le meilleur. Il chante ici Raoul comme il faut le chanter, comme le chantait sans aucun doute Nourrit, ténor mozartien et rossinien, avec toutes les nuances écrites, et non en vériste musclor comme Corelli.
At the Sarotoga Summer Festival in August, 2009 with Leon Botstein as the conductor. This was the first time that this opera was performed in the New York Metropolitan area in over 100 years. A private CD exists of this performance.
No, this was the Bard Summer Festival (nowhere near Saratoga). And the opera had been performed several times in New York within living memory, as I know because I attended three of those performances, including the ones where Beverly Sills sang the Queen and the one where Stoyanova and Giordani sang Valentine and Raoul.
I'm not denying that Corelli's singing was impressive, muscular, force-de-nature etc. but it's simply incorrect to imply that singing high notes top notes piano are equivalent to "taking the easy way out." What Michael Spyres is doing is the product of extraordinary amounts of studying
I have to assume this assumption is made by people that have never sung or studied voice themselves. It takes real skill to sweetly sing high notes and control them. Pavarotti for example is amazing for his masterful control, not just his ability to sing full voice high C's. The latter is impressive, but there is way more to good singing than that.
Actually, there was an American Opera Society Carnegie Hall HUGUENOTS concert in 1969 with Beverly Sills, Angeles Gulin, Tony Poncet and Justino Diaz, led by Reynald Giovaninetti.
Io sono italiano e amo Corelli in questa parte. Detto questo Spyres e un cantante eccezionale al pari di Corelli, sicuramente più moderno e più musicale. Spero canti a lungo. Non ti stanchi mai di ascoltarlo. L'ho visto dal vivo all'Opera Comique in un'opera di Herold e fu straordinario...premettendo che ho ascoltato dal vivo tante volte Corelli, ma il paragone comunque e' molto azzardato e fuori posto perché sono due cantanti completamente differenti e con un iter artistico opposto.
You are being unfair by putting Gedda and Corelli in the same category. Completely different singers. Gedda had mastered nearly every style of vocal music and sang idiomatically in all of them, complete will flawless diction. Corelli was much different. He possessed a glorious, one of a kind instrument and style that was purely italian verismo. Belcanto was hit or miss, and his french music is highly....distinctive. A great, great artist, but not a beacon for style in any French repertoire
I enjoy the voix mixte of the French tenors. It can be part of the style, especially in this aria. Spyres PPP is quite nice, but to my ears not the true voix mixte. It is especially charming in French operetta.
@maulwurfchen am i right in thinking that I saw him at the Met last month? I think i saw him walking around with an entourage or something. is he perhaps in talks to sing something there?
Fine - you will receive no argument from me concerning the magnificent technique & singing of Gedda. However, you need to be fair - Gedda was certainly NOT a "beacon for style" in the operas that Corelli owned (Cavaradossi, Alvaro, Chenier, Calaf). They were very, very different, yet could thrill audiences beyond belief & I consider myself blessed to have seen both of them scores of times while in their great primes.
@tneprescintr The scene takes place in Paris in 1572, just before the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (a wave of Catholic mob violence directed against Protestants). Raoul, a young Protestant nobleman, has a clandestine encounter with his lover Valentine inside her father's home. He finds out that Valentine's father is an instigator of the upcoming riot, and wonders whether he should warn his fellow Protestants or stay with Valentine. Eventually, he makes his escape from the house.
Yes, because it's SO much easier to forte than piano at the top of the range. There's NO way it could be difficult to sing passages as written instead of hacking at them like a sledgehammer. I don't know how you've gotten it into your head that it takes more effort to sing full out like Corelli. Maybe more physical endurance, but musicality? Nonsense. Lauri-Volpi and Corelli were legends in their own right, but it's laughable to characterize either of them as idiomatic to French music
This is the general opinion of people that don't sing and don't know how much control a clean, pianissimo requires in the higher part of the register. It's easy enough falsetto but singing it mixed voice is a real skill and it takes a lot of time and practice to do well and consistently. But....it's not as showy to people that don't know how hard it is. I would wager if you had ten singers and ten opera fans listen to the same piece of music the really hard to nail control sections of the music would impress singers and there really showy dramatic bits would impress the fans. This is how it is but it would be nice if non-singers would refrain from telling everyone about technique and what is and isn't difficult to sing. It's clear they don't know if they're shitting on this beautifully controlled pianissimo. Spyres is really one of a small handful of people in the last 50 years with this kind of control and beautiful ring. Bruce Ford and Leopold Simoneau being some others. Simoneau similarly has a "wimpy little half voice" and is highly respected as a master because of it.
Superb! Why are there no recordings of this magnificent tenor available and why don´t we see him in major parts in European opera houses? I was lucky enough to catch him in some performances at the Bad Wildbad Rossini fastival - whre the exceptional beauty of his voice made me even endure the ridiculous Euro Trash productions. Bravo Michael Spyres !!!
@maulwurfchen He is not self-taught. According to the biography on his website, "He began his studies in the U.S.A. and continued them at the Vienna Conservatory, Austria." from michaelspyres dotcom.
Thanks. One cannot imagine how long studying such an over-three-octaves-voice needs. Spyres got absolutly perfekt but he should stop demonstrating his deeper possibilities. He will/would pay for it.
"Maybe more physical endurance." Not just maybe. I was at a Corelli Tosca in '68 in Pasadena and that "Vittoria" went around the world and back. Audience paralyzed. He could make baroque sound like verismo. About the only way I can stand it. Of course I have the Corelli/Sutherland Huguenots. His E Lucevan le Stelle had the most incredible pianissimos, almost as thrilling as the Vittoria. However, you will hear from his earlier performances, it took a while to master them. Harder???
John Yohalem franco canadienne, elle chante beaucoup à l'heure opéra de Marseille.Excellente dans le répertoire français aussi Boeldieu maîtrise par les deux.
Apparently, we still don't know, nor the name of the soprano. It would be nice to have the full credits, as a mark of respect to ALL the artists involved.
I always wanted to see this opera, but I don't want to see it done this way, e. g. Valentine in sexual hysteria. The ludicrous visual just spoils the beautiful singing.
ploplisphilin It appeals to the masses. The soprano can not sing this as intended. So They decided to add this sexual twist to ruin a beautiful duet. The Tenor singing @ half voice and falsetto takes away from the desperation intensity of this beautiful duet. Poor guy has a long road & he certainly does his best of this demanding duet. Arnold Bourbon Amaral. 👎 Sorry my friends
So true. The duet was beautiful until this point and this immoral scene destroyed the beauty of the music and the concentration of the audience (at least mine). The director of the production stooped so low.
You are right. This is shame to have done this way and to leave this heavenly music in the shadow of what is going on on the stage. This is almost sacrilegious. Shame on the director of the production.
@ guy phillin I also think it is dramatically ridiculous to think that someone who is fearing for his life when many of his friends and fellow Protestants are about to be massacred he thinks of having sex with his lover before he rushes off in fear of his and his comrades’ survival! Dramatically it is idiotic but modern directors don’t think they have done their job unless they insert a sex scene somewhere in the action!
So true! Today's modern productions destroy everything that is beautiful and wholesome. They are selfish, they want their trash to dominate the opera and not the music.
This powerful singing is Not necessary, in the high Register he Goes in Falsetto, Look at the Performance of Juan Diego Flórez as Raoul at Berlin 2016 and you can hear the different, it's my Taste, i think this aria is Not so much crying
This Spyres whispers & sings falsetto! Messsrs Gedda, Corelli, Lauri Volpi & Leech did not need to "hack" at top notes & FYI Mr. Corelli possessed an astounding ability at piano & diminuendo singing, displaying full control of his large, ringing, magnificent voice! No, Corelli was not "idiomatic" to French music; so what?, He could sing a gorgeous "Italianate" Romeo. Werther, Don Jose.
@@brunnhilde7193 Bunch of armchair quarterbacks around here. Singing pianissimo in a mixed voice so sweetly and cleanly with such a beautiful ring is extremely difficult and IMO the real holy grail of good singing. Anyone that has actually sung difficult repertoire knows how much control and support this requires. I would argue it's the hardest element to nail consistently. High, forte notes require almost no control and are a matter of ability and placement.
"Intelligent singing" appears to be equated/presented as an excuse for half a voice! Corelli, Gedda, et al, were more than capable of singing pianissimi, but were equally capable of thrilling strong forte!
Evidently you're not familiar with whole areas of opera, singing and voice. Spyre's singing style in this piece is very much in keeping with the style of many French operas.
While Mr. Spyres has a pleasant sound, for my tastes, he resorts too much to the "easy way out" in singing those top notes piano/even falsetto. I much prefer the full voice approach of Corelli, Lauri-Volpi, Leech.
News flash - it's much more difficult to sing the top notes in voix mixte (mezza voce). This guy has great technique and superb French style. His musical approach to Raoul is poetic, rather than swashbuckling, like Corelli. Both are valid.
@@brunnhilde7193 Yes, thank you. This thread is a shit show. This kind of controlled singing is incredibly difficult and few people do it anywhere near as well as Spyres. Pavarotti was really the only big voice tenor with great dynamic control and it's often lamented that he spent so much time darkening his voice because he lost a bit of his ringy sound and it became much heavier. Mostly this kind of singing is limited to smaller voices and lyric tenors.
@@brendant19 treba si naliat cisteho vina, ako su protezovani umelci zo spojenych statov, pritom je to cele nemastne-neslane, taky neutral, bez co i len naznaku atacku pitchu vysokych not, artikulacia bacu z maleho boroveho ked sa rozprava s duncom...
