Michael Spyres, Choeur d’hommes de l’Opéra national du Rhin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg / Marko Letonja - Baritenor

Erato

£16.70

Format: CD
ICPN: 0190295156664
Release Date: 24 Sep 2021
Genre: Classical

An album with a mission to defy classification, BariTenor is a tour de force for Michael Spyres. It ranges wide, encompassing repertoire normally assigned to both tenors and baritones. Programming 18 arias by 15 composers, it covers three centuries of opera in Italian, French and German, setting mainstream works beside relative rarities, and rediscovering Étienne Méhul’s Ariodant, first heard in 1799. Michael Spyres has achieved renown as a multi-faceted tenor, but ‘baritenor’ is the term he uses to describe his voice, which balances brilliant high notes with a robust lower register. “Having started off as a baritone, I spent 10 years turning myself into a tenor. Voices like mine have existed as long as opera has existed, and the entire programme of this album is linked by the baritenor technique. I am making an honest attempt to explore the baritenor as a forgotten vocal phenomenon ... For me, this album is more than a dream come true.” Joining Spyres are the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under its Chief Conductor Marko Letonja, and the male singers of the chorus of the Opéra du Rhin.

TRACKLIST CD & DIGITAL – BARITENOR
1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Idomeneo K.366, Act II, scene 3
“Fuor del mar” (Idomeneo)
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492, Act III, scene 4, No18
“Hai gia vinto la causa?” (Il Conte)
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni, K.527, Act II
“Deh, vieni al la finestra” (Don Giovanni)
4. Etienne Nicolas Mehul: Ariodant, Act III, scene 2
“Oh, Dieux! Ecoutez ma prière” (Edgard)
5. Gaspare Spontini: la Vestale, Act III
“Qu’ai-je vu! Quels apprets” (Licinius)
6. Gioachino Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Act I No2
“Largo al factotum” (Figaro)
7. Gioachino Rossini: Otello, Act I, scene 1
“Ah! si, per voi già sento....Premio maggior di questo....Amor, dirada il nembo” (Otello, Jago, chorus)
8. Adolphe Adam: Le postillon de Lonjumeau, Act I
”Mes amis, écoutez l’histoire d’un jeune et galant postillon” (Chapelou, chorus)
9. Gaetano Donizetti: La fille du régiment, Act I
“Ah! Mes amis, quel jour de fête!” (Tonio, Chorus)
10. Giuseppe Verdi: Il Trovatore, Act II
“Tutto e deserto.....Il balen del suo sorriso” (Il Conte)
11. Ambroise Thomas: Hamlet, Act II
“C'est en croyant revoir‎...Le vin dissipe la tristesse” (Hamlet, Marcellus, Horatio, Chorus)
12. Jacques Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Act I
“Va! pour Kleinzach” (Hoffmann, Nathanael, Chorus)
13. Ruggero Leoncavallo: Pagliacci, Prologue
“Si può? Signore! Signori!” (Tonio)
14. Franz Lehár: Die Lustige Witwe Act I, No. 4
“O Vaterland du machst bei Tag‎...Da geh ich zu Maxim” (Danilo)
15. Richard Wagner: Lohengrin Act III, scene 3
“Aux bords lointains” (Lohengrin)
16. Maurice Ravel: L’heure espagnole, M. 52, scene 10
“Voilà, ce que j'appelle une femme charmante” (Ramiro)
17. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
“Dies nox et omnia”
18. Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Die tote Stadt, Act I
“Gluck, das mir verblieb” (Marietta’s lied)

Artists:
Michael Spyres, tenor
Choeur d’hommes de l’Opéra national du Rhin
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg
Marko Letonja, conductor