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© Marco Borrelli
About
Michael Spyres is one of the most accomplished tenors of his generation, with more than 10 DVDs and 30 CDs to his name. Born and raised in the Ozarks in an extremely musical family, he has been celebrated in the world’s most prestigious international opera houses, festivals, and concert halls. Collocating himself among the most legendary tenors, Michael has reached cult status as the only active baritenor of our days and for his interpretations in the widest range of repertoire from Baroque to Classical to 20th century, while firmly establishing himself as an expert within the Bel Canto, Romantic, and French Grand Opera genres.
Most recently, the Missouri-born singer has emerged as one of today’s most requested tenors of the German Helden repertoire. He made his Wagner debut as Lohengrin at the Opéra du Rhin in 2024, “soaring to the firmament of Wagner heaven” (Le Monde). During the 2024 Wagner Festival, Michael made his enthusiastically received house and role debut as Siegmund in Die Walküre. He returns to Bayreuth in 2025 to sing his first Stolzing in a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, also reprising Siegmund.
Other performances of the 2024/25 season lead the superstar tenor to the Wiener Staatsoper as Florestan in Fidelio, as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, and in the title role of Palestrina conducted by Christian Thielemann. At the Houston Grand Opera, he makes his role debut as Manrico in Il trovatore, while engagements on the concert platform include Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and Britten’s Les Illuminations with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été at the Luxembourg Philharmonic as well as Handel’s Jephtha with Il pomo d’oro in Paris, Madrid, Dortmund, Turku, Budapest, and Katowice. He also performs solo concerts in London, Essen, and Lisbon.
In his meteoric rise, Michael has quickly established himself as one of the greatest singers of his generation and has sung at many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, concert halls, and festivals, such as the Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Paris Opéra National, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Teatro Real Madrid, Liceu Barcelona, Lyric Opera Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, La Monnaie Brussels, Dutch National Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées of Paris, Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Bunka Kaikan Hall Tokyo, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Salzburg Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro, the Edinburgh Festival and the BBC Proms.
Since 2015, Michael has had the honor of being the only International Opera Star who is not just a performer but also an impresario. Mr. Spyres has been the Artistic Director of his hometown opera company, the Ozarks Lyric Opera, and has been involved in every aspect of the renaissance of his regional company. In addition to being the active Artistic Director, he has translated libretti and actively teaches masterclasses while guiding young artists’ careers. In recent years, he has produced numerous events, including 15 operas and five gala concerts.
Michael has worked with many of the world’s most renowned conductors, such as Barenboim, A. Davis, Elder, Gardiner, Gardner, Gatti, Gergiev, Haïm, Luisi, Mariotti, Muti, Nelson, Nézet-Séguin, Pappano, Petrenko, Pichon, Pidò, Rousset, Rovaris, Summers, Young and Zedda.
He is the recipient of the 2024 International Opera Award, Oper! and Opus Klassik Awards 2024 as well as of the 2022 Gramophone Classical Music Award. In 2021, Michael was honored with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres designation (Knight Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government.