Today’s podcast features the tenor in complete performances of Adam’s Le Postillon de Longemeau; Auber’s La Muette de Portici and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (with Natalie Dessay as Antonia); plus arias by Delibes, Thomas, Massenet and Gustave Charpentier.

Spyres’s recital was originally announced as all-Rossini, but it is now a mixed program including Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, Liszt’s Tre sonetti di Petrarca, and Beethoven’s An die Ferne Gelietbte.

This pair of Armory recitals will serve as the opening salvo in a full New York season Spyres fans have long been awaiting.

Following up his 2020 debut in La Damnation de Faust, he’ll make his second appearance at the Met in the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo heading a particularly strong cast of Ying Fang, Federica Lombardi and Kate Lindsey, led by Manfred Honeck in his company debut.

Spyres will then return at the end of February in what is sure to be one of the season’s more controversial revivals: as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma, seducer of both Sonya Yoncheva and Ekaterina Gubanova.

Earlier in 2022 he returned to the Houston Grand Opera for Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette which can be watched in its entirety via a pirate video posted on YouTube.

Previous Spyres chapters on Trove Thursday have featured him in Bernstein’s Candide and Rossini’s Ermione, as well as Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini.

Spring 2023 will see the release of a sequel of sorts to his brilliant, universally acclaimed Baritenor CD (which features arias from Postillon and Hoffmann). Contratenor on Erato will include rare 17th and 18th century arias accompanied by the period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro.

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Arias from Lakmé, Mignon, Manon and Louise

Michael Spyres

Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Conductor: Jean-François Heisser

5 May 2018
Opéra Comique
In-house recording

Adam: Le Postillon de Lonjumeau

Madeleine/Madame de Latour: Florie Valiquette
Chapelou/Saint-Phar: Michael Spyres
Le marquis de Corcy: Franck Leguérinel
Biju / Alcindor: Laurent Kubla
Bourdon, choriste: Julien Clément
Louis XV: Yannis Ezziadi
Rose: Michel Fau

Chœur Accentus
Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie
Conductor: Sébastien Rouland

Opéra Comique
5 April 2019

Broadcast

Auber: La Muette de Portici

Fenella: Elena Borgogni
Elvire: Maria Alejandres
Masaniello: Michael Spyres
Alphonse: Maxim Mironov
Pietri: Christian Helmer
Borella: Domenico Colaianni
Selva: Mikhail Korobeinikov

Conductor: Alain Guingal

Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari
8 March 2013
In house recording

Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Olympia: Kathleen Kim
Antonia: Natalie Dessay
Giulietta: Tatiana Pavlovskaya
Stella: Susana Cordón
Nicklausse/Muse: Michèle Losier
Antonia’s Mother: Salomé Haller
Hoffmann: Michael Spyres
Lindorf/Coppélius/Doctor Miracle/Dapertutto: Laurent Naouri
Spalanzani: Manuel Esteve
Crespel: Carlos Chausson
Schlémil/Hermann: Isaac Galán
Andrès/Cochenille/Frantz/Pitichinaccio: Francisco Vas
Luther: Alex Sanmartí
Nathanaël: Airam Hernández

Conductor: Stéphane Denève

Gran Teatre del Liceu

February 2013

Broadcast

Le Postillon de Longemeau, La Muette de Portici, Les Contes d’Hoffmann plus the aria collection can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a loud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 files will appear in your download directory.

In addition, nearly 600 other podcast tracks are always available from Apple Podcasts for free, or via any RSS reader. An archive which lists all Trove Thursday offerings in alphabetical order by composer has recently been updated.