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Michael Spyres is a singer who challenges and reshapes perceptions – as his albums BariTenor and Contra-Tenor have shown. Now, preparing for his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in Summer 2024, he searches In the Shadows to reveal more about Wagner and the origins of his music dramas. “Wagner evokes a varying spectrum of emotions – awe, ecstasy, even trepidation,” explains Spyres. “This album endeavours to illuminate the composers who languish in the shadows, who formed the foundation of Wagner’s compositions and sculpted the framework of vocal writing for the Wagnerian tenor.” In the Shadows culminates with three arias by Wagner – from Lohengrin and the lesser-known Die Feen and Rienzi. Preceding them are early-19th-century arias by composers of the French, German and Italian schools: Méhul, Beethoven, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Auber, Spontini, Bellini and Marschner. Spyres’s distinguished companions in his exploration are the players of Les Talens Lyriques and their conductor Christophe Rousset. Reviews Presto Music 1st March 2024 “The real rarities abound with details that evidently seized Wagner’s imagination: a scene from Meyerbeer’s Il crociato features some solemn low brass writing that seems to point the way to Parsifal, whilst an aria from Spontini’s Agnes von Hohenstaufen seems to look back to Rossini and Meyerbeer as well as forward to Rienzi. The prayer from Rienzi itself brings some of the finest singing and playing on the album, with Spyres on radiant form and some magical colours from the brass in particular. — Katherine Cooper |
