Michael Spyres: Espoir CD review – hits all the high notes

The specialist label Opera Rara has issued a pair of bel canto “collection” discs, this one featuring the American tenor of the moment (the other is Echo by soprano Joyce El-Khoury). Michael Spyres has chosen mainly French repertoire made famous in its day by Gilbert Duprez (1806-96), credited as the first modern tenor. Arias from Donizetti’s Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Halévy’s La reine de Chypre and Auber’s Le lac des fées feature alongside the triumphant Venise, ô ma patrie from Rossini’s Othello and Seul pour lutter from Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Spyres, with elegant support from the Hallé and Carlo Rizzi, demonstrates his ease in top notes, his fluency and his athletic flexibility. Liner notes put all these rarities in context.