Critic Kaspar Sannemann – in his enthusiastic review for the German website Oper Aktuell – has offered considerable praise for A Fool for Love, tenor Michael Spyres’ recently-released debut album of arias on Delos (DE 3413). In Lindsay Koob’s admittedly figurative translation, Sanneman writes:
“The romantic crises of the operatic tenor have often been (and still are) deplored and sensationalized … and this album from Michael Spyres proves in no uncertain terms that … such an approach is hardly justified.
… Spyres has chosen 13 arias for his first solo recital recording – and he presents them in an originally conceived and dramatically sensitive framework: a man, in a kind of retrospective reverie, explores the different aspects of love’s mystery.”
Then, after commenting at length on Spyres‘ remarkable ability to adapt his versatile voice to the demands of different styles and composers, Sannemann concludes:
“… (Spyres) expresses love’s joys and agonies without resorting to overwrought, sobbing outpourings – managing thereby to excite and move us all the more.
… With his smart selection of arias by the great operatic masters, Spyres – with his gracious and lovely voice – comprehensively plumbs the stages of a hopeless romantic’s love from varied perspectives, while avoiding contrived pathos.” – Kaspar Sannemann Oper Aktuell
Read the full review in German on Oper Aktuell!
MICHAEL SPYRES
A FOOL FOR LOVE, Tenor Arias
DE 3414
“Michael Spyres has a lovely, liquid tenor, all honey for love duets and some metal for cries of outraged honor.” – John Yohalem, from Opera Today
• Uniquely original collection theme: Use of varied arias to tell a story
• Broad array of periods and styles
• Fresh, young tenor with a brilliant future: one of tomorrow’s likely vocal superstars
Track Listing: Donizetti: La fille du Regiment: “Ah! mes amis…Pour mon ame” Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress: “Here I stand” Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia: “Cessa di più resistere” Donizetti: L’elisir d’Amore: “Una furtiva lagrima” Mozart: Don Giovanni: “Il mio tesoro” Bizet: Les Pecheurs de Perles: “Je crois entendre encore” Massenet: Werther: “Pourquoi me réveiller” Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier: “Di rigori armato il seno” Puccini: La Boheme: “Che gelida manina” Verdi: Rigoletto: “La donna è mobile” Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor: “Fra poco me ricovero” Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin: “Kuda, kuda…” Cilea: L’Arlesiana: “E la solita storia…”
Encore: Lehar: Das Land des Lächelns: “Dein ist mein ganzes herz”
Listen to the full track of Donizetti: L’elisir d’Amore: “Una furtiva lagrima” on Delos Radio:
A Fool For Love: Track 4: L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) – Una furtiva lagrima by Delos Radio
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