Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Michael Spyres

Au Festival Berlioz, Sir John Eliot Gardiner dirige une éclatante production de Benvenuto Cellini, avec un grand Michael Spyres et une intelligente mise en espace de Noa Naamat.

Au Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, l'opéra Fervaal de Vincent d'Indy sort de l'oubli, porté par un grand Michael Spyres dans le rôle-titre.

Concert hors-catégorie pour conclure un week-end Berlioz à la Philharmonie : bien entourés, François-Xavier Roth et Les Siècles livrent une interprétation exceptionnelle du diptyque Symphonie fantastique – Lélio.

Pari réussi à l'Opéra Comique pour cette réjouissante réhabilitation de l'opéra d'Adolphe Adam. Mise en scène luxuriante et interprètes de choix : une production à ne pas manquer.

Quasiment oublié depuis sa création en octobre 1854, La Nonne sanglante retrouve enfin les honneurs de la scène. Souhaitons-lui une très longue seconde vie !

Une prise de rôle attendue et convaincante dans une production offrant un bel équilibre vocal. 

Cette alchimie fait ressortir l’étonnante maturité du jeune Mozart (alors âgé de quatorze ans), préfigurant déjà des chefs-d’œuvre tels qu’Idomeneo.

Inspiré du Mithridate de Racine (1673) cet opéra éponyme composé en 1770 par un Mozart tout juste âgé de 14 ans est musicalement brillamment interprété. Dommage que la mise en scène soit quasi inexistante…

Loin de la ringardise dans laquelle certains voudraient reléguer l’œuvre et le genre, Le Pré aux Clercs constitue un très beau moment de musique et de théâtre, plein de charme et d’humour.

Une haute performance de l’ONBA, des solistes et des chœurs, dont l’éminent Chœur de l’Armée française, dans la légende dramatique de Berlioz.

Edward Gardner's conducting brings out the nuances of Berlioz's complex score, but The Met's concert staging lacks theatrical thrust.

Trotz aller Schwächen lohnt ein Besuch, auch wenn man manchmal beide Augen zudrücken muss.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's death, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the opera charting the escapades of the Italian goldsmith and sculptor. 

Ein historischer Berlioz-Triumph für das ORR, den Monteverdi Choir und die Solisten, nur ein Hammerschlag vor beziehungsweise zu viel der Absolutheit. Berlioz kurios!

After their terrific Troyens in 2017, John Nelson, Michael Spyres, Joyce DiDonato and Nicolas Courjal return to Strasbourg for a fabulous Faust. 

Michael Spyres' long lyrical line in the Sanctus was outstanding, his tone ardent and ringing.

Top tenors Lawrence Brownlee and Michael Spyres dared to duel at the Concertgebouw. Both emerged victorious, and not just because of the volley of sensational top notes.

Top-notch singers and some sensitive direction almost make up for Laurent Pelly's frustrating Opera Philadelphia production. 

Im traditionellen Konzert der Wiener Philharmonikern zu Ferragosto erhält Schumanns Zweite Symphonie unter Mutis Händen Charme und südliche Wärme.

Marble and solitude: Willy Decker's view of La clemenza di Tito is revived with a strong cast at L'Opéra de Paris.

An unapologetic treat at the Proms and a composition of immediate appeal.

Offenbach's vivid setting of E.T.A. Hoffmann's fantastic tales gets an enjoyable outing, with Spyres, Testé and Pudova the undoubted stars of the show.

Rare repertoire, polished orchestral playing, thrilling singing – it's no wonder London's operatic cognoscenti were out in force.

A strange evening: superb Mozart playing from Rousset, plenty of fine singing, staging and costumes that one certainly isn’t going to forget. But what’s the point of it all?

Joseph Haydn’s opera Orlando Paladino was once cited as “a mixed salad of madness, mayhem and true love”. A recent revival in Zurich supports that assessment.

Nothing is better than when Berlioz ramps up the decibels. With a huge orchestra and choir and a deluxe starry cast assembled in Strasbourg, this was a special performance. 

The bicentenary of Méhul's death in 1816 was used by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, along with the enterprising Palazzetto Bru Zane, to showcase his music in a varied and entertaining programme.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts an evening where much pomp and circumstance does little justice to the multifarious aesthetics of a great composer.

Eine spannend-fließende Interpretation mit dem Gewandhausorchester und dem Monteverdi Choir unter Andrew Manze.

Love, light, levity, life. A joyful performance of Franz Lehár's Parisian operetta offers catharsis in troubling times. 

A rare outing for Giovanni Simon Mayr's Medea in Corinto at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca. 

Chelsea Opera Group presents the strongest case imaginable for Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore, with Michael Spyres, no less, as the King. 

Director Michieletto’s playful staging, Stefano Montanari’s expressive conducting and stylish singing from a cast of seasoned Rossinian singers make for a thoroughly enjoyable new production of the too rare Il viaggio a Reims at the Dutch National Opera.

Employing a new critical edition by Flora Willson, Mark Elder led the forces of The Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment in a concert performance of Donizetti's Les Martyrs, which demonstrates what a tremendous work it is.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir in a late night performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the BBC Proms.

“He’s not an opera director. He’s a very naughty boy!” Three years after his surreal Damnation of Faust, Terry Gilliam tackles more Berlioz for English National Opera in the shape of Benvenuto Cellini, striking gold again.

The production of Die Fledermaus currently onstage at the Lyric Opera is smart, goofy and not too fussed about keeping all its parts under tight control.

The prefab riffs of computer programs like GarageBand aren’t entirely new. As shown by the musicologist Robert Gjerdingen, many 18th- and early 19th-century composers used pedagogical materials as a basis for their compositions, “composing out” passages in creative ways. But this method is not something the ordinary listener is supposed to recognize.

Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is an odd piece. Despite having a rich recorded legacy, it is not a piece that one encounters often in the concert hall. The technical challenges of this music are up there with virtually any other piece of combined music for choir and orchestra.

As I walked to this concert by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir, I wondered what might have changed in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Beethoven in the two decades since he first recorded these symphonies.