Nicky Spence won’t tell me what he’s singing. “Not even the most skilled provocateur could tickle that information out of me, Kevin” he tells me. He’s just been announced as the headliner for the Last Night of the Proms, but beyond the traditional ‘Rule Britannia’ no other repertoire has been announced. “Actually, I’m not entirely sure myself – there are a lot of people putting their magic dust into the cauldron at the moment and we’re brewing up some great ideas. I can say, though, that some outfits are being made!”
The flag-waving patriotism of ‘Rule Britannia’ has come under fire in past years, including the BBC’s decision to strip the work of its lyrics in 2020; they reversed their decision after Boris Johnson weighed in. How does Spence, who hails from Dumfries in Scotland, feel about the Englishness of it all? “Well, I think it’s important to have a sense of communion in music,” he reflects. “If you look into the Royal Albert Hall that night I hope to see many different flags being waved, and I will certainly be waving all kinds of flags on that night!”
It won’t be Spence’s first time on the television: he was a presenter on Sky’s Anyone Can Sing, and as a Guildhall student was signed by Decca as ‘The Scottish Tenor’ in a record deal that included regular television appearances. “It’s funny because Decca now is quite a classy label, but back when I was there I was always on television accompanied by dry ice!” he laughs. “It was a huge opportunity, but it felt like they were making classical music smaller in order to make it easier to digest. So in the end we parted ways and I went back to Guildhall to get my voice sorted out – I couldn’t really sing either, and I felt like I’d already had a vocal crisis!”
After his studies Spence trained at the National Opera Studio and went on to become one of the inaugural Harewood Artists at English National Opera, where his roles have encompassed everything from Wagner to Nico Muhly. “When I was a younger singer my vocal fach was just ‘useful’,” he tells me. “I just wanted to be employed, and I’ve always enjoyed shapeshifting through different repertoire. As I’ve gotten a bit older and more experienced, I’ve been able to take on roles like Florestan or Siegmund which require a bit more endurance. But I love singing a whole buffet of different repertoire and staying as versatile as possible.”
He’s a noted Janáček singer, having sung both Števa and Laca in Jenůfa, Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Case, and Tichon in Kát’a Kabanová, a role he returns to next season at Covent Garden. “I love doing Janáček because it feels so embedded in humanity. It tends to attract real team players – it’s kind of anti-ego in a way!” he says. “I first learned Diary of One Who Disappeared and it absolutely floored me the first time I’ve heard it. It’s about a country boy who is really curious about something bigger than himself, and it felt almost autobiographical in that way. I’ve now done pretty much all of his tenor roles: this autumn I do Šárka in Brno, and then after that it’s just Osud left.”
“They’re like plays which happen to have music,” he explains, “which really appeals to me as a singing actor. My sister doesn’t like opera very much and I have to strong-arm her into coming, but when she saw David Alden’s Jenůfa she really got it. So many of those stories are so accessible – they’re basically the kind of gossip you grow up with!”
He sang Števa in Alden’s ENO production before going on to sing Laca in Claus Guth’s RBO production – how did he deal with switching languages as well as roles? “The first few times I sang in Czech I was terrified, so I made it my job to really try and find the taste of the language. I love singing in English, but there’s so much bad diction and if your diction is not good, no matter the language, it’s such a waste because people don’t understand what you’re saying. I feel like there’s no point in singing if you can’t communicate something.”
Where does he fall on the debate over ENO’s opera-in-English policy? “I think the vernacular can be a great gateway into the art form,” he says, “but it’s not really my hill to die on. I think what is important is doing really good opera, not about what language it’s in. I just did Satyagraha in Paris, and although we were singing in Sanskrit there was this amazing sense of communication between us and the audience, this feeling of a shared experience.”
The other major composer in Spence’s career has been Benjamin Britten, and he made his long-awaited role debut as Peter Grimes last year at WNO. “I feel like Britten has been in me forever, ever since I sang his folk song arrangements in college. Funnily enough, he uses the same sort of sexy underlays that Janáček uses in his Moravian folk songs! Britten has this economy in his writing and these insightful and sophisticated accompaniments, and he wrote so beautifully for the tenor voice given that he was writing for the love of his life.”
Peter Grimes marks a move into heavier repertoire for Spence, who has also taken on Siegmund, Florestan, and Loge in recent seasons. This summer, he takes on the title role of Weber’s Oberon at the Proms with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir Mark Elder conducting. “I remember being on tour with Scottish Opera about 15 years ago,” he tells me, “and one of the pieces we did was from Oberon. So it’s been in my head since then, and when Mark asked me to do it I thought it would be fun. It’s a great opera, and there’s some really fantastic dramatic vocal writing and great storytelling!”
Moving into the Heldentenor repertoire comes with its caveats, though. “I get offered Tristan every season and turn it down every time! I’d love to do Freischütz though, and soon I’ll take on Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. I did that opera few years ago in Paris with Romeo Castellucci directing: he’s a really fun, crazy guy. My French wasn’t great at the time, and they kept on talking about ‘le taureau’. It turns out there was this giant, real-life bull onstage, and they had been playing Schoenberg to this bull the whole time so it didn’t get scared! It’s such a great storytelling piece, and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”
Are there any roles he’s dying to do? “I’m seriously waiting for someone to do an opera about Henry VIII – what is the point of me having a ginger beard and being bigger than the average bear? I love playing horrendous people, so I think that would be a fun challenge. I also love having conversations with living composers, and I think it’s absolutely vital that we properly invest in contemporary music.”
“But last season I had nine role debuts, and that was too much for my little brain to handle,” he tells me. “Especially because I’ve got a two-year-old, so I’m trying to get that balance with family right.” His husband is the pianist Dylan Perez, with whom he often appears in recital. “It’s probably the biggest privilege of my career to get to work with Dylan. I’m in an open musical marriage: I work with lots of amazing pianists like Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake, and so on, but there’s something special about working with Dylan because we know each other’s vulnerabilities.”
Is it hard separating their family life from their musical life? “I think we just try to be good eggs – frankly, anybody who goes home and talks about larynxes should be burned alive. We will geek out a little bit sometimes, but even if we’re having a crazy day and one of us is covered in baby vomit or something, we have the sanctuary of the practice room to just concentrate on the music. We’re great cheerleaders for each other, and especially since becoming a family and having pets and babies and things it’s so important that our communication stays top notch.”
What does he think needs to change to make opera more amenable for parents? “I think having crèches in opera houses would be such a great idea – it would probably end up being a moneymaking opportunity,” he comments. It could be a boon for the UK’s funding-strapped opera landscape, something which Spence feels passionately about. “I was never brought up with classical music, and half the time I’m onstage I realise I’m the only person that went to a state school. I’m always thinking about how we can achieve much rounder representation, and both education and performing arts funding has been so poor for so long. I think if we stay curious and look at what people actually want to see, we can have programming which is brave and interesting and not just the usual bum-fillers. It’s a tough landscape, but I think we’ve just got to be positive. I’ve constructed a whole career on positivity, so I think it’s possible!”
Nicky Spence sings Weber’s Oberon on 6th August, and at the Last Night of the Proms on 12th September.
Spence performs at the Janáček Brno Festival from 15th October to 16th November.
