Michael Spyres

Michael Spyres is one of the most distinctive tenors of his generation. He was born and raised in the Ozarks region of Missouri, USA. His vocal range is that of a baritenor – a rare voice type combining the richness of a baritone with the high register of a tenor, to which he owes his unusually broad repertoire, ranging from the Baroque through Classicism and bel canto to French grand opéra and 20th-century music. He has recorded more than thirty CDs and ten DVDs.

In recent years, he has also established himself as a sought-after performer of the heroic tenor repertoire. He made his Wagner debut in 2024 as Lohengrin at the Opéra national du Rhin; in the same year, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in the role of Siegmund in Die Walküre, and in 2025 he returned there in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In the 2025/2026 season, he sang his first Tristan in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera.

His other roles include Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and at the Vienna State Opera, and the title role in a new production of The Tales of Hoffmann at the Opéra Comique in Paris. As a soloist, he has performed under the baton of Christian Thielemann at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and the Musikverein in Vienna; he regularly performs recital repertoire.

Spyres's artistic standing is confirmed by his performances at the world's most prestigious opera houses and concert halls – Teatro alla Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Opéra national de Paris, the Bavarian State Opera, the Teatro Real, the Semperoper, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Gewandhaus – and at festivals in Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Pesaro, Edinburgh and the BBC Proms.

Since 2015, he has served as Artistic Director of the Ozarks Lyric Opera in his hometown, where he has staged fifteen opera productions and five gala concerts. Alongside this, he translates librettos, teaches on masterclasses and mentors young singers.

He has collaborated with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Raphaël Pichon and Christophe Rousset. He is the recipient of the Gramophone Classical Music Award (2022), the International Opera Awards (2024), the OPER! Award (2024) and the Opus Klassik (2024); in 2021, the French government awarded him the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Michael Spyres has previously performed in Bratislava as part of the Kapos agency's concert series alongside tenor Lawrence Brownlee (Game of Tenors, 2023); this is his first appearance at the Bratislava Music Festival.