Michael Spyres

Espoir
Arias sung by Gilbert Duprez
Michael Spyres t, The Hallé, Carlo Rizzi
Opera Rara ORR251

Of the 19th-century singers who created the framework for what we consider the modern tenor voice, three stand out: Adolphe Nourrit (1802-1839), Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854) and Gilbert Duprez (1806-96). Each in his way explored the upper register using varying degrees of chest voice as opposed to the falsetto commonly deployed in the Baroque.

As the instrument developed, so composers wrote increasingly demanding roles for their male stars – Rossini for Rubini, Bellini for Nourrit, and Donizetti for Duprez. Rubini’s membership of the famous ‘Puritani...