Toby Spence
Encyclopedia
Toby Spence, born London 1969, is a professional and internationally renowned tenor
active on the concert platform, in the opera house and in recordings across a wide range of classical music.
. As a young mother, she worked as personal assistant to Walter Legge
and Yehudi Menuhin
. Artists and musicians were regular lunch guests at the family home.
He was educated at Uppingham School
and gained an honours degree in music at New College, Oxford
, where he was a choral scholar and was much influence by his tutor Edward Higginbotham.
He continued his vocal studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
, where he studied with David Pollard.
’s production of Idomeneo
, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
; he repeated the role later the same year in Munich after only one day of rehearsal.
Among his first engagements were La Calisto with Rene Jacobs in Brussels
, Mitridate in Mitridate Rè di Ponto under Roger Norrington
at the Mozart week in Salzburg
, and subsequently at the Salzburg Summer Festival
, Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at the English National Opera
, and David in Die Meistersinger under Antonio Pappano
at La Monnaie
in Brussels
. At the same time he was performing on the concert platform in repertoire ranging from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis to Saint François d'Assise by Messiaen.
Toby Spence has on-going connections with English National Opera
(ENO), and is a strong believer of the policy of singing in English. He appeared in successive seasons at the Opéra National de Paris and also at the Bavarian State Opera
. His career with the Royal Opera
at Covent Garden is nascent. After creating the role of Ferdinand in Thomas Adès
' opera The Tempest
, he was invited to appear in the next three seasons at Covent Garden.
The tenor also has a close association with The Scottish Ensemble, a string ensemble based in Glasgow, which draws its players from the orchestras of London and Scotland. Every year he tours Scotland with the ensemble, performing recitals in all the major cities north of the border. They have recorded a disc of Britten’s song cycles together, which was greeted enthusiastically by British and international critics alike.
Although he sang in some recitals at the beginning of his professional career, he was disatisfied with the result and set song to one side for several years. When he resumed recitals his repertoire included Poulenc, Brahms and Britten, as well as the original version of Les nuits d'été
with piano.
Other engagements on the concert platform have included a recital and a concert with The Scottish Ensemble at Wigmore Hall
, Britten's War Requiem in Vienna, and Bach’s St John Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle
. He has also sung Gerontius
with the Vienna Philharmonic under Rattle. In December 2010, he sang with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis in Handel's Messiah.
He made his Proms debut in 1997, in a performance of the Schubert Mass No. 5 in A flat major, D 678, following this with Nielsen's Springtime on Funen in 1999, the Bach St John Passion and Parsifal in 2000, Handel's Acis and Galatea, HWV 49 in 2001, Les Troyens à Carthage in 2003, Les noces
in 2004, the Missa solemnis
in 2005, Delius A Song of the High Hills
in 2009 and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor 'Choral' in 2011.
During 2005 and 2006 the tenor's stage roles ranged from Tamino in The Magic Flute
at the Teatro Real
in Madrid
and at ENO
, to the Madwoman in Benjamin Britten
’s Curlew River
at the Edinburgh Festival
, Count Almaviva in Rossini
’s The Barber of Seville
at Covent Garden and Tom Rakewell in Igor Stravinsky
's The Rake's Progress
. The latter role was one Spence was keen to play from the start of his career, and he has sung it in several productions around the world.
Evading categorisation since the beginning of his career, Spence has been described as being at home in both Wagner
and Rameau
roles, along with everything in between. In the 2006 summer season of the Santa Fe Opera
, he sang the roles of Tamino and Ferdinand, the latter in the American premiere production of Adès' The Tempest.
In 2009, Spence sang the role of St. John in Handel
's La Resurrezione
in a recording with Le Concert d’Astrée under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm
. In 2011 his Chicago debut was as Nanki-Poo in The Mikado
.
In an interview for the Paris Opera in 2008 Spence named Arsène Wenger
as his non-musical hero. A man of keen and wide interests, he regularly visits galleries and is a keen concert and cinema goer. He enjoys travelling and in 2003 spent four weeks going around Iran, visiting several cities.
and Arthur Bliss
, the Duo de l'ouvreuse de l'Opéra-Comique et de l'employé du Bon Marché
by Chabrier, and in Volumes 32 & 35 of the Hyperion Schubert edition.
Other recordings included Parry's Job, Haydn's The Creation, Paroles tissées by Lutosławski, Offenbach's Vert-Vert, Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5, Handel's La Resurrezione
, HWV47, Finzi's Dies natalis
, Op. 8, La Rondine
, Così fan tutte
, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
, Op. 31, Bantock's Omar Khayyám, and the title role in Sullivan's Ivanhoe
.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
active on the concert platform, in the opera house and in recordings across a wide range of classical music.
Early life and studies
Spence was born into a musical family that had once owned Squire Pianos, a piano manufactory in North London. His father was a doctor, and his mother a pianist, who worked as an archivist at the Royal College of MusicRoyal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
. As a young mother, she worked as personal assistant to Walter Legge
Walter Legge
Harry Walter Legge was an influential English classical record producer, most notably for EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior...
and Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
. Artists and musicians were regular lunch guests at the family home.
He was educated at Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
and gained an honours degree in music at New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, where he was a choral scholar and was much influence by his tutor Edward Higginbotham.
He continued his vocal studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, where he studied with David Pollard.
Career
Spence's professional debut was in 1995 as Idamante in Welsh National OperaWelsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
’s production of Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
; he repeated the role later the same year in Munich after only one day of rehearsal.
Among his first engagements were La Calisto with Rene Jacobs in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Mitridate in Mitridate Rè di Ponto under Roger Norrington
Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....
at the Mozart week in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, and subsequently at the Salzburg Summer Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
, Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
, and David in Die Meistersinger under Antonio Pappano
Antonio Pappano
Antonio Pappano is a British conductor and pianist of Italian parentage.Pappano's family relocated to England from Castelfranco in Miscano near Benevento, Italy in 1958 and at the time of his birth his parents worked in the restaurant business, but Pasquale Pappano, his father, was by vocation a...
at La Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. At the same time he was performing on the concert platform in repertoire ranging from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis to Saint François d'Assise by Messiaen.
Toby Spence has on-going connections with English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
(ENO), and is a strong believer of the policy of singing in English. He appeared in successive seasons at the Opéra National de Paris and also at the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
. His career with the Royal Opera
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
at Covent Garden is nascent. After creating the role of Ferdinand in Thomas Adès
Thomas Adès
Thomas Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor.-Biography:Adès studied piano with Paul Berkowitz and later composition with Robert Saxton at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London...
' opera The Tempest
The Tempest (Adès)
The Tempest is an opera by English composer Thomas Adès with a libretto in English by Meredith Oakes based on the play, The Tempest by William Shakespeare.-Background and premiere performances:...
, he was invited to appear in the next three seasons at Covent Garden.
The tenor also has a close association with The Scottish Ensemble, a string ensemble based in Glasgow, which draws its players from the orchestras of London and Scotland. Every year he tours Scotland with the ensemble, performing recitals in all the major cities north of the border. They have recorded a disc of Britten’s song cycles together, which was greeted enthusiastically by British and international critics alike.
Although he sang in some recitals at the beginning of his professional career, he was disatisfied with the result and set song to one side for several years. When he resumed recitals his repertoire included Poulenc, Brahms and Britten, as well as the original version of Les nuits d'été
Les nuits d'été
Les nuits d'été , Op. 7, is a song cycle by the French composer Hector Berlioz. It is a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. The collection was completed in 1841, and initially composed for either baritone, contralto, or mezzo-soprano, and piano...
with piano.
Other engagements on the concert platform have included a recital and a concert with The Scottish Ensemble at Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, Britten's War Requiem in Vienna, and Bach’s St John Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
. He has also sung Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
with the Vienna Philharmonic under Rattle. In December 2010, he sang with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis in Handel's Messiah.
He made his Proms debut in 1997, in a performance of the Schubert Mass No. 5 in A flat major, D 678, following this with Nielsen's Springtime on Funen in 1999, the Bach St John Passion and Parsifal in 2000, Handel's Acis and Galatea, HWV 49 in 2001, Les Troyens à Carthage in 2003, Les noces
Les Noces
Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists.-History:The ballet was premiered on June 13, 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska...
in 2004, the Missa solemnis
Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis is Latin for solemn mass, and is a name which has been applied to a number of musical settings of the mass, especially particularly serious or large-scale ones.The following are notable examples:...
in 2005, Delius A Song of the High Hills
A Song of the High Hills
A Song of the High Hills is a work for tenor, soprano, chorus and orchestra by Frederick Delius. Composed in 1911, it was first performed under the direction of Albert Coates, at the Queen's Hall in London on February 26, 1920...
in 2009 and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor 'Choral' in 2011.
During 2005 and 2006 the tenor's stage roles ranged from Tamino in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
at the Teatro Real
Teatro Real
The Teatro Real or simply El Real , is a major opera house located in Madrid, Spain.-History:...
in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and at ENO
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
, to the Madwoman in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
’s Curlew River
Curlew River
Curlew River — A Parable for Church Performance is the first of three Church Parables by Benjamin Britten. The work is based on the Japanese noh play Sumidagawa of Juro Motomasa , which Britten saw during a visit to Japan and the Far East in early 1956...
at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
, Count Almaviva in Rossini
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
’s The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
at Covent Garden and Tom Rakewell in Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
. The latter role was one Spence was keen to play from the start of his career, and he has sung it in several productions around the world.
Evading categorisation since the beginning of his career, Spence has been described as being at home in both Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
roles, along with everything in between. In the 2006 summer season of the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
, he sang the roles of Tamino and Ferdinand, the latter in the American premiere production of Adès' The Tempest.
In 2009, Spence sang the role of St. John in Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's La Resurrezione
La Resurrezione
La resurrezione is a sacred oratorio by George Frideric Handel, set to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece . Capece was court poet to Queen Maria Casimira of Poland, who was living in exile in Rome. It was first performed on the Easter Sunday of 1708 at Rome, with the backing of the Marchese...
in a recording with Le Concert d’Astrée under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm
Emmanuelle Haïm
Emmanuelle Haïm is a French harpsichordist and conductor with a particular interest in early music and Baroque music....
. In 2011 his Chicago debut was as Nanki-Poo in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
.
In an interview for the Paris Opera in 2008 Spence named Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger, OBE is a French association football manager and former player, who has managed English Premier League side Arsenal since 1996...
as his non-musical hero. A man of keen and wide interests, he regularly visits galleries and is a keen concert and cinema goer. He enjoys travelling and in 2003 spent four weeks going around Iran, visiting several cities.
Recordings
Toby Spence has participated in many varied recordings, including songs by Liza LehmannLiza Lehmann
Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.-Biography:She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger...
and Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
, the Duo de l'ouvreuse de l'Opéra-Comique et de l'employé du Bon Marché
Duo de l'ouvreuse de l'Opéra-Comique et de l'employé du Bon Marché
The Duo de l’ouvreuse de l’Opéra Comique et l’employé du Bon Marché is a comic vocal work by Emmanuel Chabrier for soprano and tenor, with piano accompaniment...
by Chabrier, and in Volumes 32 & 35 of the Hyperion Schubert edition.
Other recordings included Parry's Job, Haydn's The Creation, Paroles tissées by Lutosławski, Offenbach's Vert-Vert, Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5, Handel's La Resurrezione
La Resurrezione
La resurrezione is a sacred oratorio by George Frideric Handel, set to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece . Capece was court poet to Queen Maria Casimira of Poland, who was living in exile in Rome. It was first performed on the Easter Sunday of 1708 at Rome, with the backing of the Marchese...
, HWV47, Finzi's Dies natalis
Dies natalis
Dies natalis is a five-movement work by Gerald Finzi, setting texts by Thomas Traherne, for solo soprano or tenor and string orchestra.-History:Dies Natalis is a cantata for solo voice and string orchestra...
, Op. 8, La Rondine
La rondine
La rondine is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
, Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a song cycle written in 1943 by the English composer Benjamin Britten, scored for tenor accompanied by a solo horn and a small string orchestra...
, Op. 31, Bantock's Omar Khayyám, and the title role in Sullivan's Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe (opera)
Ivanhoe is a romantic opera in three acts based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Julian Sturgis. It premiered at the Royal English Opera House on 31 January 1891 for a consecutive run of 155 performances, unheard of for a grand opera...
.