NickySpence
Contact
Keiron Cooke
Angelica Conner
Charlotte Bateman
Representation
About Nicky
An artist of great integrity, Nicky Spence’s unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty in his musicianship have earned him a place at the top of the music profession. The BBC Music Magazine named him ‘Personality of the Year’ in 2022 and he was made an OBE in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours. He is the winner of the 2024 RPS Singer Award.
The 2024/25 season sees him sing his first Peter Grimes in a new production of the opera for the Welsh National Opera, return to the Royal Opera as Laca Jenůfa, to the Glyndebourne Festival as Boris Kat’a Kabanova, to the Brno Janáček Festival in the title role of a new production of The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century and to the English National Opera as Bothwell in Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots.
Recent highlights have included Siegmund in Richard Jones’ new production of The Valkyrie for the English National Opera, Loge Das Rheingold at La Monnaie and Erik Der fliegende Holländer for Grange Park Opera; Albert Gregor Věc Makropulos for the Deutsche Staatsoper and Edmundo, Marquès de Nobile in Adès’ The Exterminating Angel for the Opéra national de Paris.
Nicky gives recitals internationally, and records prolifically. In the 2024/25 season he curates a Residency at Wigmore Hall.
In 2020, he won the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award and Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award for his critically acclaimed recording of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared.
Nicky is President of the Independent Society of Musicians.
Representation
Season Highlights
Selected Repertoire
Barber | Knoxville: Summer of 1915 |
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Beethoven | Fidelio (Florestan) |
Berg | Lulu (Alwa) • Wozzeck (Hauptmann / Andres) |
Berlioz | Benvenuto Cellini (Francesco) |
Britten | The Rape of Lucretia (Male Chorus) • Peter Grimes (Title role) • Billy Budd (Novice / Captain Vere) • Curlew River (Mad Woman) • The Beggar's Opera (MacHeath) • The Turn of the Screw (Prologue / Quint) • |
Dove | Flight (Bill) • The Adventures of Pinocchio (Lampwick) • I Giardini Della Storia (Soldier) |
Dvořák | Rusalka (The Prince) |
Janáček | Jenufa (Steva / Laca) • Katya Kabanova (Tichon / Boris) • The Makropoulos Case (Gregor / Janek) • From the House of the Dead (Nikita / Tall Prisoner) • The Adventures of Mr Brouček (Mr Brouček) |
Leoncavallo | Zaza (Courtois) |
Martinů | The Marriage (Kharkaryov) • The Greek Passion (Manolios) |
Mozart | Die Zauberflöte (Tamino) • Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte) • La Clemenza di Tito (Tito) |
Muhly | Two Boys (Brian) |
Rossini | Otello (Iago) • Guillaume Tell (Rodolphe) • Mosé in Egitto (Mambre) • La Gazza Ladra (Isacco) |
Saint-Saëns | Samson et Dalilah (Samson) |
Schönberg | Moses und Aron (Junger Mann / Aron) |
Shostakovich | The Nose (Title Role) |
Smetana | The Bartered Bride (Vasek) |
Strauss | Intermezzo (Baron Lummer) |
Stravinsky | The Rake’s Progress (Tom Rakewell) |
Tchaikovsky | Eugene Onegin (Lensky) |
Wagner | Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg (David) • Der Fliegende Holländer (Erik / Steuermann) • Tristan und Isolde (Seeman / Hirt) • Das Rheingold (Loge / Mime) • Die Walküre (Siegmund) • Parsifal (Parsifal) |
Zimmermann | Die Soldaten (Pirzel) |
News
Press
Oxford International Song Festival Recital with Julius Drake
Oxford International Song FestivalOct 2024The finale, on Saturday at SJE Arts, opened with Gabriel Fauré’s La bonne chanson, settings of poems by Paul Verlaine for voice, piano and string quintet. Spence, joined by Julius Drake (piano), the Piatti Quartet and Leon Bosch (double bass), revelled in the delicate, impressionistic textures of the nine songs, so adored by Marcel Proust, though others thought the whole cycle, and its odd instrumentation, mad. On the night we would turn our clocks back, Spence gave particular zest to the last song, L’hiver a cessé (Winter Is Over), full of dreams of long days and blue skies. In the second half of the recital, with Drake game and willing on piano, the Scottish tenor displayed his unstoppable and expansive energy, adaptability and wit, from Ravel and Poulenc to John Dankworth, Victoria Wood and Stephen Sondheim. When he sang Richard Strauss – Zueignung and Cäcilie – he reminded us of his gifts for the long phrase, and for powerful expression, in whichever language. Tom Lehrer’s Masochism Tango had Spence rotating and boogying across the stage, bristling and masterful. In the midst of all came Noël Coward’s Any Little Fish. Only Nicky Spence could persuade a self-respecting Oxford audience to buzz, quack, woof, moo and coo along. It was over too soon.
- The Guardian
- 02 November 2024
Discography
- ELGAR The Dream of Gerontius (McCreesh)
- Purcell: Dido & Aeneas
- SHAW Is a Rose
- MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
- MOZART La clemenza di Tito
- The Complete Songs of Duparc
- SAMUEL BARBER The Complete Songs
- SCHUBERT The Fair Maid of the Mill
- VAUGHAN WILLIAMS On Wenlock Edge & Other Songs
- CHISHOLM Songs
- BRAHMS Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 52 & 65
- RALPH VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS Folk Songs, Volume 2
- ALEX WOOLF Requiem
- RALPH VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS Folk Songs, Volume 1
- HANDEL Brockes-Passion
- JANACEK The diary of one who disappeared & other works
- HOAD Magic Lantern Tales
- WAGNER Das Rheingold
- STRAUSS The Complete Songs, Volume 8
- PAVEL HAAS 'Fata Morgana'
- BUXTON ORR Songs
- KENNETH LEIGHTON Complete Organ Works
- JONATHAN DOVE For an Unknown Soldier
- Purer than Pearl
- Paradis Sur Terre: A French Songbook
- WOLF The Complete Songs, Volume 8
- ALUN HODDINOTT Song Cycles and Folk Songs
- JONATHAN DOVE All You Who Sleep Tonight: Song Cycles
- As You Like It: Shakespeare Songs
- MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE A Constant Obsession
- BRITTEN Complete Songs, Volume 2
- BRITTEN Complete Songs, Volume 1