Krassimira Stoyanova was born in Bulgaria and studied violin at the Conservatory in Rousse and singing and violin at the Plovdiv Music Academy. She made her professional debut in 1995 at the Sofia National Opera, where she sang a wide range of repertory: Rigoletto (Gilda), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), Il Guarany (Cecilia), and Antonio Carlo Gomes’ I Fosca (Delila), La Juive (Rachel), La Clemenza di Tito (Vitellia) and Idomeneo (Ilia). Since 1998 she has been engaged at the Wiener Staatsoper – and has sung in La Juive (Rachel), Le Nozze di Figaro (Contessa), Carmen (Micaela), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Antonia), Turandot (Liù), I Pagliacci (Nedda), La Bohème (Mimi), La Traviata (Violetta). In October 2009 Krassimira Stoyanova was nominated Kammersängerin by the Vienna State Opera. For Opera Rara she has recorded the title role in Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan.
David Stout has rapidly established himself as one of the UK’s most versatile baritones, with a repertoire encompassing early music, Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Britten, bel canto and twentieth-century works. Highlights this season include Count Douglas in Mascagni’s Guglielmo Ratcliff (Wexford Festival), the title roles of Le nozze di Figaro and Figaro Gets A Divorce (Welsh National Opera), and Posa Don Carlo (Grange Park). Recent highlights include the title role of Le nozze di Figaro and Fritz Kothner Die Meistersinger (English National Opera); Sandoval Le Duc d’Albe, Paolo Simon Boccanegra and the title role of Falstaff (with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé); a critically acclaimed Sancho Pança Don Quichotte (Grange Park); Bach St John Passion (Aurora Orchestra at King’s Place); Oromazes in Rameau’s Zaïs (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment); and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (English Concert/Bristol Old Vic). Other operatic appearances include Axel Oxenstierna in Foroni’s Cristina, regina di Svezia and The Dark Fiddler A Village Romeo and Juliet (Wexford); Zaretski Eugene Onegin and Pish Tush Mikado (English National Opera); Papageno Die Zauberflöte, Dr. Falke Die Fledermaus, Ping Turandot, Harašta The Cunning Little Vixen and Buddha Wagner Dream (Welsh National Opera); Angelotti Tosca, Roucher Andrea Chenier and Gratiano The Merchant of Venice (Bregenzer Festspiele);and Baron Douphol La traviata (Royal Opera House).
Baritone Mark Stone studied singing at the Guildhall School in London. In 1998 he was awarded the Decca Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and was nominated in the ‘Breakthrough Artist’ category of the 2005 South Bank Show Awards. As a company member of English National Opera, he was acclaimed for his performance as Don Giovanni and has since returned to ENO as Count Almaviva, Figaro (The Barber of Seville), Marcello (La Bohème), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and as Prince Yamadori in the late Anthony Minghella’s production of Madam Butterfly. Other engagements include Valvert (Cyrano de Bergerac) and Sonora (La fanciulla del West) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the title role in Eugene Onegin at Glyndebourne. He made his US debut as Ford (Falstaff) for Philadelphia Opera and has sung Guglielmo in Santa Fe. Concert work includes Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Hallé Orchestra and Mozart arias with the Academy of Ancient Music. He has also performed with the LSO, City of London Sinfonia, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Opera Rara’s Artist Ambassador Michael Spyres was born and raised in the Ozarks and grew up in an extremely musical family. Mr. Spyres is one of the most sought-after Tenors of his generation with 10 DVDs and 30 CDs to his name and has performed more roles than any active tenor with an astounding 83 roles in 78 separate operas. Michael has been celebrated in the world’s most prestigious international opera houses, festivals, and concert halls and is acclaimed in the widest range of repertoire. His unique career has taken him into every genre from Baroque to Classical to the 20th century, while firmly establishing himself as an expert within the Bel Canto repertoire and French Grand Opera.
In this incredible 2022/2023 season Michael will star twice on the Metropolitan Opera stage as he returns to NYC with the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo as well as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma. Michael also sees his return to the Opéra National de Paris, as Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen. To begin the new year, Michael tours Hamburg and Cologne as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma with Maestro Riccardo Minasi, followed by his return to the MET as Pollione. In the spring he performs, tours, and records for the first time in history with the winning Erato Warner team, all versions of Carmen led by Maestro John Nelson, and the Orchestra Philharmonique de Strasbourg starring Joyce DiDonato in the title role of Carmen. The final opera of the year sees his debut as Jupiter in Handel’s Semele with his return to the festival of the Bayerische Staatsoper Munchen.
In addition to the opera stage, this season will see a very active concert schedule beginning with his debut at both the NYC Armory series and the Kennedy Center of Washington D. C. alongside his piano virtuoso partner, Mathieu Pordoy as they present a romantic music recital of Beethoven, Berlioz, and Liszt. Michael performs again with M. Pordoy in the festival Les Volques of Nimes where they will present a recital of Schumann’s Dichterliebe as well as Schumann’s Op.74 duets along with his wife Tara Stafford-Spyres. Also in December Michael will sing a recital of duets with his wife entitled Noel en Italie with Maestro Jeremie Rohrer at the Grand Theatre de Provence. The beginning of 2023 will see Michael along with his colleague Lawrence Brownlee as they share the stage in Les Grands Voix in their return to Théatre Champs Elysée. The spring of 2023 will see his debut in his home state with the Saint Louis Symphony under the baton of Maestro Stephane Deneuve as Faust in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, followed by his hometown debut with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra along with his wife, sister, and brother as they share an evening of musicals and opera. To conclude the concert season, Michael’s latest solo album Contra-Tenor recorded with Erato Warner Records and the famed Pomo d’Oro baroque ensemble, will be released with a subsequent tour in Montpellier, London, Antwerp, and Berlin.
The previous 2021/2022 season saw Michael’s solo album debut, BariTenor, for Warners/Erato with the Strasbourg Philharmonie under the baton of Marko Letonja as well as his return to the stage in an incredibly wide range of repertoire from Lieder to BelCanto and Wagner to French Grand Opera and Verismo. The exciting season saw his return as Florestan in Fidelio with Raphael Pichon and Pygmalion at Opera Comique de Paris, his role debut as Wagner’s Tristan in a concert version of Act 2 with Opera de Lyon, his role debut as Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with the OLOpera, his return as Romeo to the Houston Grand Opera, as well as his anticipated debut in the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo in Baden-Baden. In addition to the opera stage he made his recital debut with Mathieu Pordoy in Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, Theatre du Capital Toulouse, Festival Les Volques, as well as two separate recitals in Paris. On the concert stage Michael starred with the Ravello Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Strasbourg Philharmonie, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gran Theatre de Liceu, Theater an der Wien, and Theatre des Champs Elysees,
Since 2015 Michael has had the honor to be the only International Opera Star who is not just a performer but also an impresario. Mr. Spyres has been the Artistic Director of his hometown opera company, the Ozarks Lyric Opera and has been involved in every aspect of the renaissance of his regional company. In addition to being the active Artistic Director he has translated libretti and actively teaches masterclasses while guiding young artists careers. The last years have seen him produce numerous events as well as 7 operas and numerous gala concerts. For the 2019/2020 season Michael wrote/produced the 40th anniversary gala as well as an original pastiche on the life of Handel. The 2021/2022 season saw his return to the OLOpera’s main stage after 10 years to star in his original vaudeville pastiche coupled with his role debut as Canio in his original concept of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
Michael has worked with some of the world’s most renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Mark Elder, Valery Gergiev, Emmannuelle Haim, Sir Andrew Davis, Fabio Luisi, Michele Mariotti, Alberto Zedda, and John Nelson. In his meteoric rise Michael has quickly established himself as one of the greatest singers of his generation and has already sung at many of the world’s most prestigious Opera houses and festivals worldwide such as Teatro San Carlo, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Aix en Provence Festival, Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera Comique, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Nederlands National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berliner Festspiele, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, ABAO Bilbao Opera, Teatro Real de Madrid, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Salzburger Festspiele.
In addition to his operatic career, Mr. Spyres is equally accomplished within the concert world and has given concerts and recitals in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Prague, Pesaro, Bologna, Napoli, Sao Paulo, A Coruna, Tokyo, Cape Town, Shanghai, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Lyon, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
For Opera Rara he has recorded Donizetti’s Les Martyrs and Le Duc d’Albe as well as his debut solo recital album Espoir.
An honours graduate and choral scholar from New College, Oxford, Toby Spence studied at the Opera School of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In concert, Toby has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra under von Dohnanyi, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic under Rattle, the San Francisco Symphony under Tilson Thomas, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Pappano, the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Gergiev, the London Symphony Orchestra under Davis, the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Nezet-Seguin, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel, and at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals under Norrington and Mackerras. Toby sang an acclaimed Madwoman in Britten’s “Curlew River” for the Edinburgh Festival, where he has also appeared in recital. Other recitals include the LSO St Lukes, Opera de Lille and the Wigmore Hall, and he has made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BMG, Philips, Opera Rara, Collins, Linn Records, Hyperion and EMI.
For the English National Opera, Toby has sung Fenton, Ferrando, Tamino, Candide, Paris (“La Belle Hélène”) and Faust, and for the Royal Opera, Kudryash, Simpleton (“Boris Godunov”), Ferdinand (“The Tempest”), Count Almaviva, Ramiro and Tom Rakewell. He has also sung with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Paris Opera, the Monnaie, Brussels, the Netherlands Opera, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera.
Rome-born baritone Pietro Spagnoli made his debut in 1987 at the Teatro Comunale in Pergolesi’s Livietta e Tracolla, Florence. Since then he has performed widely in Italy and beyond, including Milan, Rome, Berlin and New York, with festival appearances in Salzburg and Pesaro. His repertoire includes roles such as Dandini in La Cenerentola, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore and Leporello in Don Giovanni. Besides recording work for the Erato, Naxos and Harmonia Mundi labels, he sang the role of Filidoro in Donizetti’s La romanzesca e l’uomo nero, Elvida and Francesca di Foix for Opera Rara.
Victoria Simmonds studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. From 2000-2005 she was a company principal at ENO singing roles including Nancy T’ang/Nixon in China, Cherubino/Figaro, Zaida/The Turk in Italy, Pitti-Sing/The Mikado, Ascanius/The Trojans, Rosina/The Barber of Seville, Dorabella/Così fan tutte, Hermia/A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Zerlina/Don Giovanni. For Opera North she created the title role in Jonathan Dove’s highly acclaimed The Adventures of Pinocchio. She has also sung for Grange Park Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park and the Buxton Festival and sang the title role of Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall. Abroad she has sung with the Netherlands Opera, Stuttgart and Halle Opera companies and Wellgunde/Das Rheingold with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle at the Aix Festival. In concert, she has sung in Le Comte Ory and the title role of L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at the Concertgebouw, and has worked with the Philharmonia, the Hallé, the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals and for the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis at the BBC Proms. Recordings include Bellini’s Il pirata for Opera Rara, Janacek’s Katya Kabanova (Varvara) for Chandos and Cefisa in Ermione by Rossini for Opera Rara.
Born in Tirana, Albania, in 1969, mezzo-soprano Enkelejda Shkosa made her debut in Strasbourg in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. She went on to study in Milan and won the Leyla Gencer international vocal competition in Istanbul in 1996. She has sung in all the major Italian opera houses and in Il viaggio a Reims at the Pesaro festival. Further afield, she sang in Jonathan Miller’s revived Royal Opera production of Cosi fan tutte in 1998, Verdi’s Otello under Sir Colin Davis in 1999, and was Angelina in La Cenerentola at the Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels in 2000. She can be heard in the role of Emilia on Opera Rara’s recording of Rossini’s Otello and on La Potenza d’Amore.
Born in Lancashire, bass Brindley Sherratt studied at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he is now a Fellow and Visiting Professor At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden his roles have included Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Sparafucile (Rigoletto) and Ramfis (Aida) and in Salzburg he has sung Balducci (Benvenuto Cellini) with Gergiev, Hobson (Peter Grimes) with Rattle and Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro) on tour to Japan. At the Glyndebourne Festival he has appeared as Rocco (Fidelio), Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni) and Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring). A favourite at the English National Opera, his many roles there have included Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Pimen (Boris Godunov) and Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra). Other operatic engagements have included Sarastro at the Hamburg State Opera; Sarastro and Banco (Macbeth) for the Opéra de Bordeaux; Pimen for the Opéra de Nice; Rocco in Seville; Il Commendatore and Claudio (Agrippina) in Santa Fe; Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg) for the Welsh National Opera and Fasolt (Das Rheingold) and Filippo (Don Carlo) for Opera North. In demand on the concert platform he has appeared at the Bregenz, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg and Three Choirs Festivals and at the BBC Proms. Brindley has appeared on a number of Opera Rara recordings, including Bellini’s Il pirata, Donizetti’s Imelda de’ Lambertazzi and Maria di Rohan, Meyerbeer’s L’Esule di Granata and from the Il Salotto series La Partenza and Rossini Songs.
Albina Shagimuratova has been hailed by Opera News as “a phenomenon that must be heard to be believed” and by the New York Times for her “riveting Lucia.” She first came to international attention as the Gold Medal winner at the 2007 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. This was quickly followed by her European opera debut as the Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival under the baton of Riccardo Muti. She has come to be regarded as the world’s leading interpreter of this role in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and has sung it at the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), the Teatro alla Scala (available on DVD), the Wiener Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Hamburg Staatsoper and the Lucerne Festival among others.
She portrayed the legendary soprano Adelina Patti in a new film version of Tolstoi’s Anna Karenina, released in April 2017. In September 2018, Opera Rara released the recording of Rossini’s Semiramide with Albina Shagimuratova in the leading role. Other engagements for the current season include La Traviata at the Wiener Staatsoper, Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Il Paria at the Barbican Center in London as well as Britten’s War Requiem at the Bruknerhaus Linz, the National Center for the Arts in Ottawa, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Gasteig Hall in Munich, the Musikverein Wien.
Recent stage successes include Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne Festival) and La traviata (Houston Grand Opera). Other triumphs include Lucia di Lammermoor (Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Los Angeles Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bolshoi Theatre, Houston Grand Opera) and Rigoletto (Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera).
She has collaborated with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Hans Graf, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davis, Adam Fischer, Patrick Summers, Peter Schneider, Nicola Luisotti, Laurent Campellone, Maurizio Benini, Giorgio Morandi, Alain Altinoglu and Robin Ticciati. Albina Shagimuratova has also performed with the Houston Symphony, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Danish National Symphony.
Albina Shagimuratova also performed at the G20 Summit at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg, at the opening of the Summer Universiade in Kazan (Russia), with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in their annual Millennium Park summer concert series, at the Edinburgh International Festival in Britten’s War Requiem and at the BBC Proms in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells conducted by Edward Gardner at London’s Royal Albert Hall. She reopened the Bolshoi Theatre with a new production of Ruslan and Lyudmila by visionary stage director Dmitry Chernyakov which was conducted by Vladimir Jurowski (available on DVD); at that theatre she has also appeared in recital. The President of the Russian Federation awarded her the titles of Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation, People’s Artist of Tatarstan, and she was personally awarded the Tukai State Award by President Minnikhanov of Tatarstan.
Albina Shagimuratova won the XXIII Russian national Golden Mask theatre award in the category “Best Opera Actress” for her portrayal of the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, and she has also won prizes at the Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition in Spain and the International Glinka Young Opera Singers’ Competition in Chelyabinsk (2005).
Albina Shagimuratova was born in Tashkent (USSR). She began her musical studies as a pianist and attended the Aukhadeyev Music College in Kazan and later the Kazan State University, where she received a degree in vocal and opera performance. She went on to study at the Moscow Conservatoire. Graduating with honours, she completed her doctoral work there in 2007. She is also a proud alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.
