NickySpence

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Tenor
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Keiron Cooke

Keiron Cooke

Associate Director
Charlotte Bateman

Charlotte Bateman

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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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.

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Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Nicky

Season Highlights

Nov 2024 - Jan 2025
Janáček Festival Brno
Janáček - The Excursions of Mr. Brouček (Matěj Brouček)
Dec 2024 - Dec 2024
Barbican, London
Elgar - Dream of Gerontius BBC Symphony Orchestra Sakari Oramo, conductor Dame Sarah Connolly, mezzo Nicky Spence, tenor Roderick Williams, bass baritone
Jan 2025 - Feb 2025
Royal Opera House
Janáček - Jenůfa (Laca)

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Selected Repertoire

BarberKnoxville: Summer of 1915
BeethovenFidelio (Florestan)
BergLulu (Alwa)   •   Wozzeck (Hauptmann / Andres)
BerliozBenvenuto Cellini (Francesco)
BrittenThe 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)   •   
DoveFlight (Bill)   •   The Adventures of Pinocchio (Lampwick)   •   I Giardini Della Storia (Soldier)
DvořákRusalka (The Prince)
JanáčekJenufa (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)
LeoncavalloZaza (Courtois)
MartinůThe Marriage (Kharkaryov)   •   The Greek Passion (Manolios)
MozartDie Zauberflöte (Tamino)   •   Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte)   •   La Clemenza di Tito (Tito)
MuhlyTwo Boys (Brian)
RossiniOtello (Iago)   •   Guillaume Tell (Rodolphe)   •   Mosé in Egitto (Mambre)   •   La Gazza Ladra (Isacco)
Saint-SaënsSamson et Dalilah (Samson)
SchönbergMoses und Aron (Junger Mann / Aron)
ShostakovichThe Nose (Title Role)
SmetanaThe Bartered Bride (Vasek)
StraussIntermezzo (Baron Lummer)
StravinskyThe Rake’s Progress (Tom Rakewell)
TchaikovskyEugene Onegin (Lensky)
WagnerDie Meistersinger Von Nürnberg (David)   •   Der Fliegende Holländer (Erik / Steuermann)   •   Tristan und Isolde (Seeman / Hirt)   •   Das Rheingold (Loge / Mime)   •   Die Walküre (Siegmund)   •   Parsifal (Parsifal)
ZimmermannDie Soldaten (Pirzel)

News

Press

  • Janáček - Jenůfa - Royal Ballet and Opera

    Royal Ballet and Opera
    Jan 2025

    • Nicky Spence’s inclusion as a Janáček tenor is starting to become an inevitability and it’s clear to see why. Playing Laca, Spence was impressive from his first line to his last. Maintaining a comfortable volume while still packing a beautiful tone and peerless stage work, Spence’s Czech diction and meticulous word placement is inimitable.

    • Nicky Spence is a tower of vocal strength as Laca...

    • Nicky Spence’s Laca finds potent consolation in his narrative redemption, rakish bravado blossoming into stern maturity as eventual Jenůfa’s lover, robust vocals helming his ossifying physicality.

    • Spence’s giant of a voice gives full vent to Laca’s volatile fervour...

    • Nicky Spence adopted the physique of Laca with a swagger always accenting his pride. Lamenting Jenůfa’s indifference to him in “Mne jste si nevsimly a já byl třeba také sirota” (“You didn’t notice me; I may as well have been an orphan”), Spence sustained well-governed notes combining arrogance and longing. When Laca comforted a newly childless Jenůfa and offered, “Nepodáš mi ruky?” (“Won’t you give me your hand?”), the tenor kept a thick vibrato resonant of headstrong ego.

    • Nicky Spence was a wonderfully expansive Laca, his all encompassing tone make you understand the way he could support Jenůfa at the end, his jealousy and impulsiveness all part and parcel. Spence made Laca more personable, more approachable than some, but it is important to remember that this is an opera where all the protagonists are damaged in some way, and the tentative nature of Jenůfa and Laca's relationship in Act Three brought this out, with Spence treating Winters as if she might shatter.

    • Nicky Spence, as Laca, brought newfound authority and vocal power to a role he sang when this staging was new. His portrayal balanced the character’s simmering jealousy with moments of profound vulnerability, making his eventual reconciliation with Jenůfa all the more moving.

    • ...Nicky Spence’s superbly sung Laca...

Discography