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
Elgar - Dream of Gerontius
CDApr 2024Nicky Spence is outstanding as Gerontius… [he] gives one of the finest performances of Gerontius on disc. ... one of the finest interpretations of the title role that I’ve heard on disc.
- John Quinn, MusicWeb International
- 09 April 2024
Only Nicky Spence as Gerontius, both touchingly introspective and fiercely dramatic when required, hints at that extra dimension, establishing him as one of the finest interpreters of the role around today,
- Andrew Clements, The Guardian
- 19 April 2024
Nicky Spence, who sings the role of Gerontius, delivers Elgar’s flexible operatic declamation with real authority and, at least for me, rivals Richard Lewis’s ageless interpretation under Barbirolli.
- Jeremy Dibble, Gramophone
- 19 April 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
- 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
- Janáček: 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: Complete Songs Vol. 8
- Alun Hoddinott: Song Cycles and Folk Songs
- Dove: All You Who Sleep Tonight | Song Cycles
- As You Like It: Shakespeare Songs
- Mark-Anthony Turnage: A Constant Obsession
- Britten: Complete Songs Vol. 2
- Britten: Complete Songs Vol. 1