Ludovic Spiess – Romanian Operatic Tenor

Born: 13th May 1938
Died: January 28 2006
Romanian Tenor

From Romania comes Ludovic Spiess, born on the 13th of May 1938.
He first studied in Kronstadt, and finally in Bucharest.  He commenced his career in operetta, before getting a chance to sing Samson in Saint-Saens’ opera, Samson and Delilah, at Toulouse in 1964.  That did the trick, and he was soon to be heard in Leon and Paris.

The following year, 1965, he sang in Rio de Janeiro for the first time.  Back in Europe he was engaged at Zurich, 1967.  And then in Stuttgart, Vizbadden, and Munich, before appearing in France again on a recital tour.
Spiess was at the Salzburg Festival in 1967, singing in Boris Godunov, and Von Karajan, before appearing at the Vienna state opera in Aida, Tosca, and Don Carlo.  He performed Pavloff, in Turandot for the first time, at the Wittenberg Opera, this became, one of his most successful roles and he was to appear in it, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires, in addition to the Verona arena in 1969 and la Scala in 1970.
Other successful roles, undertaken by Spiess, were Smetana’s Dalibor of the Vienna state opera in 1969, and Beethoven, Florestan, a Constanza in Rome, under Leonard Bernstein.

Our extracts are from early and late Verdi.  Macbeth and Otello.