Spiess, Ludovic

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Spiess, Ludovic

Spiess, Ludovic, Romanian tenor; b. Cluj, May 13, 1938. He studied in Braçov, Bucharest, and with Antonio Narducci in Milan (1965–66). In 1962 he made his operatic debut as the Duke of Mantua in Galani. After singing at the Bucharest Operetta Theater (1962–64), he made his first appearance at the Bucharest Opera as Cavaradossi in 1964, where he subsequently sang regularly. In 1967 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Dmitri in Boris Godunov, In 1968 he made his first appearances in Zürich as Radamès and at the Vienna State Opera as Dalibor. He sang Calaf at the Verona Arena in 1969. On June 3, 1971, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Manrico. He sang Radamès at his Covent Garden debut in London in 1973. He also appeared with many other opera houses in Europe and North and South America. Among his other roles were Florestan, Lohengrin, Otello, Don José, and Rodolfo.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire