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The Tyrolean bass, Florian Spiess, gathered his first musical experiences in the choir of the Wiltener Sängerknaben, before he was a soprano soloist with the Wiener Sängerknaben from 1990-1994. While still at school, he had his first appearances at the Tiroler Landestheater (as Friedrich in The Sound of Music). After graduation, he began his singing studies at the Tyrolean State Conservatory with Professor Karlheinz Hanser. As part of the training he has participated in numerous productions (including as Sky Masterson in F. Loesser’s Guys and Dolls, as Leporello in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni and as Cinderella’s Prince and Wolf in Steven Sondheim’s Into the Woods). Also during this time he had various guest engagements at the Tiroler Landestheater (for example as a Flandrian deputy in Verdi’s Don Carlo). In 2005, he followed Professor Karlheinz Hanser to the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, where he attended the song class of Kammersänger Robert Holl. He graduated with honors and the honorary prize 2011 for the best graduate of the entire university. In 2005 he also received a scholarship from the German-Austrian Richard Wagner Foundation.
Between 2006-2008, Florian Spiess was invited, among others, by Kammersängerin Brigitte Fassbaender to the Tiroler Landestheater, as Osmin in W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (August 2008), to the Heidenheim Opera Festival, and by Eva Wagner-Pasquier to participate in the Académie des Festivals of Aix-en-Provence. As a member of the Linz Landestheater in 2009-2010, he sang Silvano in Cavalli's La Calisto, (December 2008-March 2009), Figaro, Crespel, Hermann and Schlemihl in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Jupiter in Platée (February-June 2010), among others. In 2010-2012 he was a member of the ensemble of the Volksoper Wien, where he performed in operas such as W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (October 2010-May 2011, September 2011-June 2012), Tosca (September 2010-June 2011) and Turandot or Rigoletto (March-May 2011).
The 2012-2013 season took Florian Spiess to the Volkstheater Rostock with a permanent contract. There the artist was particularly convincing as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte (December 2012), as Doctor Bartolo in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (September 2012-May 2013), as Zaccaria in Verdi’s Nabucco (April-May 2013), as well as in the bass part of Verdi's Requiem. With a guest contract, he also made guest appearances at the Volksoper Wien. From 2013 to 2015, he was part of the ensemble of the Hamburg State Opera, where he sang roles such as Raymondo in George Frideric Handel's Almira (May-June 2014), Zuniga in Georges Bizet's Carmen (January-February 2014), Priest/Badger in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Speaker/Second Guardsman in Die Zauberflöte (March-April 2014), Biterolf in Tannhäuser and Colline in La bohème. In addition, he continued to perform the role of Zaccaria as a guest at the Volkstheater Rostock. With Almira he was also heard in summer 2014 under Alessandro De Marchi at the Festwochen für Alte Musik Innsbruck (August 2014). In 2015 he sang the part of Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte in Würzburg and Bad Lauchstädt with the Lautten Compagney Berlin, among others, and returned to Heidenheim as Banquo in Macbeth.
Between 2015 and 2017, Florian Spiess made guest appearances in the children’s opera of the Hamburg State Opera as Robert, the master chimney sweep in Benjamin Britten's The Little Sweep (December 2015), as Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia under Markus Bosch in Heidenheim, as Timur in Turandot at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck and as Bellone and Alvar in Les Indes Galantes by J.Ph. Rameau at the Staatstheater Nuremberg (April-June 2015), as Lord Syndham in Zar und Zimmermann in Rostock (January-May 2017). In the 2017-2018 & 2018-2019 season, he sang Figaro in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Staatsoperette Dresden (May-July 2017; September 2017-May 2018) as well as two new productions (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (October 2017-June 2018) and Igor Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress (March-June 2018)) at the Staatstheater Kassel. He also embodied Marco in Giordano’s Mala vita at Theater Giessen (September-November 2018) and the Mother in The Seven Deadly Sins by Weill and Brecht at the Stuttgart State Opera (February-March 2019).
Florian Spiess made his debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2019 as Kaspar in Wolfsschlucht, a musical theater piece by Malte Giesen based on motifs from Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (September 2019), His debut at La Scala in Milan in no less than 3 productions fell victim to corona-related cancellations: Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro), Salome (Soldat) and Tannhäuser (Biterolf).
Florian Spiess was on stage at the Staatstheater Kassel in 2021-2022 season as Selva in La Muette de Portici by Auber (April-June 2022), after playing Harald in Wagner’s Die Feen at the Leipzig Opera (September 2021-June 2022). In the summer of 2022 he can be heard as Falstaff in Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Werdenberg Schloss Festspiele in Switzerland. He currently lives in Hamburg, Germany. |
