BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year
When one has had such a spectacularly successful year as Nicky Spence did in 2021, how exactly does one follow it?
His answer was to begin 2022 by getting married… and then break both legs in a fall. ‘I fell down some steps on the way to singing Janáˇcek’s The Makropulos Case in Berlin,’ the Scottish tenor explains.
‘I’d learnt all this bloody hard music just before getting married, and then didn’t get to sing it. I guess all these years of people telling me to “break a leg” has come true!’
While rehab gets underway and Spence is forced to take things at a slightly slower pace, now is perhaps a good time to look back and pinpoint what, for him, were the highlights of a busy, busy 2021. ‘It’s been an embarrassment of riches – I’ve been so lucky. The premiere of the new production of Janáˇcek’s Jen˚ufa at the Royal Opera House was fantastic, and making my way into Wagner’s Ring cycle at English National Opera was great too. It was also really lovely to be able to join Julius Drake for the recording of Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge, as was giving recitals with my husband, Dylan Perez.’
Spence was not the only one getting pleasure out of those Janáˇcek and
Wagner performances, as the public and press were equally enthusiastic – ‘Nicky Spence’s tenor gleams thrillingly and sexily,’ wrote The Guardian about the former, while The Telegraph praised his ‘powerfully direct and naïve Siegmund’ in the latter.
But just as appreciated in 2021 were his activities off stage, not least devoting spare time to administering
Covid vaccinations near his south London home. ‘The vaccinating stuff was just me doing my bit for all those who needed help,’ he says self-deprecatingly. ‘I think we all feel that we can just be defined by what we do for our day jobs, but it’s even more interesting when you combine that with a bit of life. I’ve really enjoyed encouraging younger tenors to go out, get drunk, smoke and enjoy life, as they’ll feel so much more refreshed when they come back to work. It’s so important to have that other side of the coin.’ Jeremy Pound