Krešimir Špicer was born in Slavonski Brod, Croatia. He received his first singing lessons at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. In 1994, he moved to the Netherlands and continued his studies at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Dutch mezzo-soprano Cora Canne Meijer. In 1997, he won first prize at the Dutch National Competition for Young Singers, and in 1999, he won four out of five prizes at the Vriendenkrans Young Musicians Competition organized by Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
His international breakthrough came at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2000, with a celebrated performance as Ulisse in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria under the direction of William Christie. The success of this production led to an extensive tour through Lausanne, Bordeaux, Paris, London, New York, and Vienna (Wiener Festwochen), as well as a highly acclaimed DVD recording. With René Jacobs, he reprised the role of Ulisse in Berlin, in Geneva with A. Cremonesi, and at the Frankfurt Opera under P. Carigniani.
Upcoming engagements include: Enea in Cavalli’s La Didone with W. Christie in Caen, Luxembourg, and Paris; Joabel in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas with W. Christie / A. Homoki in Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh Festival, Paris, Caen, and New York; A Child of Our Time in Strasbourg; Max in Der Freischütz in Toronto; Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus in Zagreb.
He made his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the 2024/25 season with Die Fledermaus.