After leaving school early and working at a factory in Brasov he studied at the Music Academy in Bucharest.
He made his debut as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto at Galați in 1962.
[1] A win at a competition in Toulouse and a Cavaradossi in Bucharest eventually led to his being discovered in 1967 by Herbert von Karajan, who recruited him for the role of Dmitri in the Salzburg Festival's production of Boris Godunov.
[1] After an international career spanning some fourteen years, Spiess was forced to abandon singing after discovering that irreparable damage had been done to his vocal chords.
[2] He reportedly died of a heart attack on January 28, 2006 while hunting in a southern Romanian forest.