Jérôme Varnier has made his mark primarily in French and Italian opera, as well as establishing himself as a premier exponent of the French song repertoire. He sings mostly in France and frequently collaborates with conductor Mark Minkowski.
His repertoire extends from the baroque through the 20th century composers Milhaud, Richard Strauss, Janacek, Henze and Busoni. He was a house bass-baritone at the Opéra National de Lyon from 1995 to 2000, where he sung Die Zauberflöte, Carmen, Orfeo, Elektra, Doktor Faust, La Bohème, Don Carlos, The Midsummer Night’s, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, Falstaff and The Little Cunning Vixen.
His barihunk opera is Don Giovanni.
Varnier appeared here in Rome last week as Leutoldo in a concert performance of Guillaume Tell at the Accademia S. Cecilia. He is very tall and very handsome. Not a barithunk but definately as singer to watch was American tenor John Osborn - his Arnold had the audience on its feet. I covered it a bit on my own blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on John Osborn. He was a Met audition sensation, if I remember correctly, and it's nice to see him doing well. That tenor music in William Tell is pretty exciting if the singer can nail it and it sounds like he did from your blog.
ReplyDeleteMonsieur Varnier goes well beyond pretty to the sexy-dangerous level of barihunkdom. That over-the-shoulder look is so provocative. As Onegin, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteThe sexy over-the-shoulder look is from an opera called Le Premier Cercle by Gilbert Amy. I've got to admit that I've never heard of it, but now I want to see it (with Varnier in the lead, of course!).
ReplyDeleteSimply the hottest of the barihunks. Hot! Hot! HOT!!! Why hasn't this guy sung in the U.S.?
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