[Top two photos: David Alan Moore; Bottom: Jeremy Bloom]
While the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the L.A. Opera are loading their rosters with verifiable barihunks, the San Francisco Opera in announcing their new Fall season decided to opt for the ugliest baritones available. There is not one barihunk on the roster other than Dmitri Hvorostovsky who is performing in the unsexiest role imaginable, Simon Boccanegra. The closest they get to a barihunk on their entire cast is 26-year-old Italian Giorgio Caoduro, who looks like a young Leo Nucci.
There is no shortage of beautiful sopranos, including Angela Georghiu, Genia Kuhmeier, Inva Mula and the stunning Anna Netrebko. I noticed that there are few cast spots still to be filled, so let me recommend two singers: Joshua Bloom, who graduated from their own Adler Fellows training program or David Adam Moore, who is singing everywhere except in San Francisco.
The young Australian Joshua Bloom has already performed a number of small roles on the SF Opera stage, most notably the Black Politician in Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre." He is due for a big breakthrough on his home stage.
David Adam Moore has become a specialist in modern music and recently replaced barihunk Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd at the Pittsburgh Opera. He is schedule to sing La Boheme, Barber of Seville and the barihunk favorite Iphigénie en Tauride with the Seattle Opera. He also performs in another barihunk favorite, Britten's "Rape of Lucretia."
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ReplyDeleteI disagree. Simon bocanegra certainly is sexy.
ReplyDeleteDavid Adam Moore's next appearance at Seattle Opera will be Zurga in "Pearl Fishers." A production of bare-chested barihunks and maybe even a tenor hunk or two.
ReplyDeleteIs say, "Off to Seattle." Does anyone know if this is the barihunk production from SF Opera that I believe is also in San Diego.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I checked the SF Opera season and those are some UGLY baritones. Did anyone tell David Gockley that he's in San Francisco now?
The presence of Dmitri is enough for me to forgive other fuglies, he's sexy in any role. I must admit that the only unattractive photo of Dmitri I've ever seen was taken in SF, tho. Unfortunately, it was the one and only photo of the Siberian Elvis standing next to me in the Don Giovanni production (96? 97?). He looks like a window dresser with a very sissy moustache. Me, I look faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous.
ReplyDeleteBarihunk David Adam Moore is performing in "Soldier Songs" this weekend in New York!! His career is taking off and if you haven't seen him with his shirt off.... you haven't seen a barihunk. :)
ReplyDeleteCheck it out:
On September 6 & 7, Le Poisson Rouge, will present the Beth Morrison Projects’ premiere of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs.
Soldier Songs is an evening-length multimedia performance piece from composer David T. Little. Comprised of 11 songs with an original Libretto by the composer, the work combines elements of theater, opera, concert music, rock and animation to explore the dichotomy between war and modern society through the abstract character, the Soldier.
Soldier Songs was first presented in 2006 as a song cycle by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (the Pittsburgh Post Gazette says about that performance: “Soldier Songs packs [a] heartrending wallop”) and had its orchestral premiere as part of New York City Opera’s VOX Festival in 2008. Feast of Music says the VOX Festival performance “packed the most dramatic punch of any of the works on the bill: it was both thoroughly relevant and profoundly disturbing.”
The upcoming Beth Morrison Projects production is the first fully staged presentation of this dramatic work and features an acclaimed creative team: singer David Adam Moore, members of the ensemble Newspeak, conductor Todd Reynolds, director Yuval Sharon, set/costume designer Chisato Uno, lighting designer Lucas Krech, and animator/video designer Corey Michael Smithson.
Performance Details:
When: Saturday, September 6, 7:00pm (doors open at 6:00)
Sunday, September 7, 7:00pm (doors open at 6:00)
Where: Le Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker Street
Tickets: 212.796.0741 or www.lepoissonrouge.com
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Soldier Songs Bios
Composer/Librettist David T. Little is a multi award-winning composer. In 2004, he was awarded the Harvey Gaul Prize from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble which resulted in “Soldier Songs.” Alex Ross of The New Yorker says: “every bad-ass new-music ensemble in the city will want to play him;” the Pittsburgh Post Gazette says “Little’s compositional language is eclectic and diverse….;” Time Out New York says: “David T. Little pursues musical activism through superior firepower…to say that [he] is having a banner season is something of an understatement.” Little has won the BMI Student Composer Award twice, the 2004 Jacob Druckman Award for Orchestral Composition from the Aspen Music Festival, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, a 2008 New Jersey State Council Artist Grant, and served as the ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Fellow in Composition at Tanglewood. Little is founder and director of Newspeak and is currently a doctoral candidate at Princeton University.
“Soldier Songs” conductor, Todd Reynolds, is a contemporary music mainstay, having collaborated as a performer, composer, and conductor with some of the most highly regarded modern artists and groups including Steve Reich, Bang on a Can, Meredith Monk, Ridge Theater, filmmaker Bill Morrison, Luke Dubois, and as a founding member of the string quartet Ethel. He has conducted the music of Steve Reich both in performance and on the Nonesuch recording of “The Hindenburg” and was music director and conductor of Giovanni Sollima’s “Ellis Island,” which received its premiere at Palermo, Sicily’s Teatro Massimo in 2003. Current collaborations include Meredith Monk’s new work, “Songs of Ascension;” composition for Stephen Koplowitz’s “TaskForce” touring in Los Angeles; collaborations with Ridge Theater; and continuing development of his own work “Still Life with Microphone” which will feature films of Bill Morrison and video of Luke DuBois.
“Soldier Songs” director, Yuval Sharon has worked with the San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, New York City Opera, Berkeley Opera, the Asia Society of New York, the Deitch Projects, the New York Hip Hop Theater Festival, and is co-founder of the New York-based group Theater Faction. Sharon has worked with directors Graham Vick and Hans Neuenfels, and is currently assisting Achim Freyer on a new production of Wagner’s “Ring” at Los Angeles Opera. A passionate advocate for new music, Sharon is Project Director for New York City Opera’s VOX, an annual showcase of new American opera.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer says David Adam Moore possesses “subtle musicality and a big, handsome voice” in his role as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte for the Seattle Opera. He has appeared in over forty principal roles with major opera companies and symphony orchestras. Future engagements include returns to Teatro alla Scala for Demetrius in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Cascada in “Die lustige Witwe;” Seattle Opera for Figaro in “Il barbiere di Siviglia” and Zurga in “Les Pêcheurs de Perles;” Pittsburgh Opera for Marcello in “La Bohème;” and performances of Mercutio with San Diego Opera. A staunch advocate of contemporary music, Moore has premiered a number of works by the American composers Martin Hennessy and Stephen Louis Bayne, most notably, “9/11/01″ at Guggenheim Art Museum. Also an accomplished composer, his recent work, “Kronos,” was featured in a performance by the Oxymoros Dance Ensemble.
David Moore AND Dan Okulitch are on here? Oberlin must be so proud. (Add Andy Nolen for the trifecta!)
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