Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja - Simon Keenlyside

This is dedicated to the two sisters who can't seem to go a month without seeing Simon Keenlyside on Barihunks. He may be the hottest barihunk over 40 (Nathan Gunn is 39).

Our Michael Rice Crush

Barihunks has to confess to having a major crush on Michael Rice, who just finished a run at Castleton, which we covered extensively. Unfortunately, we didn't feature "Steamy Rice" nearly enough.

Our excuse is that "Steamy Rice" played the role of the very unsexy Mr. Peachum in The Beggars Opera under Lorin Maazel. To our dismay, Rice has landed some pretty unsexy roles in his young career, landing parts in Ariadne, Butterfly, Fanciulla, Sonnambula and L'Italiana. We think directors need to start casting him in some Britten operas (which Castleton specialized in), Pearl Fishers, Dead Man Walking or any opera directed by a gay German, because Rice has the sexiest arms in all of opera (and the rest of him isn't too bad, either).

But "Steamy Rice" is more than a hot bod, he's also one of the funniest men in opera (who is actually trying to be funny.) His OperaNow! podcast is the most entertaining opera broadcast on the web. You can access it at iTunes or by clicking here.

The top photo is by David Deal and was part of an NPR feature where the camera seemed to stick to "Steamy Rice." The bottom two photos were sent to us by his colleagues at Castleton who really seemed to enjoy performing with him.

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What's THAT Between Ben Wager's Legs?

We've heard of "hung like a horse," but an actual horse between your legs deserves a posting on Barihunks. Here is Ben Wager enjoying a little playtime with his horsey.

The AVA graduate has joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he will perform Zuniga in Carmen, Angelotti in Tosca, and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. Additional engagements for 2009-10 include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Mozarteum of Salzburg under Ivor Bolton and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Oregon Symphony, and his debut at Los Angeles Opera as Julian Pinelli in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten.

He is also scheduled debut at Opera Cleveland as Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles, Masetto in Don Giovanni at Dallas Opera, and as Nikitich and Chernikovsky in Boris Godunov.

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Meachem Makes Debut as Don Giovanni

Lucas Meachem is in Santa Fe making his debut as Don Giovanni. It looks like Meachem has slimmed down a little and appears to be joining a long list of modern day hunks taking on the title role. The bottom two pictures are from the current production.

Meachem will be performing a few other barihunk roles in the near future, including Billy Budd at the Paris Opera, which also includes barihunk Paul Gay as Mr. Fink. Before he heads off to Paris, he will be performing Valentin in Faust at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Méphistophélès.

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Tarquinius Challenge

[Photos: Project Opera of Manhattan, © 2008 Ken Howard]

Within hours after posting David Krohn as Tarquinius, this picture of Michael Krzankowski appeared from a former colleague of his in Seattle. This person claims that Krzankowski is hotter than Krohn or Matthew Worth, who we have hailed as the ultimate Tarquinius.

Krzankowski is from Chicago and earned his Master’s degree from the acclaimed Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. He is currently performing Barone Douphol in Glimmerglass Opera’s production of La Traviata. In November, he will return to the Seattle Opera's Young Artist's Program to perform Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte and Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos.

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Does Matthew Worth Have a Challenger in David Krohn?

[Photos: Project Opera of Manhattan, © 2008 Ken Howard]

David Krohn lives in New York City, where he is pursuing his Master's degree at Juilliard. He has performed a number of small roles with the Baltimore Opera.

Krohn is currently at the Aspen Music Festival singing the sexy role of Tarquinius with Jane Glover conducting. He had previously performed the role with Peabody Opera, but wearing substantially more clothing. Barihunks has a message to directors: Tarquinius should be shirtless and hunky, especially in the rape scene! If ever there was a moment to show some justifiable skin in opera, this is it (and David Krohn proves this point). The picture on the bottom is from Peabody and the others are from Aspen. Which performance would you rather see?

Krohn has performed the role of the Prison Inmate in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” and we can’t wait for him to graduate to the role of Joseph De Rocher. He’s done some Mozart and other Britten roles, so I suspect that we’ll be seeing more of him on this site.

You can find out about show times at Aspen Music Festival, but good luck finding out about the cast. This is a disturbing trend, as Barihunks was sent a notice about the Banff Summer Arts Festival, which had some operas that might have included some great material for this site. However, there isn’t a cast list in sight and when we emailed them they replied that they couldn’t find one either.

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Paul LaRosa's Hot Chest and Big Balls

There is nothing that we love more than a barihunk who likes to show off some skin, especially when they look like Paul LaRosa. Here he his showing off his hot chest and big balls. Impressive, eh?

Reports from Castleton tell us that this cast is having a great time and putting on some amazing shows (on and off the stage!).

One has to think that it's not easy getting much attention when you're cast opposite barihunk Matthew Worth's Tarquinius, a role he practically owns. Even Allen Boxer as Collatinus could cause one's eye to wander. However, LaRosa can hold his own with any low-voiced stud singing in opera today.

Apparently, the singing wasn't to bad either. Charles Downey in the Washington Post reports that our barihunks sang as beautifully as they looked, "The incisive baritone and feral libido of Matthew Worth's Tarquinius stood out in the male cast, seconded by the powerfully resonant Junius of Paul LaRosa." "Libido" seemed to be the choice word of the critics as Steve Smith penned this about Worth, "Matthew Worth sang powerfully and prowled the stage with an unquenchable libido."

Finally, Barihunks would like to thank Benjamin Britten for providing us with an abundance of barihunk roles.

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Craig Verm Could Confuse Butterfly

We find it fascinating that barihunk Craig Verm is being cast as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Festival de Belle-Ile in Brittany. If we were Cio-Cio San we'd dump Pinkerton and run off with the American Consul Sharpless. Why put up with a two-timing jerk if this Sharpless walked in?

Verm returns to the United States for a run of La Boheme at the Austin Lyric Opera with fellow barihunk Liam Moran and Jonathan Beyer, who probably deserves to be on this site. For more information, visit http://www.austinlyricopera.org/web/productions_laboheme.asp.

For more hunky pictures of Craig Verm and some background on the singer, view our previous posts here: http://barihunks.blogspot.com/search?q=verm

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Ramin Karimloo's Racy Testicular Cancer Ad

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Ramin Karimloo: Baritone?

We will never pass up the opportunity to post the picture of shirtless barihunk, even if we're quibbling with some relevant fact. First, the headline of the Toronto Globe & Mail article refers to Ramin Karimloo as a baritone. We went onto his site and it was a 3-0 vote that he's a tenor. But for the moment. let's trust his agent and the Canadian press. (Listen for yourself at: http://www.raminkarimloo.net/home.html.

Then there is the small matter of this site being dedicated to opera singers. The closet Karimloo has gotten to an opera performance is a few gigs on stage singing Gilbert & Sullivan. He is currently Andrew Lloyd Webber's handpicked choice to star in his follow up to Phantom of the Opera - Love Never Dies.

We decided that we could quibble all we wanted about the facts, but at the end of the day we decided to post these delicious pictures. Barihunks readers can decide on their own if he's an operatic baritone. One thing I'm sure we can all agree on, he's one of the hottest men on stage today!

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Allen Boxer: Not Just a Pretty Face

Some of our readers with sharp eyes noticed that Michael Rice's picture was changed from a boring head shot to a saucy pool picture. A reader was nice enough to send it along and it greatly enhanced the post.

Two days later, along comes this picture of Allen Boxer as Collatinus in Aldeburgh in 2008. Benjamin Britten would have been pleased! Hopefully, we have a little friendly competition going on at Castleton and our mailbox will be filled with sexier pictures than the one's posted. If he is "wearing" the same costume at Castleton, then The Rape of Lucretia is clearly the hottest ticket in opera for July.

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Barihunk Feast at Castleton Festival in Virginia

Matthew Worth (above)

Paul LaRosa (above)

Allen Boxer (above)

Adrian Kramer (above)

Michael Rice (above)

If you want an unbelievable barihunk feast for the eyes, head to Virginia for Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival. Whenever, there is a lot of Benjamin Britten on the program, you can pretty well be guaranteed that there will be some eye candy and Castleton has gone all out.

Recent performancees of "The Rape of Lucretia" have kept this site busy, as opera companies are realizing that casting barihunks in this opera makes the rape scene all the more powerful. We predict that Matthew Worth will become known as the greatest Tarquinius to ever grace the stage. He'll be reprising the role that he performed here a few years ago when he caught the attention of opera houses across the globe. Worth has already become a favorite on this site, frequently getting more hits than better known barihunks.

The hunky Paul LaRosa also returns to this opera after honing his skills at the Merola Opera Program and at Julliard. He'll be playing Junius. We've seen La Rosa onstage and off and we can attest to his raw sexuality. Check out his shirtless picture if you don't believe us!

Collatinus will be played by Allen Boxer, a bass-baritone from Cincinnati. He is also returning in the same role. Apparently the mantra at Castleton is, "Why mess with a good thing?"

Adrian Kramer is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and is also making his return to the festival as Sid in "Albert Herring." He has already performed the barihunk role of Papageno and we're hoping that there are plenty more to come. Check out his MySpace page where you can hear some amazing sound clips. This guy has quite a future.

Even John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" is getting in the barihunk act. Mr. Peachum will be played by Michael Rice, a recent graduate of the master degree program at the Manhattan School of Music who has previously worked with Maestro Maazel

For more information visit: http://www.chateauville.org/event/program/castleton_festival_the_rape_of_lucretia_6

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Happy 4th: Celebrating American Barihunks

We can't think of a better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to celebrate our country's abundance of Barihunks. Here are some of our favorite baritones from the good old United States of America. These guys will make the fireworks go off!


David Adam Moore (above)

Tom Forde (above)

Tom Corbeil (above)

Kyle Ketelsen (above)

Randal Turner (above)

Rod Gilfry (above)

Nathan Gunn (above)

Michael Todd Simpson (above)

Chris Herbert (above)

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