Friday, April 30, 2010

Imbrailo Says Barihunk Fans Will Be Disappointed WIth Glyndebourne "Billy Budd"

[Jacques Imbrailo]

Jacques Imbrailo has told The Times of London that Barihunks readers will be disappointed with his portrayal of Billy Budd at Glyndebourne. Click HERE to find out why.

[Bo Skovhus: Not afraid to look sexy!]


For those of you who still like a sexy Billy Budd, there are performances of the Benjamin Britten masterpiece coming up at Vienna with Adrian Eröd, Paris with Lucas Meachem, and Frankfurt with Peter Mattei. The Netherlands Opera, which is far more provocative than the somewhat stuffy Glyndebourne, has also booked Imbrailo to sing Billy Budd. Of course, the Netherlands Opera always has other barihunk options. They have Bo Skovhus singing in Eugene Onegin and Henk Neven in Romeo et Juliette.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

A Touching Moment

[Frederica von Stade and Matthew Worth]


Few young opera singers have taken the opera world by storm like Matthew Worth. One can't have a serious conversation about the rapidly rising stars in opera without his name being mentioned. His recent performances of Owen Wingrave in Chicago, Don Giovanni at Virginia Opera and Mercutio in New Orleans' Romeo et Juliette were all critical successes. Add to that his abundance of charisma and good looks and you have a true opera star in the making.

One of our readers saw this picture on the blog of Brian Dickie, the general manager of the Chicago Opera Theater, and sent it our way. Dickie wrote:

Frederica von Stade (Flicka) is here and rehearsing with her new stage children - Matt Worth and Sara Jakubiak. Here you see her with Matt this afternoon. The mother son relationship is there already!


"Three Decembers" is an amazingly touching chamber opera by San Francisco based composer Jake Heggie. We've featured photos of Keith Phares and Frederica von Stade from the west coast premiere with the San Francisco Opera.

[Frederica von Stade and Keith Phares]


The story is about Madeline Mitchell, a glamorous and self-absorbed star of the musical theater world. She struggles to deal with her unhappily married alcoholic daughter and a gay son struggling with the death of his partner.

The opera will run at the Chicago Opera Theater from May 8-16. Click HERE for more information or to buy tickets.

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Meachem in Paris "Billy Budd"

[Paul Gay and Lucas Meachem]


The much anticipted Billy Budd at the Opéra national de Paris directed by Francesca Zambello has opened. The cast also includes barihunk Paul Gay as Mr. Flint.

The performance runs through May 15 and you can get more information HERE.

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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Review: Daniel Okulitch’s triumphant Figaro makes for must-see Mozart


[Nikki Einfeld and Daniel Okulitch; Photo by Tim Matheson, Vancouver Opera]

The Vancouver Sun singled out barihunk Daniel Okulitch's performance in the Vancouver Opera's current production of the "Marriage of Figaro." Here's what they had to say:

Okulitch’s Figaro is the stuff of greatness. He is still young enough to be completely right for the role, and his loose-limbed geniality makes him the irresistible focus of attention every second he’s on stage. When all Figaro’s brash confidence finally sours late in the day, Okulitch musters the dramatic reserve to pull it off with real psychological insight.


You can read the entire review HERE.

There are still four performances remaining. Visit the Vancouver Opera for ticket information and performance times.

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Barihunks Making a Difference

[Nathan Gunn & Chris Herbert]


If there is a true renaissance man among our barihunks it would have to be Chris Herbert. His résumé is incredibly impressive. He holds a B.A. in Music from Yale University, an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, writes for the Huffington Post and other periodicals, served as Vice President for the international strategic communications firm Brown Lloyd James, served as a Director of Research for the Denver Research Group and was a special prize winner at the Grand Concours de Chant competition. Herbert has added to that impressive résumé by serving as the Director of Advancement for "Sing for Hope."

According to Sing for Hope's website, the organization was "founded by opera singers with a desire to lift their voices for social change, Sing for Hope mobilizes world-class artists – from classical musicians to photographers to Broadway performers – who donate time and talent in volunteer service programs that benefit schools, hospitals and communities."

Check out Sing for Hope's latest effort called "Play me, I'm yours," which is bringing pianos to the streets of New York. The promo video also features barihunk Nathan Gunn. If you're moved by this amazing effort, you can make a donation at the YouTube site or at the Sing for Hope website. A $25 donation provides six New York City students with an hour of dynamic arts and leadership education or brings bedside performances to five hospital-bound patients.



Go ahead, make a difference.

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Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Men of Florida: Carmen at Palm Beach Opera

[Bradley Smoak as Zuniga; Photo courtesy of Palm Beach Opera]


[Nmon Ford and Bradley Smoak; Photo courtesy of Palm Beach Opera]

We know that Carmen likes to flirt with the men and Palm Beach Opera gave her plenty of hot men to tempt in their recent production. Grammy award winning singer Nmon Ford, who is a regular on this site, portrayed the swaggering Escamillo. From the looks of this picture, it's no wonder that poor Don Jose doesn't have a chance. We can't imagine that Carmen didn't also cast a few glances at the bass Bradley Smoak, who was portraying Zuniga.

Smoak is new to our site and a welcome addition. He's fairly new to the scene having recently made his international debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland as Don Alfonso in Donizetti’s "Maria Padilla" and Pasha in Corigliano’s "Ghosts of Versailles." He has also performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis and Opera North. Smoak will be appearing with the Opera Theater of St. Louis in Le Nozze di Figaro, Eugene Onegin, and the world premiere of The Golden Ticket.



People in the Palm Beach area can see a possible emerging barihunk at their upcoming vocal competition on Sunday, April 25th. Joseph Lattanzi is in their Junior Division finals and from this photo we think that he may have a future on this site.

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Friday, April 23, 2010

Daniel Okulitch Reads Poetry



Daniel Okulitch is already becoming well known for his insightful portrayals on stage. Now one of this site's most popular barihunks has proven that he is a master of reading poetry, as well. To the delight of many of our readers, Okulitch is reading one of the few famous poems that references oral sex. The text is below and you can listen to his lush, FM radio baritone by clicking HERE.

The reading is part of a new CD that is receiving incredible critical acclaim. It is available at Amazon.com or by visiting the GPR Records site.

Self-Improvement
by Tony Hoagland

Just before she flew off like a swan
to her wealthy parents' summer home,
Bruce's college girlfriend asked him
to improve his expertise at oral sex,
and offered him some technical advice:

Use nothing but his tonguetip
to flick the light switch in his room
on and off a hundred times a day
until he grew fluent at the nuances
of force and latitude.

Imagine him at practice every evening,
more inspired than he ever was at algebra,
beads of sweat sprouting on his brow,
thinking, thirty-seven, thirty eight,
seeing, in the tunnel vision of his mind's eye,
the quadratic equation of her climax
yield to the logic
of his simple math.

Maybe he unscrewed
the bulb from his apartment ceiling
so that passersby would not believe
a giant firefly was pulsing
its electric abdomen in 13 B.

Maybe, as he stood
two inches from the wall,
in darkness, fogging the old plaster
with his breath, he visualized the future
as a mansion standing on the shore
that he was rowing to
with his tongue's exhausted oar.

Of course, the girlfriend dumped him:
met someone, après-ski, who,
using nothing but his nose
could identify the vintage of a Cabernet.

Sometimes we are asked
to get good at something we have
no talent for,
or we excel at something we will never
have the opportunity to prove.

Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.

The climaxes of suffering are complex,
costly, beautiful, but secret.
Bruce never played the light switch again.

So the avenues we walk down,
full of bodies wearing faces,
are full of hidden talent:
enough to make pianos moan,
sidewalks split,
streetlights deliriously flicker.

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

"Before Night Falls" in 4 Minutes



The opening of the world premiere of "Before Night Falls" is rapidly approaching. The buzz in the theater and opera world is that this is one of the "10 Must See" events of 2010. We've been promoting the opera because the lead is searingly sexy Wes Mason. Performances are on May 29 and May 6 at the Ft. Worth Opera.

Here is a synopsis of the story and a video which sums up the opera in four minutes.

As Reinaldo Arenas lies dying of AIDS in New York City, he remembers his home in Cuba as Fidel Castro takes power. A counter-revolutionary and homosexual, he is prosecuted by the state for having his manuscripts published outside Cuba. After a period of imprisonment and torture, Reinaldo's friend Lazaro receives permission to leave the country, but Reinaldo must find a way to escape to America. After learning he has a fatal disease, Reinaldo rushes to finish his memoirs and Lazaro stays by his side until the end.




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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Double Delight in D.C.


[Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Ildar Abradzakov]

We like the increasingly popular trend of casting multiple barihunks in a production, as with our recent posts of Opera Atelier and Michigan Opera Theater. We're eager to see the pairing of Teddy Tahu Rhodes' Count Almaviva with Ildar Abdrazakov's Figaro in Washington Opera's "Le Nozze di Figaro." The barihunk pairing in Chicago's Nozze between Mariusz Kwiecien and Kyle Ketelsen was a huge success.

The production runs from April 24-May 7 with alternating casts, so check the website.

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Barihunk Sings "Nessun Dorma" For Fun



We've had a few requests to post Mark Oswald on the site before, but passed only because he's basically retired and teaching. However, when were sent this video of him singing the famous tenor aria "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot," we couldn't resist. Keep in mind that this was done for fun. Click HERE to watch the video.

If you want to hear Oswald in his own fach, click HERE to hear him perform "Cheti, Cheti, Immantinente" from Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" with the great bass Paul Plishka.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Jesse Blumberg's Three Days Of Schubert Off To Good Start



Susan Isaacs Nisbett's review at AnnArbor.com indicates that the three days of Schubert at the University of Michigan with barihunk Jesse Blumberg and accompanist Martin Katz is off to a good start. Here's her review:

The stars just won’t align for the hero of Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin.” In the final song of 20 constituting this great Schubert song cycle, the hero, having lost the lovely miller’s daughter of the title to a rival, meets his end by the brook that has sung to him and led him to her.

But Friday evening at Kerrytown Concert House, the stars aligned perfectly for Schubert, and for the song cycle itself, which received a vivid, finely paced reading from baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Martin Katz. [Continued Here]



Yesterday's recital marked the one year mark from Blumberg opening night in Ricky Ian Gordon's newest opera "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" at the Minneapolis Opera. There will be more to come on that production as opening night nears.

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Opera Atelier's Quartet of Barihunks


[Garvanliev, Laquerre, Sullivan and Addis & the Opera Atelier banner for Figaro]

Toronto's Opera Atelier is known for cutting edge baroque performances, sexy marketing and even sexier singers. The boutique opera company's latest offering is Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" with four certifiable barihunks, Phillip Addis, Curtis Sullivan, Olivier Laquerre and Vasil Garvanliev. All of them have appeared on this site before except for the youngest of three, Garvanliev. The Macedonian singer now resides in Toronto where he is wrapping up his graduate studies at the University of Toronto.

Garvanliev has been a child star in native country since the age of seven singing pop songs. He was a finalist in the Macedonian Eurosong Festival with his own original composition in February 2007. Here is a video of him from Macedonian TV:



The "Marriage of Figaro will run from April 24-May 1. Visit the Opera Atelier's wonderful website for more information.

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Friday, April 16, 2010

Detroit's Don Giovanni A Bari-Hit

[Curtain call in Detroit with Kelly Kaduce, Randal Turber & Caitlin Lynch]




The reviews are in for Detroit's stunningly sexy "Don Giovanni" and it is receiving universal acclaim. Barihunks Randal Turner and Jonathan Lasch team up for one more night on Saturday. Tickets are available HERE.

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Teddy Tahu Rhodes Sings Bach



The latest news on barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes has nothing to do with his "Teddy Bare" image. The New Zealand hunk who is as famous for his physique as his voice has announced that he will be releasing a CD of Bach bass arias accompanied on original instruments.

The CD will include a complete version of the glorious cantata "Ich habe genug." Other tracks include, "Sleepers Wake," "Now Thank We All Our God," and the clasic "Bist du bei mir."

The CD will be released on May 21st and can be preordered from ABC Classics.

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Happy Birthday, Elliot Madore



We hope to be celebrating many more birthdays for the extremely talented and sexy Elliot Madore.

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Nathan Gunn on ABC News: Sexy is Good



Barihunks favorite Nathan Gunn recently appeared on ABC News where he talked about why the shirtless and sexy trend in opera in good. See the video HERE.

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Barihunk Switch in Kansas City

[Christopher Schaldenbrand]


[Keith Phares]

Lyric Opera of Kansas City has announced that barihunk Keith Phares has withdrawn their production of Don Giovanni and will be replaced by Christopher Schaldenbrand. Phares had become something of a regular in Kansas City.

Schaldenbrand was recently featured on this site for singing Don Giovanni at Boston Lyric Opera. He has also performed the role at the New York City Opera. The British magazine opera wrote this of his performance in Mexico, "The American baritone Christopher Schaldenbrand was a charming, handsome Don Giovanni, playing the part more as a suave and easy-going seducer than a cruel predator.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Spanish Interview With Erwin Schrott




Opera Vilag is featuring an interview with barihunk Erwin Schrott in Spanish.

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Jonathan Beyer Wins "Classical Idol" Competition

[Jonathan Beyer]


In a competition devoted to oratorio and opera, barihunk Jonathan Beyer emerged as the winner of the Rochester Oratorio Society’s fourth annual Classical Idol Singing Competition. Topping nine other contestants, Beyer claimed the title, as well as winning the popular audience favorite award. The young American baritone sang "News has a kind of mystery" from John Adams' opera "Nixon in China."

The Classical Idol Competition has developed steadily since it’s inception in 2007, and now attracts vocalists from across the nation and Canada. As the reigning Classical Idol, Beyer will return to Rochester next season and perform as a soloist with the Rochester Oratorio Society.

Jonathan Beyer can next be seen in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's "Moby Dick" performing the role of Captain Gardiner. That production also includes barihunk Morgan Smith as Starbuck. The production runs from April 30 through May 16 at the beautiful new Winspear Opera House. Click HERE for more information.

[Morgan Smith]


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Friday, April 9, 2010

Barihunks At Ravinia Celebration



Chicago's famed Ravinia Festival has announced a performance of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" which will celebrate conductor James Conlon's 60th birthday.

The performance will feature barihunks Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Figaro and Nathan Gunn as the Count. Conlon will conduct the magnificent Chicago Symphony Orchestra and lead a cast that also includes Rebecca Evans as the Countess.

Performances are on August 6th and 8th. Order early, as this promises to be one hottest tickets of the festival

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Thursday, April 8, 2010

Barihunks On The Air - David Adam Moore & Randal Turner



One of the great things about most of our barihunks is that they are not only lovely to look at, but there are a number who are highly compelling artists. David Adam Moore and Randal Turner are not only two of the most riveting performers on stage, but they are also amazing singers. You can now hear both of them online in their most recent performances.

Moore has shown his ability to bring great depth to music ranging from the baroque to today's most modern compositions. Great examples of this are his critically acclaimed performances as Aeneas in Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and his riveting performance of David T. Little's "Soldier Songs."

[David Adam Moore in Soldier Songs]


Moore just reprised the lead role of Prior Walter in Peter Eötvös' "Angels in America" to great critical acclaim at the Barbican Center in London with the BBC Symphony. The Sunday Times of London raved about the U.K. premiere of the opera. You can haer it on the BBC until April 14th by clicking HERE. Due to "adult language" there is a box that you'll have to click to attest that you're over the age of eighteen. Although the opera contains a lot of recitative, Eötvös has created a condensed and highly effective opera based on Tony Kushner's award-winning play.

[Randal Turner as Don Giovanni]


Randal Turner is known for his warm, mellifluous baritone as well as his ease on stage. Trained as a dancer, he brings great physicality to all of his roles. The early buzz on his Don Giovanni in Detroit is that it's going to be a sexually charged performance. For those who can't make the performance, they will still have the opportunity to hear it broadcast live on April 14th on Detroit's WRCJ 90.9. The internet stream will be available HERE at 7:30 PM EST.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

How Hot Is Simon Keenlyside's Hamlet?



Is Simon Keenlyside's "Hamlet" so hot that it set The Met on fire. Read the answer HERE.

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Jacques Imbrailo - Then & Now



South African barihunk Jacques Imbrailo started as a boy soprano and when we learned that there was a YouTube clip of him singing the Queen of the Night's aria we had to post it. Like Max Emanuel Cencic and Aled Jones, he managed to get through puberty and have a career as an adult.

Barihunks is eagerly awaiting his debut as Billy Budd at Glyndebourne opening on May 20th. This production promises to be one of the highlights of the 2010 opera season.





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Grant Doyle To Sing Mozart's Count



It's been two years since we featured the emerging barihunk Grant Doyle. The Australian singer caught our eye singing Demetrius in Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We were wondering what he's been up to and were delighted to see that he'll be portraying the Count in "Le Nozze di Figaro" at Garsington Opera this summer.

We also noticed that he's set up a YouTube site and he has his first video up and running. Here he is singing the Torreador's song from Carmen:



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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Culture Kiosque Interviews Ildebrando d'Arcangelo



By Patricia Boccadoro

PARIS, 30 MARCH 2010 — When Ildebrando D’Arcangelo is described as "the hottest thing in Opera these days," it is a winking acknowledgment of the many meanings of the term "hot." But the Italian bass-baritone superstar is charmingly self-deprecating and approachable, as our Patricia Boccadoro recently found out. [Continued HERE]

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Saturday, April 3, 2010

Randal Turner Featured In Detroit LGBT Paper



The buzz about barihunk Randal Turner's North American debut in Detroit has been picked up by the local gay paper Pride Source. Who could blame them for featuring the muscular singer with pictures like this?

Turner is performing the title role at the Michigan Opera Theater, but is alternating the role with Robert Gierlach. If you want to see Turner, we don't recommend using the Michigan Opera website which oddly doesn't tell you which cast is singing on any given night. We suggest that you call (313) 961-3500 for cast information. We believe that he's singing on April 14 and April 17.

You can read the entire Pride Source interview with Randal Turner HERE.

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Friday, April 2, 2010

Jesse Blumberg's Three Days of Schubert



Anyone near Ann Arbor, Michigan is in for a real treat as Barihunks favorite Jesse Blumberg is coming from April 16-18 to perform three days of Schubert. Each day includes an entirely different fare. On April 16th, the gifted singer will perform "Die Schöne Müllerin." On April 17th, he will be joined by one of the world's greatest accompanists, Martin Katz, for a Schubert master class with young singers from the University of Michigan. The next day he tackles the daunting song cycle “Die Winterreise.”

Not only is Jesse Blumberg pure eye candy, but he's an extremely talented singer who will undoubtedly bring amazing insights to Schubert's music. Having Martin Katz at the piano only guarantees that this might be the best $20.00 opera deal in the country this year.

Click HERE for ticket and concert information.

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