Ryan McKinny as Jochanaan in New Orleans

Ryan McKinny as Jochanaan (Photo: New Orleans Opera)

Check out the photo of barihunk Ryan McKinny as Jochanaan in Richard Strauss' Salome at the New Orleans Opera, which had its final performance today. We're not sure how we missed this performance!

McKinny's career has taken off since he was a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was featured in the film tenor-laden film The Audition. He has performed regularly with the Houston Grand Opera and Los Angeles Opera and has begun establishing a reputation in Europe, singing in Berlin and Leipzig. In fact, his next performance will be with Oper Leipzig as Hercules in Gluck's Alceste (Alkestis). He returns to the United States on May 4th when he sings Lt. Ratcliffe opposite Nathan Gunn in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera.

 Ryan KcKinny as Jochanaan and Mlada Khudoley as Salome in the 

New Orleans Opera's production of Salome:

 Theodore P. Mahne of the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote:

As Jokanaan, baritone Ryan McKinny was simply amazing. Even from the depth of the cistern in which he is imprisoned, his rich voice soared. When he is brought to the surface, his prophetic warnings resonate with increased power and command. 

There is a savage beauty to McKinny’s acting, depicting a man of God who had removed himself from the ways of the world to live in the desert. Now chained in the palace of the Tetrarch, McKinny’s Jokanaan moves like a caged animal, carefully aware of his surroundings, easy to spook, yet knowing that he has a strength and power to overcome his captors.

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