Barihunks as leading ladies?

Michael Mayes & Seth Mease Carico

We've always maintained that the Fort Worth Opera Festival is one of the best opera festivals in the United States. The quality of their productions combined with excellent musicians and singers always makes for great week of music. They also have their fair share of barihunks on the roster, but even we were shocked when we saw barihunks Michael Mayes and Seth Mease Carico show up to a promotional event for Mark Adamo's "Lysistrata" looking like a cross between a Ukranian mezzo-soprano and a Wal-Mart shopper from Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Fort Worth Opera hosted a Tug-of-War between the women and the men to kick-off the opening night of Lysistrata which features Seth Mease Carico as the Spartan General Leonidas and Michael Mayes as the Athenian Kinesias. Mayes and Carico thought that they would lend some muscle to the women's team, but it was to no avail, as the men won all three sets (that mus mean sex for everyone!).

The comic opera is about the battle of the sexes, where the Athenian and Spartan women are tired of their battle happy husbands refusing to lay down their weapons. They band together and refuse to have sex with the men until peace is declared.

Michael Mayes plants a kiss on fellow barihunk Matthew Worth

There are performances of Lysistrata today and on June 3rd. Other remaining performances at the Festival include Jake Heggie's "Three Decembers" with barihunk Matthew Worth on May 26, 31 and June 2nd, Tosca with the amazing and sexy Scarpia of Michael Chioldi on June 2nd and The Marriage of Figaro with barihunks Donovan Singletary as Figaro and Jonathan Beyer as Count Almaviva. Tickets are available on the Fort Worth Opera website.

If you can't make it this  year, make sure to add it to your travel plans next year when the Festival performs La Boheme, Daughter of the Regiment, sAriadne auf Naxos and Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com