Men in Shorts

Ryan McKinny (lying down) with Agneta Eichenholz and Marko Spehar (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

We get all kinds of mail, but the "barihunk in his skivvies" is a regular item in our inbox. There seems to be a lot of it lately, especially coming from the European houses.  The picture above is from the world premiere of Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s Der Sandmann at Theater Basel in a Christof Loy production. The opera is based on an E.T.A. Hoffmann story and there are still eight performances remaining. Visit the Theater Basel website for additional information.

On Janauary 29, 2013, McKinny opens as Melot in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.

James McOran-Campbell in Ghost Patrol (Photo: Jane Hobson)

James McOran-Campbell is currently touring in a Scottish Opera/Music Theatre Wales joint commission of the world premiere of Stuart MacRae's Ghost Patrol, which has scheduled performances in Glasgow, the Edinburgh Festival, the Linbury Studio, ROH and a national tour. They are currently performing in Aberystwyth and are headed to Cardiff, Manchester and finally Mold on November 11. Check out the McOran-Campbell's website for additional information.

Phillip Addis as Demetrius and Ellie Dehn as Helena (Photo Silvia Lelli, Rome Opera)

This summer, Canadian barihunk Phillip Addis appeared as Demetrius in the Rome Opera production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. We're certainly used to seeing some skin in this opera, but it's usually from Puck. In this production, Demetrius and Lysander were also asked to bare some skin and it drew a comment in a review from Seen & Heard International:

Still, there were some fun touches in the staging too. Having the boys strip down to their underpants for the failed mock fight was a fun touch, but to make it work rightly, Mr Curran would have needed more say in the casting. While Demetrius (Phillip Addis) looked as though he was comfortable as a model for underpants, Lysander (Shawn Mathey) did not.

John Allen Nelson

Finally, we have American John Allen Nelson, who is new to this site.

Nelson was a participant in Opera Colorado's young artist program in 2011-2012, where he performed Father in Hansel and Gretel, Zuniga in Carmen, Old Gypsy in Il Trovatore, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. He spent the summer at the Des Moines Metro Opera where he covered the title role in Don Giovanni.     

This season he can be seen singing the role of The Mandarin in Minnesota Opera's production of Turandot.