Gotham Chamber Opera's innovate new season stars two barihunks

Michael Mayes in Portland's "Dead Man Walking"

New York City's Gotham Chamber Opera announced its 2013-2014 season, which we found to be one of the most innovative and interesting programs that we've seen for the coming year. It aslo happens to feature two of our favorite barihunk calendar models, Michael Mayes and Craig Verm.

The season begins with Michael Mayes in Baden-Baden 1927, a staged evening of four one-act operas that appeared together at the Baden-Baden Festival in 1927. Those operas are Kurt Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel, Paul Hindemith's Hin und zurück (There and Back), Darius Milhaud's L'enlèvement d'Europe (The Abduction of Europa), and Ernst Toch's Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse (The Princess and the Pea).

Joining Mayes in the all-star cast will be legendary soprano Helen Donath, soprano Maeve Höglund, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera (wife of barihunk Michael Rice), tenors Daniel Montenegro and Matthew Tuell and bass John Cheek.

Craig Verm from the 2013 Barihunks calendar

Next up is Craig Verm, who will be featured in an opera double-bill of Claudio Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and the world premiere of I Have No Stories to Tell You, a newly-commissioned work from Gotham's Composer-in-Residence, Lembit Beecher. Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda was published in 1638 in the composer's Eight Book of Madrigals. I Have No Stories To Tell You, tells the story of a photojournalist's return home after extended assignment in the Middle East.

Other operas scheduled are Toshio Hosakawa's The Raven, a monodrama for mezzo-soprano and twelve instrumentalists and Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers.

For more information on the season visit the Gotham Chamber Opera website.