Carmen performance with Barihunk Trio added at Santa Fe Opera

Evan Hughes (left & far right) and Daniela Mack as Carmen (Production photo: Ken Howard)

Due to a heavy demand for tickets, the Santa Fe Opera has added another performance of Bizet’s Carmen to the final week of its current season. The opera features the barihunk trio of Kostas Smoriginas as Escamillo, Evans Hughes as Zuniga and Dan Kempson as Le Dancaire. The sensational mezzo Daniela Mack, who was the runner up at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, is singing the title role.

A performance has been added on August 18th, making a total of thirteen performances of the popular French opera. The opera’s season will end with a performance of Carmen on August 23rd. Tickets are available online.

All three barihunks have been featured on our site before.

Kostas Smoriginas (photo: Ken Howard)

Lithuanian barihunk Kostas Smoriginas is making his Santa Fe Opera debut with this production and he appears to be an instant favorite with audiences. In 2010, he made his American opera debut as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Washington National Opera, a role he later repeated at the San Francisco Opera. He returned to Great Britain to appear as Escamillo in Carmen in Opera North’s new production, having made his debut in the role at Berlin’s Staatsoper.

Evan Hughes is a grand prize winner in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, who is also making his debut with the Santa Fe Opera. A member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he won praise as Don Alfonso in the 2012 production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Lincoln Center. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2013 as Crebillon in Puccini’s La Rondine .

Dan Kempson from Barihunks calendar (left) and in Santa Fe's Carmen (photo: Ken Howard)

Dan Kempson made his Santa Fe Opera debut during the 2012-13 season as Le notaire in Offenbach's Grande-Duchesse of Gerolstein. We recently featured him in performances of Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox with Skylight Music Theatre and as Lieutenant Gordon in Fort Worth Opera’s production of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. He will be making his debut with the Opera San Antonio as Badger the Miner in Tobias Picker's The Fantastic Mr. Fox on September 23rd.