Barihunk duo in Kentucky Opera's "A Woman in Morocco"

Joseph Flaxman and Brent Michael Smith

Two barihunks participating in the Kentucky Opera's Studio Artist Program will be featured in Daron Hagen's socially poignant opera A Woman in Morocco. Joseph Flaxman sings the dissolute English expat Teddy Forsythe and Brent Michael Smith sings the American businessman Harry Hopkins.

The opera, which is based on the play by Barbara Grecki, confronts the issues of human trafficking and sexual violence and its effect on all of us. Set in a small run-down hotel in Morocco in the mid-1950s, the opera tells the story of a young, wide-eyed writer, Lizzy, whose involvement with Ahmed, a worker at the hotel, sets in motion a series of events which ripple out and impact all the characters in the opera.

On May 6th, you can listen to the composer, the artists and General Director David Roth discuss the opera on WUOL-FM at 11:30 AM CST. The opera will premiere Tuesday, May 12 in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Festival of Faiths

Flaxman's 2014-2015 season includes, Bello in La Fanciulla del West at the Munich Philharmonic and the Kentucky Opera, his Wagnerian debut as Donner in Das Rheingold with the Hartford Wagner Festival, Germont in La Traviata with Bronx Opera, and “all male roles” in Smashed! at the NY Fringe Festival with Opera on Tap. 

Brent Michael Smith was at the Central City Opera last year where he performed Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. His other roles with the Kentucky Opera include the Marquis and Doctor in Verdi's La Traviata and Larkens in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. This summer he'll perform Billy Jackrabbit in La Fanciulla del West Des Moines Metro Opera.