Barihunk trio in San Francisco world premiere of John Adams opera

Davóne Tines, Ryan McKinny and Elliot Madore

On November 21, San Francisco Opera will present the world premiere of American composer John Adams' Girls of the Golden West, which will feature the barihunk trio of Davóne Tines as the fugitive slave Ned Peters, Elliot Madore as Ramón and Ryan McKinny as Clarence. The opera will run from November 21-December 10 and ticket and additional cast information is available online.

Bass-barihunk Davóne Tines, who is new to this site, makes his first local appearance in a fully staged opera as Ned Peters, an African-American cowboy and fugitive slave who is drawn to the promise of the frontier. At age 30, Tines has had three operas composed with his voice in mind: Matthew Aucoin's Crossing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music,  Kaija Saariaho's Only the Sound Remains at the Dutch National Opera, as well as Adams' Girls of the Golden West. Last year, he performed John Adams' El Niño at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Davóne Tines sings 'True Fire" by Kaija Saariaho:

This is Ryan McKinny's debut with the San Francisco Opera. He recently performed the role of Richard Nixon in Adams’ Nixon in China with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Elliot Madore returns after his successful debut with the San Francisco Opera as Anthony Hope in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in 2015.

With a libretto drawn from historical sources by director Peter Sellars, Girls of the Golden West explores the true stories of pioneers on California's Gold Rush frontier during the 1850s. The collaboration between San Francisco Opera and John Adams began with the 1992 West Coast premiere of The Death of Klinghoffer, followed by the acclaimed world premiere of Doctor Atomic in 2005.

Part of the cast of Girls of the Golden West

Girls of the Golden West takes place in the historic mining camps of Rich Bar and Downieville during California's transition from territory to American statehood, a period which coincided with the Gold Rush and its unprecedented migration of people from around the world attracted by the prospect of striking it rich in the region's gold fields.

Sellars' libretto draws from sources illuminating multiple perspectives of this global event, including the California history classic The Shirley Letters, a collection of 23 letters by Louise Clappe penned under the name "Dame Shirley" describing the rugged conditions and clash of cultures in the gold mining camps from 1851 to 1852; the diary of Chilean miner Ramón Gil Navarro; memoirs of fugitive slaves; poems of Chinese immigrants; the Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni; Frederick Douglass' speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"; gold miner songs; and Mark Twain's Roughing It.

2018 Barihunks Calendar/Photo Book

Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!