Morgan Pearse joins husband and wife team for Elixir of Love

Morgan Pearse

Australian barihunk Morgan Pearse will be joining the New Zealand husband and wife team of Pene Pati and Amina Adris as Belcore in a run of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. The all-Antipodes cast will perform the opera in Auckland on May 31, June 2, 7 and 9, and in Wellington on June 23, 26, 28 and 30. This will be Pearse's first time ever singing in a Donizetti opera.

Pearse recently made his solo Wigmore Hall recital, where he sang Six Songs by Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss' Vier Lieder, Opus 27 and Samuel Barber's settings of James Joyce's poetry.

Pene Pati has become a best-selling classical music artist as part of the group Sol3 Mio. He met his wife while singing across the globe at San Francisco's prestigious Merola Opera Program. He has made Nemorino's aria "Una furtiva lagrima" a bit of a calling card.

Morgan Pearse sings the serenade from Handel's "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo":

Pearse's character of Belcore is a cocky Army sergeant, who takes an immediate liking to Adina. He puts his charms into high gear and quickly asks Adina if she’ll marry him, only to have the wedding delayed when military service beckons.

Donizetti wrote some 70 operas during his career, ranging from comedies like Elixir to tragedies, including the famous "Tudor Trilogy" of Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux.  In 1832, Donizetti set to work with librettist Felice Romani on his latest commission based on an existing French text about a love potion, Le philtre (The Potion) by Eugène Scribe for this new opera’s libretto. Le philtre had already been set to music by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, but multiple uses of the same text was common at the time.

The story of the opera reflects Donizetti's own life, in that the composer’s military service was bought by a rich woman, like Nemorino, so that he did not have to serve in the army.

Malte Roesner co-creates and performs in sold out Opera Parallèle concert

 

Malte Roesner from the 2018 Barihunk Photo Book

Malte Roesner, who earlier this year made his U.S. stage debut with West Edge Opera in Vicente Martín y Soler's The Chastity Tree (see our post), as well as his U.S. concert debut, is returning on December 10th for a recital at San Francisco's historic Palace of the Legion of Honor. The concert is a collaboration with Opera Parallèle and the museum. 

A musicologist, as well as a singer, Roesner helped put together the program, which centers around composers who had some connection to the painters Gustav Klimt and Auguste Rodin. The two artists are being featured at an exhibit at the Legion of Honor. The program also features the rising young star, lyric soprano Amina Edris, as well as accompanist Keisuke Nakagoshi. The innovative show quickly sold out and resulted in online bartering for tickets and a demand for a second concert! (None has been announced). 

Roesner will be performing Hugo Wolf's Michelangelo Songs, as well as pieces by Alexander von Zemlinsky and Hans Pfitzner. Amina Edris will be performing works by Reynaldo Hahn, Alma Mahler, Claude Debussy and Henri Duparc.

According to Roesner the paths of Klimt and Rodin intersected in the 1898 Secession in Vienna and both of their most famous pieces are titled "The Kiss." 

According to his program notes, other connections include:   

• Michelangelo Buonarroti was one of Rodin's main role models. He traveled to Rome to study him. Rodin said, "It is Michelangelo who has freed me from academic sculpture." 
• Alma Mahler was a close friend of Gustav Klimt and the 5 Lieder contain one song with lyrics by Rainer Maria Rilke, who was Rodin's private secretary.      
• Alexander von Zemlinsky was a Viennese contemporary of Klimt's and together with Gustav Mahler a competitor for Alma Schindler's (later Mahler-werfel) affection. According to her diary and her autobiography Klimt was her first kiss and Zemlinsky both her composition teacher and the man she experienced her sexual awakening with, but ultimately she decided to marry Mahler, who was 20 years her senior.       
• In a scandal over an artistic dispute, Debussy came out publicly as a supporter of Rodin. Debussy and Klimt were both born and died the same year.   

If you're missing this concert, you may have a chance to see Roesner with Opera Parallèle during their 2018-19 season. We recommend that you buy early. Check out their current season online, which includes the world premiere of Marcus Shelby's Harriet's Spirit, as well as a double-bill of Jake Heggie's At the Statue of Venus and Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti.

Malte Roesner from the 2018 Barihunks Calendar

ONLY 24 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER 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.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes to head Sweeney Todd cast in New Zealand

Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Antoinette Halloran in Sweeney Todd

Kiwi barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes will star in the new co-production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd between New Zealand Opera and Melbourne's Victorian Opera. The production comes to New Zealand following a successful run in Melbourne in July, 2015. It will be performed at The Civic in Auckland  from September 17-24, the St James Theatre in Wellington from September 30 – October 5, and at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch from October 12-15. Tickets are available online. 

Joining Teddy Tahu Rhodes in the cast is Australian soprano Antoinette Halloran as Mrs Lovett,   Phillip Rhodes as Judge Terpin and Amelia Berry . Two of the singers are also alums of San Francisco's Merola Opera Program, which has featured a number of New Zealanders in their training program, including barihunk Hadleigh Adams, soprano Amina Edris and tenor brothers Pene Pati and Amatai Peti. Tenor James Benjamin Rodgers will sing Anthony Hope and baritone James Ioelu will sing Jonas Fogg.

Set in 19th century England, Sweeney Todd follows a murderous barber who, in order to take revenge on a corrupt judge who banished him, conspires with a local baker who is in desperate need of fresh meat for pies. 

Following his run in Sweeney Todd, Rhodes will be part of a Royal Caribbean opera cruise taking in Sydney, Mare Island and Noumea. He'll be joined by legendary soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, David Hobson, Cheryl Barker, Peter Coleman-Wright and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Bookings are available online.

Barihunk trio in successful Pop-Up Opera in San Francisco nightclub

Hadleigh Adams at SF Opera's Lab Pop-Up Opera in San Francisco

For years, opera companies have been trying innovative ways to attract younger audiences to the artform. The San Francisco Opera may have figured out the formula, as their Pop-Up concert at The Chapel, an old mortuary converted into a 1914 nightclub, drew a packed audience of 500 rowdy attendees to the heart of San Francisco's hip Mission District.

Hadleigh Adams sings "Come un'ape ne'giorni d'aprile" from La Cenerentola:

Barihunk Hadleigh Adams was the perfect emcee, eliciting shouts from men and women to take off his shirt (which he didn't do!). He was joined by fellow barihunks Anthony Reed and Brad Walker, tenor Pene Pati, mezzo Laura Krumm and soprano Amina Edris. All are alums of the prestigious Merola Opera Program, who went on to become Adler Fellows with the San Francisco Opera. They were joined by Ronny Michael Greenberg at the piano, who recently accompanied barihunk Marco Vassalli for his U.S. debut recital.

The SF Opera Lab explores innovative programming that celebrates the power of the human voice theatrically in intimate spaces beyond the War Memorial Opera House. They are also intended to be informal and drinks are allowed at the performance.

Hadleigh Adams & Laura Krumm sing "Dunque io son" from The Barber of Seville:

 The next SF Opera Lab production opens tonight with seven performances running through APril 10th. Michael Cavanagh will direct Ana Sokolović's Svadba-Wedding and audience members will be part of the action with actual champagne served at the wedding. Additional information is available online.

Hadleigh Adams will be performing Falke in Die Fledermaus with the Cincinnati Opera in June. Anthony Reed can be seen this season at the San Francisco Opera in Jenufa, Andrea Chenier, Aida and Madama Butterfly. Brad Walker will be appearing with the San Francisco Opera this season in Carmen, Andrea Chenier and The Makropulos Case.