Mathias Hausmann in controversial Tannhäuser in Leipzig

Mathias Hausmann in Tannhäuser

Mathias Hausmann will be featured as Wolfram in Oper Leipzig's Tannhäuser, which opens on March 17 and runs through May 27.  The remainder of the cast includes Elisabet Strid as Elisabeth, Kathrin Göring as Venus, Burkhard Fritz as Tannhäuser and Patrick Vogel as Walther.

A scene from Calixto Bieito's Tannhäuser in Ghent

The production has been mired in a bit of controversy and confusion, as it was originally scheduled to be directed by Katharina Wagner, a descendant of the composer. The opera company announced that due to  “logistical challenges,” it will now be directed by the provocative Spaniard Calixto Bieito. Bieito's interpretation of Wagner's Tannhäuser premiered at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent in 2015.

Katharina Wagner will return to Leipzig for Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin in November 2020.

Iurii Samoilov making role debut as Don Giovanni

Iurii Samoilov as Don Giovanni (left), The Frankfurt Opera production (right) Photo © Monika Rittershaus

Iurii Samoilov will be making his role debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Don Giovanni on May 30th in the company's heralded production by Christof Loy. He was originally alternating the role of Masetto with fellow barihunk Bjorn Bürger. He'll also be appearing as the Don on June 5, 13, 26 and 28, before turning the role over to Daniel Schmutzhard in July. Somoilov will be joined by Simon Bailey as Leporello and Kihwan Sim as Masetto.

Until May 23, he's performing Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola. Earlier this season, he appeared with the company in Wagner's Parsifal, Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Puccini's La bohème, 

Iurii Samoilov in Theatre Basel's Cosi by Calixto Bieito (Photo ©Ismael Lorenzo)

Samoilov joined the ensemble at the Frankfurt Opera this season after having been part of their Opera Studio since 2012. His debut with the company was as the Embittered Gambler in Prokofiev's The Gambler. Samoilov graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine in 2011 and in 2009 he was the youngest singer to ever reach the finals at the Neue Stimmen Competition in Germany.

Zachary Altman's sexy shepherd in Daphne

Zach Altman (center) and a dancer in Basel

Barihunk Zach Altman is appearing in German director Christof Loy's regie theater production of Richard Strauss' Daphne at the Basel Theater. Loy, who Loy was voted "Director of the Year" by the critics of the German music magazine Opernwelt is well-known in Germany for his "contemporary" productions of masterpieces like Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and La bohème.

Altman, who appears as one of the shepherds certainly holds his own with any of the members of the Basel dance troupe, all of whom appear in the opera bedecked only in white shorts.

Dancers with soprano Agneta Eichenholz

Zach Altman (center)

We won't bore you with too many words and we'll let the pictures do the talking. The opera runs through June 23rd. Altman will be appearing as Tarquinius in their upcoming production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Altman better stay in shape, as Cosi is directed by Calixto Bieito, who is known for showing some skin in his productions.

Barihunks galore at exciting new San Francisco Opera season

Nicolas Testé, Zachary Nelson and Greer Grimsley

There is a lot of buzz coming out of San Francisco, where the opera just announced their new season and they are embarking on a worldwide search for a new General Director to replace the legendary David Gockley. The frontrunner is rumored to be director Francesca Zambello, who regular readers know coined the phrase "Barihunk" and is revered by the operators of this site.

As for the newly announced 2015–16 season, it is loaded with barihunks! The big news is Greer Grimsley in the San Francisco premiere of David McVicar’s production of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, co-starring hunkentenor Brandon Jovanovich and rising Wagnerian sensation Rachel Willis-Sørensen. Performances will run from November 18–December 6, 2015.

Tongues are atwitter about the US debut of opera bad boy Calixto Bieito, whose provocative version of Bizet's Carmen is being presented to the occasionally stodgy War Memorial audience with Zachary Nelson as Escamillo. The opera is infamous for a scene involving oral sex behind a car. Nelson will rotate the role with Michael Sumuel.

Mariusz Kwiecien and René Pape

If our email box is any indication, our readers seem to be most excited about the prospect of seeing two of the greatest barihunks in the world sharing the stage for Verdi's Don Carlo. Polish über-barihunk Mariusz Kwiecień will sing Rodrigo and bass-barihunk René Pape as Philip II. They will be joined by the amazing tenor Michael Fabiano making his role debut as Don Carlo, soprano Krassimira Stoyanova as Elisabetta and Nadia Krasteva is Princess Eboli. Performances are June 12-29, 2016.

Also on the docket will be Thomas Hampson in Verdi's Luisa Miller; the barihunk trio of Elliot Madore, Gerald Finley and Wayne Tigges in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd; rising superstar Philippe Sly as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute; Lucas Meachem in Rossini's The Barber of Seville; and, Nicolas Testé as Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

Other operas being performed are Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa and the American premiere of The Fall of the House of Usher—a double bill presentation of Gordon Getty’s Usher House and Robert Orledge’s reconstruction of Claude Debussy’s La Chute de la Maison Usher.

Subscriptions are on sale beginning January 12, 2015 and single tickets will go on sale beginning June 29, 2015.

Sexy Günter Papendell returns as Don Giovanni in Berlin

Günter Papendell at the Komische Oper (center in Armida)

Günter Papendell, one of our favorite singers at the Komische Oper is returning to the stage in four performances of the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni. We first were introduced to the sexy German barihunk when a colleague forwarded us a picture of a nude Papendell backstage [see photo above].

We've since followed him in a series of critical successes in edgy operas like Odysseus and Così fan tutte o sia La scuola degli amanti, as well as in more more standard roles like Malatesta, Count Almaviva and Prince Yeletsky. One thing we love about him is the frequency in which he is shirtless or in some revealing outfit. Of course, the Komische Opera is notorious for showing some skin, with opera fans still talking about director Calixto Bieto's production of Gluck's Armida, which set a new standard for nudity in opera.

Günter Papendell in Odysseus

Performances of Don Giovanni will run from April 13-May 12 and tickets are available online. Later this season at the Komische, Papendell will be appearing as Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer,  Night's Dream, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, the title character in Rameau's Castor et Pollux and reprising his successful and sexy portrayal of Odysseus in the Claudio Monteverdi/ Elena Kats-Chernin trilogy of the same name.

Listen to Papendell in Franz Lachner's Requiem:

Dominik Köninger and Günter Papendell star in Berlin's Monteverdi Trilogy

Dominik Köninger at the Komische Oper in Berlin

We've been singing Dominik Köninger's praises ever since he wowed the judges at the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. He's now been engaged to sing the lead of Orpheus in Komische Oper's controversial Monterverdi Trilogy.


The new musical interpretation by the Uzbek composer Elena Kats-Chernin is being performed in a single day, running from 11a.m. until 11p.m, as well individual performances of the three operas: Orpheus, Odysseus and Poppea. The work feautures around 200 artists on stage and (how can we say this delicately) is not for purists. Kat-Chermin has integrated jazz, klezmer, tango, and ragtime into the score.

Dominik Köninger

Köninger can also be seen this season at the Komische Oper as Ottakar in Der Freischütz, Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème and Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute. His Papageno is his next appearance, which will be on Sunday, November 25. Tickets are available online.

Günter Papendell nude backstage and as Odysseus

Also in the trilogy is Günter Papendell as Odysseus. The young barihunk is also alternating Ottakar in Calixto Bieito's Der Freischütz with Köninger.  The next performance is on November 23 and tickets are still available online. The next performance of Odysseus is not until Saturday, July 6, 2013.

The oft-shirtless Günter Papendell

Other operas at the Komische Oper include Verdi's La traviata, Handel's Xerxes, John Cages' Europera and Taner Akyol's children's opera Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.

Want to see more HOT MEN? They're available all year in our 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar:

Should Fellow Singers be Afraid of Günther Groissböck?

Scary? He looks so sweet

Our post about barihunks Thomas Hampson and Günther Groissböck generated a lot of traffic and interest. Much of it seemed focused on Austrian bass-barihunk Günther Groissböck. Our favorite was a comment from another barihunk, Kyle Ketelsen, who commented about performing Leporello opposite Groissböck's Commendatore on Facebook. Ketelsen said that  Groissböck always "scared the shit outta me" around the 3:35 mark of the following scene from he infamous Don Giovanni production by Calixto Bieito at the Liceu in Barcelona is 2008. We can see why!!!

The much discussed and debated production also featured barihunk Simon Keenlyside in the title role and we featured it in previous posts. Calixto Bieto is currently making his U.S. debut in a reimagination of Tennessee Williams' play Camino Real at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Needless to say, he's generating just as much controversy on this side of the Pond.

Günther Groissböck in Die Zauberflote. Nice hair?

We've heard from other singers about Groissböck's dramatic intensity and imposing presence on stage. One soprano wrote us that she was always afraid that he was going to grab her by the hair and throw her down onto the stage. Regular readers and opera buffs may recall that Groissböck also starred in the controversial "Brokeback Onegin" in Munich that featured shirtless dancing cowboys and Groissböck in bed with Lensky.

The Comendatore's entrance and DonGiovanni's descent into hell:

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Armide in the Raw

The reputation of directors working in German opera companies is beyond mockery. Their obsession with sex, fetishism and leather, and their penchant for shock value is a running joke in opera circles. I'm beginning to wonder what type of psychological damage WW II created on the German psyche.

Spanish director Calixto Bieito has taken it to another level with his production of Gluck's "Armide" at the Komische Oper in Berlin. I'm not quite sure what to make of this production, which is usually about vengeance, magic, love, fulfillment and abandonment.

Bieito has made it about sex, obsession and more sex. One German paper called it porno-opera. I'm not certain who is in these pictures, but I think that the naked guy is tenor Peter Lodahl. I've got to believe that one of those bare butts or danglers is a baritone, so these photos have earned a spot on Barihunks.

Enjoy.

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