Gregory Gerbrandt and Cree Carrico team up for "Broadway to Boonville"

Gregory Gerbrandt in A Streetcar Named Desire (right)

Barihunk Gregory Gerbrandt will join the charismatic soprano Cree Carrico in “From Broadway to Boonville — With Love!” accompanied by Michael Sakir at the the Missouri River Festival of the Arts in Boonville, Missiouri. The town is located halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City.

The concert will be at Thespian Hall, which opened in 1855 and is the oldest continuously running theater west of the Allegheny Mountains. The festival is in its 44th year. Tickets are available online.

Some of the Broadway songs on the program include "If I Loved You" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, "An old Fashioned Wedding" from Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, "The Next 10 Minute from Anna Kendrick & Jeremy Jordan's The Last Five Years and
"All I Ask of You" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

Cree Carrico and Gregory Gerbrandt

The three day festival is under the artistic direction of David Halen, concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony and Artistic Director of the Aspen Music Festival. 

The town is named after Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone, who were the sons of the pioneer explorer Daniel Boone and who established their salt business near the community in the early 1800s, delivering their product from salt licks to St. Louis. Because of this, the town is sometimes known as Boone's Lick.

Gregory Gerbrandt to reprise his sexy Stanley Kowalski

Gregory Gerbrandt as Stanley with Opera Santa Barbara

Barihunk Gregory Gerbrandt will reprise his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in André Previn's operatic version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. The American baritone sang the role two years ago and Opera Santa Barbara and now takes it north to Opera Idaho.

The company is presenting a cast that would be the envy of most major opera houses, with 2014 Metropolitan Opera Audition winner Julie Adams as Blanche, Met Audition finalist Casey Candebat as Mitch, Micaëla Oeste as Stella and Alasdair Neale conducting. Tickets are available online for both the April 6th and 8th performances.

A Streetcar Named Desire was premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 1998 with Rod Gilfry as Stanley and its become one of the most popular contemporary American operas in the repertory. It has gone on to see performances in New Orleans, Kentucky, San Diego, Washington D.C., San Francisco (Merola Opera), Cleveland, Chicago, Santa Barbara, Honolulu and Virginia Opera. It had it European premiere in Strasbourg in 2001 and its U.K. premiere in 2003, with subsequent performances throughout Europe and in Tokyo.

Sexy Stanley's: Rod Gilfry, Ryan McKinny, Dan Kempson and David Adam Moore

Gerbrandt is part of a veritable Who's Who of barihunks who have taken on the role of Stanley Kowalski made famous by Marlon Brando in the movie. They include Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Dan Kempson, Wes Mason, Ryan McKinny, David Adam Moore and Philip Cutlip.

Gerbrandt is waiting long to sing the role again, as he'll perform the opera with the Opera Company of Middlebury in Vermont from June 1-9.  He'll be joined by soprano Cree Carrico as Stella, who is rapidly being recognized as one of the most compelling actresses in opera. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Barihunk duo to reprise JFK in Canadian premiere

Daniel Okulitch and Matthew Worth

Opéra de Montréal will present the Canadian premiere of composer David T. Little and Alberta-born librettist Royce Vavrek's “JFK". The opera will star two of the world's most popular barihunks in the lead roles: Matthew Worth, who takes on JFK and Daniel Okulitch, who portrays LBJ. Worth shares both the good looks and New England charm of our 35th President, while Okulitch matches the Vice President's imposing 6' 4" frame.

The duo premiered the piece at the Fort Worth Opera Festival in April 2016 to great acclaim. They'll be joined by many of the same cast members, including mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Jackie Kennedy, soprano Talise Trevigne as the housekeeper Clara Harris and the agent of fate Clotho, tenor Sean Panikkar as the secret service agent Henry Rathbone and the agent of fate Lachesis and Cree Carrico as Rosemary Kennedy.

Musical excerpts from JFK:

JFK delves into the hours President John F. Kennedy spent in Fort Worth, Texas immediately before his assassination in Dallas. The opera explores the subconscious of this complicated couple, examining their physical and emotional pain, their joy and love, and their metamorphosis into American myth.

Opéra de Montréal co-commissioned the piece with the Fort Worth Opera and the American Lyric Theater. The opera opens on January 27, 2018 and runs through February 3, 2018. Tickets are available online.

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!

Jarrett Ott makes role debut as Jupiter and rare West Coast recital

Jarrett Ott (Courtesy Opera News, photo: Dario Acosta)

American baritone Jarrett Ott was recently named one of twenty-five “Rising Stars” by Opera News, will make his role debut as Jupiter in Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (Orphée aux enfers) in November with the New Orleans Opera. The work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta.

The operetta is part of the company's ongoing commitment to French culture and French opera. The piece is an outrageous parody on the life of everyman Orpheus, as he quests heaven and hell for his true love, poking fun at the politics of the day and the state of life in the hands of “the gods.” Orpheus gave birth to the “infernal galop”, which became so popular it was adopted into the “can-can” at the Moulin Rouge decades later. It also had the distinction of insulting just about everyone in Second French Empire.

The cast also includes Casey Candebat  as Orpheus, Cree Carrico as Diana, Daniel Curran as Aristeus/Pluto, Sara Hershkowitz as Eurydice and Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet as Public Opinion.  Performances are on November 10 and 12 and tickets are available online.

On November 18, he makes a rare West Coast appearance with the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera in an evening of Mozart and Rossini.  There will be selections from Rossini's La Scala di Seta and The Barber of Seville,  as well as from Mozart's Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and a performance of the composer's Symphony No. 38 (Prague). Tickets are available online. 

2018 Barihunks 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!

Jarrett Ott in Jake Heggie's Three Decembers; Original cast in Hawaii

Jarrett Ott

Barihunk Jarrett Ott will be taking on the role of Charlie in Jake Heggie's Three Decembers at Opera Memphis on April 1st and 8th.  He'll be joined by Cree Carrico as his sister Beatrice and Phyllis Pancella as their mother Madeline Mitchell. The role of Charlie has become a popular vehicle for barihunks, including Keith Phares, Matthew Worth and Jesse Blumberg.

Three Decembers tells the story of a famous stage actress – Madeline Mitchell – and her two adult children: Beatrice and Charlie. Both children resent their mother's long absences on the road and her lack of concern for the tragedies in their lives. Charlie believes his mother is distant because he is gay, even as his partner, Burt, is dying of AIDS. Meanwhile, Beatrice, trapped in an unhappy marriage, feels Madeline resents her enduring affection for their deceased father. As the story unfolds over the decades, long-simmering resentments surface, accusations are hurled, and family secrets revealed, leading ultimately to a hard-won peace and forgiveness for both the living and the dead.

On March 30th, Ott will appear at OUT at the Opera, a preview night for Opera Memphis at Playhouse on the Square from 7-10 PM. The event is intended to connect the opera company with the LGBT community. Tickets for the opera are available online.

Ott next performs Zurga in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers with the North Carolina Opera on April 28th and 30th.

Keith Phares in Three Decembers

A few thousand miles to the west, the Hawaii Opera Theater has assembled the three main cast members from the original 2008 production from the Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera. Barihunk Keith Phares sings Charlie, with Kristin Clayton as his sister Beatrice and the indefatigable Federica von Stade as Madeline.

There are shows remaining on March 29th and 31st, and April 1st.  Tickets are available online. Next up is Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann with Wayne Tigges as the Four Villains, who we just posted about as a last minute substitution in Los Angeles.