Barihunk Trio in New England premiere of Fellow Travelers; Coming to Arizona and Madison

Jesse Darden as Timothy Laughlin and Jesse Blumberg as Hawkins Fuller (Photo by Liza Voll)

The Boston Lyric Opera is presenting the New England premiere of Gregory Spears' Fellow Travelers from November 13-17. The cast will included the barihunk trio of Jesse Blumberg as Hawkins Fuller, David McFerrin as Senator Joe McCarthy and Simon Dyer in multiple roles. 

The remainder of the cast includes Jesse Darden as Timothy McLaughlin, Chelsea Basler as Mary Johnson, James Maddalena as Senator Charles Potter, Vincent Turregano as Tommy McIntyre, Brianna Robinson as Lucy and Michelle Trainor as Miss Lightfoot. Tickets are available online. 

Simon Dyer and David McFerrin

Fellow Travelers, which is set in Washington D.C. against the backdrop of the McCarthy-era "lavender scare," tells the story of Timothy “Skippy” Laughlin, an aspiring young journalist, and Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller, a handsome, profligate State Department official. A chance encounter with Hawk leads to Tim's first job in DC, and his first love affair. As his involvement deepens, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his religious beliefs, and his love for Fuller – an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal. The libretto is based on the novel by American novelist, essayist and critic Thomas Mallon.

Joseph Lattanzi as Hawkins Fuller and Jonas Hacker as "Skippy" McLaughlin

The opera is also being performed on the other side of the continent at the Arizona Opera with Joseph Lattanzi reprising the role of Hawkins Fuller, which he created at the Cincinnati Opera in 2016. The cast includes Marcus DeLoach as Senator Joe McCarthy, Thomas Cannon as Senator Charles Potter, Jonas Hacker as Timothy McLaughlin, Katherine Beck as Mary Johnson, Cadie Jordan as Lucy and Kaitlyn Johnson as Miss Lightfoot. Tickets are available online. 

The opera will also be performed next year at the Madison Opera with Ben Edquist as Hawkins Fuller, Sid Outlaw as Tommy McIntyre and Andy Acosta as Hawkins Fuller. 

 

Joseph Lattanzi in free concert and world premiere

Joseph Lattanzi (Photos from artist website)

Barihunk Joseph Lattanzi will be one of the featured stars of Cincinnati Opera's free Opera in the Park concert on June 9th. He'll be joined at Washington Park by his fellow cast members from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which is being performed on June 13 and 15. They include sopranos Janai Brugger and Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb and tenor Martin Bakari. Also performing will be Piotr Buszewski, Liv Redpath, Thomas Dreeze and hunkentenor Aaron Blake.

No tickets are required for the event, but guests are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs, Concessions and food trucks will be on site.

In addition to The Marriage of Figaro, Lattanzi will join the company from July 22-27 for the world premiere of Scott Davenport Richards and David Cote's opera Blind Injustice, which explores the true stories of these six people who were tried, convicted, imprisoned, then ultimately freed by the Ohio Innocence Project. Joining him in the cast are fellow barihunks Miles Wilson-Toliver and Morgan Smith.

Casts and additional information on the Cincinnati Opera season can be found online. 

Later this season, Lattanzi will reprise the role of Hawkins Fuller in Gregory Spears' Fellow Travelers at the Arizona Opera and then perform Dandini in Rossini's L Cenerentola at the Virginia Opera.

What if Papageno used Tinder?; Joseph Lattanzi reprises Fellow Travelers

Nathan Gunn (left) and Aaron Blake/Joseph Lattanzi (right)

One of the board members of the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York put together this video of Nathan Gunn, who was singing Papageno at the Met. It shows what might of happened had he used the dating app Tinder to find his Papagena. 

Nathan Gunn has a number of recitals on his 2018 calendar, including his cabaret show with his wife Julie Gunn. You can catch performances on January 18th in Thomasville, Georgia; at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA on January 22nd; and, at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills on March 15th. The concert includes works by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Billy Joel and Leonard Bernstein.

On January 12, 13 and 14, PROTOTYPE will present Gregory Spear's opera Fellow Travelers at the Lynch Theater at John Jay College, with barihunk Joseph Lattanzi and hunkentenor Aaron Blake in the lead roles. Tickets are available online. 

Fellow Travelers, which was written in collaboration with librettist Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury, was developed in a 2013 Opera Fusion workshop. Lattanzi sang both the workshops for the opera, as well as the world premiere at the Cincinnati Opera and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Joseph Lattanzi to reprise lead role in Fellow Travelers

Joseph Lattanzi and Aaron Blake in Fellow Travelers

The Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced that barihunk Joseph Lattanzi will reprise the role of Hawkins Fuller in Gregory Spears' opera Fellow Travelers.

Fellow Travelers, which was written in collaboration with librettist Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury, was developed in a 2013 Opera Fusion workshop. Lattanzi sang both the workshops for the opera, as well as the world premiere at the Cincinnati Opera last year. Newbury will also direct the Chicago performances.

Joseph Lattanzi sings "Our very own home" from Fellow Travelers:

The cast will include tenor Jonas Hacker as Timothy Laughlin, who falls in love with Hawkins Fuller during the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington D.C. Devon Guthrie will sing the role of Mary Johnson, Hawkins’s assistant and Timothy’s confidante.

This chamber work will be presented in four performances at the Athenaeum Theatre between March 17-25, 2018

You can catch Lattanzi as Sonora in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at Virginia Opera from November 10-December 3. Performances will be in Norfolk, Richmond and Fairfax.