Barihunks duo in sold out Onegin in Munich

Mariusz Kwiecien and Anna Netrebko in Eugene Onegin rehearsals

Good luck trying to get tickets for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Munich Summer Opera Festival. The show features and all-star cast led by barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin and Günther Groissböck as Gremin, Anna Netrebko as Tatiana and hunkentenor Pavol Breslik as Lensky. Tickets for both the July 26 and 29 shows are completely sold out.

Fans of Günther Groissböck in Munich need not be dismayed if they can't get tickets, as he'll be back next season in Lohengrin, Der Rosenkavalier and La Juive.

Barihunk Festival at Salzburg Festival

Add Günther Groissböck and Alessio Arduini

The 2014 Salzburg Festival will run from July 18-August and will feature barihunks in almost all of their productions, including many of the biggest names in opera.

The Festival will be paying tribute to Richard Strauss' 150th  birthday by performing Der Rosenkavalier. The opera will feature barihunk Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs in his role debut (which he will reprise at the Met). The cast also includes Krassimira Stoyanova as the Marschallin and Sophie Koch as Octavian.

The Festival will continue their Mozart/da Ponte cycle introduced in 2013 with a new production of Don Giovanni directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. The cast includes a trio of barihunks led by Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the title role, Luca Pisaroni as his sidekick Leporello and the dashing Italian baritone Alessio Arduini as Masetto.

René Pape will be featured in a concert performance of music from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde featuring the prelude, Act 2 and Isolde’s transfiguration featuring Waltraud Meier.

Austrian barihunk Markus Werba will sing Roland opposite the Florinda of Dorothea Röschmann in Schubert's rarely performed Fierabras. The libretto combines two episodes from the cycle of legends associated with the Frankish leader Charlemagne and is set against the background of the skirmishes between Christians and Muslims.

Jean-Sébastien Bou and Markus Werba

Baroque specialist Jean-Sébastien Bou will star in the premiere of librettist Barbara Honigmann and composer Marc-André Dalbavie's Charlotte Salomon, which is dedicated to Gerard Mortier. Directed by Luc Bondy, Charlotte Salomon is based on the work of a Jewish artist who died at age 26 in the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Saloman fled to southern France following the Kristallnacht pogrom in Berlin where she joined her grandparents. Her grandmother threw herself to her death from an upstairs window, which was the same way that her mother had died when the girl was nine.

Other productions include Anna Netrebko as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, which includes Plácido Domingo in the baritone role of the Count di Luna, Rossini's La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli and a children's performance of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail featuring Salzburg young artists.

All in all, the Festival will feature over 250 performances including opera, theater and concerts. Tickets and additional performance information is available online.

Barihunks in free broadcast of William Tell

Goran Jurić (left) and Günther Groissböck (right)

The Bavarian State Opera continues its popular free live streaming of opera this Saturday, June 28th at 6 PM CET/Noon EST/9 AM PST with their new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (William Tell). The broadcast will be available at STAATSOPER.TV.

The broadcast features two barihunks,  Günther Groissböck as the villain Gesler and Goran Jurić as Walter Furst. Groissböck has been extremely popular on our site, especially the pictures of him in the "Brokeback Onegin," as it's been dubbed by opera bloggers. He can next be seen at the Salzburg Festival as Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Zubin Mehta.

31-year-old Croatian bass-barihunk Goran Jurić has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble since the 2011-12 season. At the Bavarian State Opera he has performed Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Il Re in Verdi's Aida, Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Banco in Verdi's Macbeth, Il Frate in Verdi's Don Carlos and Timur in Puccini's Turandot. He also performs regularly with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

Bevy of Barihunks in Broadcasts from Bavaria

Michael Nagy and Günther Groissböck

The Bavarian State Opera is continuing the popular live streaming of their performances which they debuted last year. This year's selection features some of our favorite barihunks in their free broadcasts which are available at STAATSOPER.TV.

Previous broadcasts have included Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Verdi's La forza del destino and Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.

Tareq Nazmi

On May 31st at 7 PM CET./1 PM EST they will present Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten with Michael Nagy as Stolzius and Tareq Nazmi as Obrist.

30-year-old Bass-Barihunk Tareq Nazmi, who is new to this site, was born in Kuwait and grew up in Munich. He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Edith Wiens and Christian Gerhaher. He is a first prize of both the Walter and Charlotte Hamel Foundation prize and the National Song Contest.

Since the 2012-23 season, Tareq Nazmi has been a permanent member of the Bavarian State Opera where he has performed Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the Speaker in Mozart's Magic Flute, Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen and Publio in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.

Goran Jurić

On June 28th at 6 PM CET./Noon EST they will present a new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (William Tell) with Günther Groissböck as Gesler. Groissböck has been extremely popular on our site, especially the pictures of him in the "Brokeback Onegin," as it's been dubbed by opera bloggers. The cast also includes Goran Jurić as Walter Furst.

31-year-old Croatian bass-barihunk Goran Jurić is also new to the site. He has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble since the 2011-12 season. He received his Master's degree in Opera Studies at the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb, where is completing his second Master's degree in Phonetics and Italian Language and Literature.

At the Bavarian State Opera he has performed Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Il Re in Verdi's Aida, Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Banco in Verdi's Macbeth, Il Frate in Verdi's Don Carlos and Timur in Puccini's Turandot. He also performs regularly with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

On July 27th at 6 PM CET./Noon EST the company will present Claudio Monteverdi L'Orfeo with the amazing Christian Gerhaher and the stunningly talented Anna Bonitatibus.

Renamed Dutch National Opera features sexy ads, sexy singers

Dutch National Opera

We'd be lying if we didn't admit that the bare butt in the ad for the Dutch National Opera (formerly De Nederlandse Opera) caught our attention. Curiosity got the best of us and we checked to see if anyone equally sexy was in their upcoming 2014-15 season. 

We also noticed pretty quickly that if sex sells, they'll have very few empty seats in the house, as that every opera features fairly provocative photography. 

Doug Williams

We didn't have to dig too deep into their calendar, as their first complete opera of the season, Monteverdi's Orfeo, features barihunk Doug Williams as Caronte. Readers may recall that we just featured baroque music's sexiest performer in a production of Handel's Agrippina in Omaha. 

Jérôme Varnier

Next up is Jérôme Varnier as Siroco in Emmanuel Chabrier's L’étoile, which runs from October 4-16. The company then switches to Wagner's Lohengrin with Günther Groissböck as Heinrich der Vogler. They wrap up the 2014 portion of their season with native barihunk Thomas Oliemans as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème.  

Thomas Oliemans

You can click HERE to view their entire season.

Operagasm hosts "Sexiest Singer" online poll

Zachary Gordin as he appears on the Barihunks Calendar cover

Operagasm is hosting an online poll to see who the sexiest singers are in the world, as well as best afro, hottest red head, best "ma" in Una voce poco fa, best baritone claw and top bitch.

Three baritones are up for hottest male singer, including our 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar oversize edition coverboy Zachary Gordin, Keith Miller and Erwin Schrott. They are pitted against tenor Noah Stewart and James Valenti (both of whom we've snuck onto Barihunks, because they are barihunk hot!).

The best baritone claw competition, has claw extraordinaire Michael Todd Simpson pitted against the less formidable claws of Luca Grassi, Gunther Groissboeck, Mariusz Kwiecien and Stephanie Blythe. 

You can go HERE to vote.

But before you do, click on the button below and order your calendar featuring Zachary Gordin and 13 other hotties.

Oversize version with Zachary Gordin on the cover:

Regular size version with Craig Verm on the cover and Zachary Gordin inside:

"Brokeback Onegin" returns to Munich with new cast

Simon Keenlyside (L), Ain Anger (C) and Pavol Breslik in Eugene Onegin

The famous "Brokeback Onegin" is back at the Bayerische Staatsoper with a new cast that includes barihunks Simon Keenlyside as Onegin and Ain Anger as Gremin. Regular readers might recall that the original production, which generated worldwide press attention, featured barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin and Gunther Groissboeck as Gremin decked out in a muscle tee shirt. From the photo above, it looks like Anger looks pretty good in the muscle tee shirt, as well.

The "Brokeback Boys" backstage and onstage in Onegin

The production is directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, who envisions the opera as a story of suppressed homosexuality and a desire to break free from society. The production was inspired by Tchaikovsky's life story, "Brokeback Mountain" and Warlikowski´s own childhood in a suburban working class ghetto in Poland. When it first premiered in 2008, it was greeted by a combination of critical praise and outrage. The production, which was broadcast in Germany today, has become a bit of a cult classic amongst opera aficionados. There is one performance remaining on Wednesday, March 28th.

Watch the trailer from the 2008 production:

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Is that a Magic Flute in your pocket?

The La Scala cast of Magic Flute; Alex Esposito

We recently featured a post about all of the Mozart on Alex Esposito's schedule. We've posted often about his definitive Leporello, but we've never featured a video of his Papageno. Fortunately, it was recorded by RAI 5 from La Scala during its recent run in April 2011.  Esposito's Papagena is Ailish Tynan.

Günther Groissböck

The cast also included barihunk Günther Groissböck as Sarastro. Here he is singing "In diesen heil'gen Hallen." You won't want to miss hearing his beautiful rolling bass. The Austrian bass is currently singing the role at the Vienna State Opera with the Papageno of fellow barihunk Markus Werba.



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Gunther Groissboeck Interview; In Munich's "Rusalka"

Gunther Groissboeck in Munich's Rusalka

It's been way too long since we've featured one of our favorite singers, Gunther Groissboeck. He's currently singing the Water Goblin from May 22-June 4 at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Click HERE for cast and performance information.

For those of you who read German, HERE is an interview with the German barihunk.

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Barihunk-A-Week at The Met

Nathan Gunn, Gunther Groissböck, Paulo Szot & Simon Keenlyside

If you're in the New York area and you love barihunks, you might want to buy tickets to the next five performances at The Met. On Monday, the Met opens with a new Don Carlo featuring Simon Keenlyside that was featured in the Sunday New York Times. The article is a must read for fans of The Met or Verdi.

Fans of Nathan Gunn will be able to see him as Gugliemo in "Cosi fan tutte" and Papageno in the "Magic Flute" over the next few weeks. Not had enough? Carmen will alternate Escamillo's with John Relyea and opera's new superstar stud Paulo Szot. If you missed the sizzling hot Gunther Groissböck in La Boheme there is no need to worry, as Peter Mattei is about to join the cast.

You can purchase tickets and check casts at the Metropolitan Opera website.

David Adam Moore in Soldier Songs

Due to time constraints, we missed informing readers about tonight's performance of Peter Lieberson's rarity "King Gesar" featuring barihunk David Adam Moore. Moore now heads to Seattle for a run of the Barber of Seville on January 16, 21, 23, and 28. The December cast will feature barihunk José Carbó as Figaro.

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Gay Boheme With Barihunk Romance

Bohemian Lovers: Bryce Smith & Robert Maril

Opera Manhattan is performing Puccini's "La Boheme" with a gay subplot. Purists need not get too concerned, as they haven't transformed Mimi into Bruce. In this production Colline and Schaunard have eyes for each other, which certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Considering that two barihunks, Robert Maril and Bryce Smith, are the two singers in the romance, it makes sense that they'd want to snuggle up together in a cold Bohemian garret. Who could resist either of these guys?

Certainly after RENT, it only makes sense that "La Boheme" now gets an updated treatment. Smith has appeared on this site before and we welcome Robert Maril, whose name sounds suspiciously similar to a famed baritone of the 1950s and 1960s.

There are still two performances left on November 19 and 20 and tickets can be purchased at the Opera Manhattan website. Smith is also one of the co-founders of the company along with Rebecca Greenstein. We always encourage readers to support singers who promote opera in ways other than singing.

For New Yorkers who want a traditional La Boheme, the Metropolitan Opera next run of the classic begins on December 1st with barihunk Gunther Groissböck as Colline.

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Markus Werba's Sexy Don Giovanni in Lyon

We're adding Markus Werba to our list of the world's sexiest Don Giovanni's, which includes Randal Turner, Mariusz Kwiecien, Simon Keenlyside, Martin Achrainer, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Lucas Meachem, Matthew Worth, Nmon Ford and others. Werba is finally emerging as a major star in opera in Europe, America and Japan, where he is wildly popular.



The Austrian singer has also scored huge successes with two other Mozart roles, Papageno in Magic Flute and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He'll be returning to the role of Papageno next year in Vienna, where he joins fellow barihunk Günther Groissböck, who is singing Sarastro. On May 18th, he opens in Don Giovanni opposite barihunk Alex Esposito's Leporello at the stunning Teatro la Fenice. He returns to Lyon in March 2011 to reprise his success in Don Giovanni.



Make sure to watch the highlight trailer below from Lyon.

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Celebrating Wagner's Birthday With His Sexiest Barihunk: Gunther Groissboeck

Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, so we're celebrating with the only now that we know how at Barihunks: Posting pictures of the hottest Wagnerian barihunk in the world today. That selection was pretty easy, as Gunther Groissboeck brings his teutonic good looks to thirteen Wagner roles in ten different operas.

The photo above is Groissboeck performing Landgraf Hermann in "Tannhäuser“ at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2008. His next Wagner roles are König Marke in Tristan at the Bregenzer Festspiele in August and then beginning in October he performs König Heinrich in Lohengrin at the Houston Grand Opera. In one of opera's most idiotic marketing oversights, HGO doesn't even feature Groissboeck on their website (http://www.houstongrandopera.org/lohengrin).

If you can think of a hotter and hunkier Wagnerian barihunk than Groissboeck, we'd like to hear from you.

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Gunther Groissboeck as Il Commendatore

I've received a few emails asking me what role Gunther Groissboeck is portraying in the photo from the previous post. He's playing Il Commendatore from the Liceu's production of Don Giovanni with fellow barihunks Simon Keenlyside and Kyle Ketelsen (which previously appeared on this site).

Here is the video of the final scene with the first bare chested Commendatore I've ever seen.

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LA Times: Beefcake goes baritone and tenor too

[Photo of Gunn and Kaiser from LA Times; photo of Gunther Groissboeck from http://www.guenther-groissboeck.com]

The LA Times has run a piece on the pretty boys performing in the Magic Flute at the LA Opera. Although they focus on Nathan Gunn and Joseph Kaiser, Barihunks readers will be thrilled to know that Gunther Groissboeck plays Sarastro and barihunk Markus Werba takes over for Gunn in four performances. Amazingly, the LA Times fails to mention both Werba and Groissboeck (who arguably is the hottest guy in the cast - see photo!).

It's nice to see how unapologetically Gunn relishes being a barihunk. Here's part of what he says:

Gunn has become an expert when it comes to visual distractions: “Every opera where there’s a love scene or where I am semi-dressed, like the bathing scene in ‘Billy Budd,’ there’s this attention about ‘Is Nathan Gunn getting naked again?’”

It all started with a 1997 production of Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” at Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York. Gunn and tenor William Burden were told to hit the gym for the production envisioned by director Francesca Zambello. “It worked,” he says with a laugh. “The theater was selling out opera glasses.”

More important, as the New York Times noted of Gunn and Burden: “When they are thrown into the temple, bruised, stripped down to loincloths and chained together, they create a kind of intensity rare in the opera house. Their physicality might have been distracting had their singing not been so ardent and intelligent.”

If buzz about his shirtless scenes attracts newcomers, that’s fine, says Gunn, as long as they — as well as worried purists — realize that opera’s traditional reverence for the voice isn’t diminished just because “you make it believable for an audience by having characters who can sing and act and look the way they should.”

To read the entire article, click here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/nathan-gunn-jos.html

To buy tickets or to get more information, click here: www.laopera.com.

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