Three barihunks to join forces at Carnegie Hall

Jarrett Ott, Tobias Greenhalgh and Steven LaBrie.

Three of the greatest young singers and hottest barihunks singing today will be performing in the "Three Baritones" concert together at Carnegie Hall on May 22nd.

Tobias Greenhalgh will perform Glen Roven's Four Surreal Songs with poetry by Paul Éluard, Steven LaBrie will sing Benjamin C. S. Boyle's Le passage des rêves with poetry by Paul Valéry and Lori Laitman's The Joy of Uncreating, and Jarrett Ott will perform Jake Heggie's Of Laughter and Farewell and Jennifer Higdon's Lilac with poetry by Walt Whitman.

The trio will also join forces for a medley of baritone aria greatest hits arranged by Glen Roven.

Tickets go on sale on February 22nd, so mark your calendars.

Jarrett Ott sings Glen Roven's After Great Pain:

Tobias Greenhalgh will be singing Maximilian in Bernstein's Candide with Palm Beach Opera from February 23-25 and Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Theater an der Wien from April 15-25.

Steven LaBrie is singing Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at Sarasota Opera from February 17 to March 24 and Riolobo in Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas at Florida Grand Opera from April 28 to May 5.

Jarrett Ott is singing the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City from April 28 to May 6.

Barihunk switch in Opera Philadelphia's Cold Mountain

Jarrett Ott

Opera Philadelphia has announced that Jarrett Ott will replace fellow barihunk Nathan Gunn as W.P. Inman for all five performances of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain. The opera is being performed from  Februar 5-14 at the Academy of Music.

Nathan Gunn created the role in the August 2015 world premiere at The Santa Fe Opera, but had to pull out of the East Coast premiere due to a serious family illness.

Jarrett Ott, who is a popular singer on this site, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and a member of Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artists Program. He has been involved with the development of Cold Mountain and the character of Inman for more than three years. He performed the role in two workshops in 2012 and 2013, sang with the full cast in March 2015 as part of a Works & Process presentation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and covered the role in both Santa Fe and Philadelphia. He began the 2015-2016 Season with Opera Philadelphia as Marchese D'Obigny in Verdi's La traviata.

The opera is based on Charles Frazier’s National Book Award-winning novel, Cold Mountain, which follows the American odyssey of W.P. Inman, a wounded Civil War soldier who deserts the Confederate Army at great peril to reunite with his love, Ada Monroe (which will be sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard). Ada's once privileged life on Cold Mountain has become one of loneliness and deprivation. As Inman makes his way home, he wonders if the violence he has experienced has made him unworthy of love, and is forced to question just where his allegiance lies. Amidst the destruction of the American Civil War, a pivotal conflict in America’s history, the transformative journeys of Inman and Ada go to the very center of their souls.

Baritones with String Quartet in San Francisco and New York explore grief and loss

Nathan Gunn & Jesse Blumberg

Fans of vocal music accompanied by string quartet are in luck on both coasts. At New York's Zankel Hall, on February 19th Nathan the indefatigable Nathan Gunn will perform the world-premiere of Jennifer Higdon's chamber version of "Barnyard Bloom."

Based on Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" the piece explores a wide range of grief and loss. Gunn will also perform Samuel Barber's famous “Dover Beach" which is also accompanied by string quartet. Gunn will also be joined by his wife Julie Gunn for a selection of songs in English by Butterworth, Quilter, Ives, Bowles, and Ben Moore.

Nathan Gunn can next be seen in Rossini's Le Comte d'Ory at the Metropolitan Opera opening February 2nd. 

Across the country on the same date, Jesse Blumberg will also explore the topic of grief and loss in Ricky Ian Gordon's masterful 80-minute mini-opera "Green Sneakers." The work was written as a way for Gordon to find solace from the grief of losing his partner, Jeffrey Grossi, to AIDS, and following their last few months together. Blumberg, who created the piece, joins San Francisco's exciting Del Sol Quartet in this performance. 

 

Jesse Blumberg performs the epilogue to Green Sneakers:

 

 

The work will be performed at the Southside Theater at Fort Mason in San Francisco on February 19th. Seating is limited, so purchase tickets today. The performance will be directed by the talented young director John De Los Santos.

 

Fans of Blumberg in New York are in luck, as Green Sneakers will be featured as part of Lincoln Center Presents on April 6th at the Kaplan Penthouse. Tickets are available online. , who we named the top opera director in 2010. If you can't wait that long, check him out at the New York Festival of Song, where he'll join soprano Stacey Tappan in music by Ricky Ian Gordon, Kevin Puts, Christopher Theofanidis and others.

Nathan Gunn to spearhead American opera project

Nathan Gunn in "An American Tragedy" (photo by Ken Howard)

The Opera Company of Philadelphia has announced that barihunk Nathan Gunn has been appointed as the director of its newly-formed American Repertoire Council. Gunn will work with Opera Company of Philadelphia General Director David B. Devan and a steering council in advancing the company's American Repertoire Program, which aims to produce a new American work in 10 consecutive seasons. The program launched in June 2012, with four announced co-commissioned operas as part of both the Aurora Series for Chamber Opera at the Perelman Theater and the Opera at the Academy Series. 

For the next three years, Gunn function as artistic advisor to the company's two composers in residence, Lembit Beecher and Missy Mazzoli, and will guide American repertoire choices and assemble both partnerships and creative teams for new works.

Patricia Racette and Nathan Gunn get hot and steamy in "An American Tragedy":

Gunn is already involved with the opera "Cold Mountain," a co-commission by the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winner in music, Jennifer Higdon. Based on the bestselling novel by Charles Frazier, which won the National Book Award, it features a libretto by Gene Scheer, and will premiere at the Santa Fe Opera in 2015 before making its February 2016 East Coast Premiere at the Academy of Music. Nathan Gunn stars in both productions.

Gunn has premiered a number of new American operas, including Andre Previn's Brief Encounter at the Houston Grand Opera, Daron Hagen's Amelia at the Seattle Opera, Peter Eötvös' Love and Other Demons at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy at the Met.

Nathan Gunn Announced for Santa Fe Premiere

Nathan Gunn: Spotted in Santa Fe

Barihunks spotted Nathan Gunn at a performance of Griselda in Santa Fe and we were wondering what brought him to town since he wasn't in any of the operas. We have since learned that he'll be singing with the company in 2015 in the world premiere of Cold Mountain, which is based on the best-selling novel about a Civil War deserter by Charles Frazier. The opera features music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon and a libretto by Gene Scheer.

Santa Fe will also features two other world premieres in upcoming seasons, Oscar by Theodore Morrison, based on the life of Oscar Wilde in 2013 and Miss Fortune by Judith Weir in 2014. 

Daniel Okulitch & Markus Beam

There is no shortage of barihunks in Santa Fe for those who can't wait for Cold Mountain. Daniel Okulitch continues to receive raves as Abdul in Menotti's The Last Savage. Markus Beam was a pleasant last minute replacement as Schaunard for fellow barihunk Keith Phares in Puccini's La Boheme. For a complete cast list, visit the Santa Fe Opera website.

Markus Beam sings Guglielmo's aria, "Non siate ritrosi", from Mozart's Così fan tutte:



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