John Paul Huckle as Leone (far left) and backstage (right)
The Teatro Comunale di Modena is celebrating the anniversary of two major operatic baritones this season. The first is Leo Nucci, who made his company debut in 1967 in the title role of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. The second is Carlo Colombara, who is celebrating 30 years with the company.
Colombara just sang the title role in Verdi's Attila, which was live-streamed on YouTube and is still available for viewing HERE. The cast also includes John Paul Huckle as Leone, Vladimir Stoyanov as Ezio and Svetlana Kasyan as Odabella.
We've featured a number of barihunks on this site as Attila, including Ildar Abdrazakov, Erwin Schrott, John Relyea, Samuel Ramey, Homero Pėrez Miranda, Nmon Ford and Alberto Gazale.
John Paul Huckle: Mr. May 2015 in our Barihunks Charity Calendar (with Cyril Rovery & Jason Duika)
A welcome new addition to our Barihunks Charity Calendar this year is the American bass John Paul Huckle, hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is featured in the month of May with fellow barihunks Cyril Rovery and Jason Duika as guys who all have great chest voices (ok, great chests).
''I believe the Barihunks association to be a great tool for branching
out and putting the lower voice first. So often it's all about the
soprano or tenor. Barihunks puts us baritones and basses in the
limelight for a change," said John Paul Huckle. "I am pleased to have taken part of the
''Barihunks'' calendar as it is something that will eventually fund a
competition for the baritone and bass voices and fund other projects as
well featuring low males voices.''
Huckle has become a regular at the Teatro Carlo Felice where this season he has performed Cesare Angelotti in Tosca, Dansker in Billy Budd, Zuniga in Carmen and the Marchese d'Obigny in La traviata. He's currently singing Pietro in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra in a cast that includes fellow barihunk Ricardo Crampton. In May, he'll sing Cirillo in Giordano's Fedora.
John Paul Huckle sings Some Enchanted Evening:
The October 31st performance of Simon Boccanegra will be live-streamed from the Teatro Carlo Felice and available for viewing online at 3:10 PM . The opera will be conducted by Stefano Ranzani and feature Naoyuki Okada as Gabriele Adorno, Benedetta Torre as Amelia and Mansoo Kim in the title role.
Huckle studied at Boston University Opera before
completing his Master of Music at the Indiana Univerisity where he
studied with the
legendary bass Giorgio Tozzi. At Indiana University he performed the
Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Pistola in Falstaff,
Friar Laurence in Roméo et Juliette, Hobson in Peter Grimes, Sarastro
in The Magic Flute, Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro and the
Count Des Grieux in Manon.
He went on to hone his skills at young artist programs at the Central
City Opera, Tulsa Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera North,
Brevard Music Center, and the Sarasota Opera. While at Sarasota Opera,
he received the distinguished Leo Rogers Outstanding Apprentice award.
In 2007, he made his professional debut as Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto with the Cleveland Opera. Since the 2010-2011 season, he has been singing in major European houses including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro Verdi in Pisa and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGER FROM 9 COUNTRIES.
Carmen's barihunk trio: Valdis Jansons, Ricardo Crampton & John Paul Huckle
There will be two free, live streaming broadcast of Bizet's Carmen from the Teatro Carlo Felice, with alternating Escamillos. The first one is on Friday, May 8th at 8 PM CET/2 PM EST featuring Mattia Olivieri as Escamillo, John Paul Huckle as Zuniga and Ricardo Crampton as Morales. The second broadcast will be on Tuesday, May 12th at 3 PM CET/9 AM EST. In the second broadcast Valdis Jansons will sing Escamillo. Click HERE to watch the live stream.
Carmen will be rotated between Sonia Ganassi on May 8th and Anna Malavasi on May 12th. You can see the opera live until May 17th.
John Paul Huckle and the Teatro Carlo Felice "Barihunk Trio"
We recently posted about the barihunk trio in the Teatro Carlo Felice's production of Billy Budd and mentioned that they will be reuniting for Bizet's Carmen. We've now learned that you can watch them live online for FREE on May 8 and 6 PM (GMT) and May 12 at 1 PM (GMT) on their new livestream.
Valdis Jansons will sing Escamillo, John Paul Huckle is perfoming Zuniga and Ricardo Crampton is taking on Morales. Jansons will be rotating the matador's role with
another barihunk, Mattia Olivieri, who proved quite popular with our
readers when we first posted about him.
Carmen will be rotated between Sonia Ganassi and Anna Malavasi. The opera opens on May 8th and runs through May 17.
We managed to get the three barihunks appearing in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Teatro Carlo Felice to pose for a backstage photo before a recent performance. Valdis Jansons is rotating the title role with Phillip Addis, while Ricardo Crampton performs the role of A Novice and John Paul Huckle sings Dansker for the entire run.
The production directed by Davide Livermore has been praised for turning the stage into a ship and lowering and rising the sets to create a sense of navigation. There is one remaining performance left on April 23. You can also watch a video of Phillip Addis discussing the role of Billy Budd.
If you can't make it to Billy Budd, you can still catch the barihunk trio in the Teatro Carlo Felice's upcoming production of Carmen, where Jansons will sing Escamillo, Huckle performs Zuniga and Crampton takes on Morales. Jansons will be rotating the matador's role with another barihunk, Mattia Olivieri, who proved quite popular with our readers when we first posted about him. He was even featured in our Best of 2014 post as one of our hottest newcomers to the site.
Carmen will be rotated between Sonia Ganassi and Anna Malavasi. The opera opens on May 8th and runs through May 17.
It's not often that Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca catches our eye, but that was the case with American bass-barihunk John Paul Huckle, who looked pretty damn sexy with his open shirt at the Teatro Carlo Fenice in Genoa, Italy. He was performing in a rotating cast opposite the Tosca of Susanna Branchini, the Scarpia of Elia Fabbian, and Rubens Pelizzari and Rudy Park alternating as Mario Cavaradossi.
Huckle hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and looks like he could play fullback for the Steelers. He studied at Boston University Opera before completing his Master of Music at the Indiana Univerisity where he studied with the
legendary bass Giorgio Tozzi. At Indiana University he performed the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Pistola in Falstaff,
Friar Laurence in Roméo et Juliette, Hobson in Peter Grimes, Sarastro
in The Magic Flute, Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro and the
Count Des Grieux in Manon.
He went on to hone his skills at young artist programs at the Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera North,
Brevard Music Center, and the Sarasota Opera. While at Sarasota Opera,
he received the distinguished Leo Rogers Outstanding Apprentice award.
John Paul Huckle(right)and Tosca at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa (Photo: Marcello Orselli)
In 2007, he made his professional debut as Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto with the Cleveland Opera.
Since the 2010-2011 season, he has been singing in major European houses including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro
Regio di Torino, Teatro Verdi in Pisa and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
John Paul Huckle sings Il lacerato spirito from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra:
He has become a regular at the Teatro Carlo Felice where he has performed
Simone in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi opposite Rolando Panerai, the Second Guard in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Colline in Puccini's La bohème and Friar Laurence in
Gounod's Roméo et Juliette opposite tenor Andrea
Bocelli.
