Clint Borzoni's erotic "When Adonis Calls" to get NY workshop premiere

Grant Youngblood and Michael Weyandt

If you live in New York and missed the new opera workshop at Frontiers at the Fort Worth Opera, you're in luck. There will be a workshop reading of the sensational new work by composer Clint Borzoni and librettist John De Los Santos presented by operamission on Thursday, May 21 at 8 PM in the rehearsal hall at OPERA America's National Opera Center (330 Seventh Avenue at 29th Street) in New York.

The Poet will be sung by Grant Youngblood and The Muse by Michael Weyandt. The performance will feature string quartet and percussion and be conducted by Jennifer Peterson. The opera is based on the homoerotic poetry of Gavin Geoffrey Dillard.

You can watch the clips from Frontiers, which feature Tyson Deaton conducting with piano accompaniment by Stephen Carey. Wes Mason sang The Poet and Matt Moeller sang The Muse.

John De Los Santos and Clint Borzoni discuss "When Adonis Calls"

The performance will also include the world premiere of Clint Borzoni's song cycle "Earth, my likeness" featuring countertenor Daniel Bubeck. The piece is based on the poems of Constantine Cavafy, May Swenson and Walt Whitman.

Tickets are $20 in advance and are available online.

Get to know the Fort Worth Opera singers

Baritones Trevor Martin, Matt Moeller, Wes Mason, Stephen Clark and Wes Gentile

We made our annual trek to the Fort Worth Opera Festival again this year and hosted another barihunk lunch. It was attended by baritones Trevor Martin, Matt Moeller, Wes Mason, Stephen Clark and Wes Gentile. Normally, we always invite a single Honorary Tenor, but this year we had three of them, as Dane Suarez, Brian Wallin and Kevin Newell joined us. 

In an effort to get to know the singers a little better this year, we asked them some questions, which we'd like to share with our readers. Here are the baritone responses.

I'm a self-proclaimed expert on:

Trevor Martin: Game of Thrones

Matt Moeller: College Sports

Wes Mason: Sharks

Stephen Clark: The Bible

Wes Gentile: Nicolas Cage

David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's next opera should be about [blank] and feature me as [blank]

Trevor Martin: Bruce Jenner....Bruce Jenner

Matt Moeller: Game of Thrones...All the Dragons

Wes Mason: The Wild West...Doc Holliday

Stephen Clark: Mice Minutes...Mouse #3

Wes Gentile: Neal DeGrasse Tyson...A Dying Star

Secret Midnight Snack:

Trevor Martin: Whiteburger

Matt Moeller: Sweet potato chips

Wes Mason: Buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks

Stephen Clark: Wendy's

Wes Gentile: Dark chocolate-covered raisins

At age 10 I dreamed of being a....

Trevor Martin: Skywalker in Star Wars

Matt Moeller: Baseball player

Wes Mason: Marine Biologist

Stephen Clark: Writer

Wes Gentile: Primatologist

My pet peave is...

Trevor Martin: Bad drivers

Matt Moeller: Chewing with your mouth open

Wes Mason: Entitlement

Stephen Clark: Ungrateful people

Wes Gentile: Explaining a punchline

My least favorite character in opera is...

Trevor Martin: Micaëla

Matt Moeller: Gianetta

Wes Mason: Everyone in La sonnambula

Stephen Clark: Carmen

Wes Gentile: Chairman Mao's wife

Tenors Dane Suarez, Brian Wallin and Kevin Newell

Here are the tenor responses.

I'm a self-proclaimed expert on:

Dane Suarez: Guessing temperatures with my hands

Brian Wallin: Trolling Facebook for funny animal videos

Kevin Newell: [Declined to answer]

David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's next opera should be about [blank] and feature me as [blank]:

Dane Suarez: Taylor the latte boy...Taylor

Brian Wallin: A cat....the owner

Kevin Newell: Dune...A sand worm

Secret Midnight Snack:

Dane Suarez: Cheese

Brian Wallin: Sonic

Kevin Newell: Ben & Jerry's 

At age 10 I dreamed of being a(n)....

Dane Suarez: Artist

Brian Wallin: NASCAR driver

Kevin Newell: Butler

My pet peave is...

Dane Suarez: Taylor Swift

Brian Wallin: Mouth noises

Kevin Newell: Social media

My least favorite character in opera is...

Dane Suarez: Micaëla

Brian Wallin: Pamina

Kevin Newell: Micaëla

Matt Moeller and Wes Mason sing "A Garden of Teeth"

Matt Moeller & Wes Mason

After the instant popularity of our post featuring Wes Mason singing "Two Nooses" from Clint Borzoni's "When Adonis Calls," we thought we'd share the duet, as well. The performances are from Frontiers, the new opera workshop at the Fort Worth Opera. The selection features Matt Moeller as the Muse and Wes Mason as the Poet, and is conducted by Tyson Deaton with accompaniment by Stephen Carey at the piano.

The libretto was constructed by John de los Santos from the poems of Gavin Geoffrey Dillard. It tells the story of an accomplished author, called the Poet, who is struggling with writer’s block and isolation. He is contacted by an eager young fan, known as the Muse, who is interested in both an artistic and personal correspondence. At first reluctant, the Poet joins the Muse in a sensual game of literary discovery that leads the two into unexpected realms of unbridled eroticism. Through their poems, they unleash one another’s pasts, demons, and secret longings. Their harmonized writings culminate with a final meeting in the flesh that transcends beyond what either of them ever believed was possible when they first put pen to paper.