In Praise of NY City Opera; Randal Turner Among Debuts

Rufus Wainwright & Randal Turner

We don't review singers or performances on this site and we try to stay positive, leaving the usual "opera queen" bitchiness to other sites. Our goal is to promote opera and opera singers. However, it was difficult for us over the last year to watch the criticism of New York City Opera and see the blogosphere, Facebook and Twitter full of venomous comments about the company that former Mayor Fiorella La Guardia called the "People's Opera."

We want to use the formal announcement of their new season as an opportunity to say a few words of long-overdue praise about New York City Opera. Like many opera companies, City Opera has faced some difficult financial challenges over the last year. Unlike many companies who cut performances by dropping anything that didn't sell like Butterfly, Boheme or Carmen, City Opera continued to take chances with repertory, singers and productions. They even took chances with the standard repertory and delivered a sexy "Don Giovanni" that was an artistic success in every way imaginable.

A lot of people were upset that City Opera decided to leave their home at Lincoln Center. The move out of Lincoln Center and into the Lynch Theater at John Jay College, El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio and the Brooklyn Academy of Music will save the company $4.5 million and bring opera back to the people, as La Guardia first imagined. It's not Lincoln Center that makes opera great, it's a company's creativity and dedication to great art that makes opera great.

The new City Opera season will feature more than twenty artist debuts, including the New York debut of Randal Turner, one of the most compelling and gifted performers in opera. As they have done throughout history with other notable debuts, they have trumped the more prestigious and better funded Metropolitan Opera in securing the Zurich-based American singer, who will be performing Philippe in Rufus Wainwright's U.S. debut of "Prima Donna."

Rod Gilfry, Daniel Teadt and Kelly Markgraf

There are a number of barihunk debuts other than Randal Turner that we're also excited about, including Rod Gilfry performing Don Alfonso in "Cosi fan tutte" and Daniel Teadt in the title role of Telemann’s "Orpheus." Cosi also includes the return of barihunk Philip Cutlip, who will be singing Guglielmo and "Orpheus" which will feature Kelly Markgraf at Pluto. Other debuts we're particularly excited about are soprano Amanda Majeski and tenor Taylor Stayton.

The 2011/12 spring season will open on Sunday, February 12 with La Traviata at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. "Prima Donna" will open on Sunday, February 19 also at BAM. For additional cast and performance information visit the NYCO website.

We're urging all of our readers to help City Opera survive and flourish by making an extra effort to attend their performances this year.


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Jason Hardy Photos From Sexy NYCO Don Giovanni

Recently we posted some pictures from the very sexy and favorably reviewed production of Don Giovanni at New York City Opera. The cast included a veritable feast of barihunks, which included Daniel Okulitch, Kelly Markgraf and Jason Hardy. Daniel Okultich has been a regular on this site in various states of undress, and to a lesser extent so has Kelly Markgraf.

Jason Hardy is fairly new to this site and from the look of these pictures, he's been unfairly neglected. We also took the time to listen to his wonderful CD, which shows that his voice is as gorgeous as his body. We've created a handy link to Amazon if you'd like to enjoy it, as well.


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NYCO Behind the Scenes at Don Giovanni

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Taddy Bare's Triumph as Cleo's Lover

[Top photo courtesy of Carnegie Hall; Bottom photo by Rachel Papo for The New York Times]

New York has been a crazy place of late: planes landing in rivers, fights over who will replace Hillary Clinton, Wall Street shenanigans, Bernie Madoff, Broadway shows shutting down and tax payers tossing out subsidies to the New York Yankees.

Amazingly, the most stable news this week came from the New York City Opera, which has been plagued with problems ever since construction began at Lincoln Center. If you want to read about it, visit La Cieca at www.parterre.com. So it was fascinating that the best news out of New York this week emanated from the "people's opera." They hired Dallas Opera's highly talented George Steel after only three months on the job. Then they scored a major success with only the third major revival of Samuel Barber's luscious Antony and Cleopatra.

Carnegie Hall was full of Barihunks fans to see Teddy Tahu Rhodes melt hearts as Cleopatra's lover. My favorite email this morning was from DCHU, who wrote:

"When Teddy walked out on stage - all 6' 5" of kiwi pulchritude - my heart stopped. A man hasn't looked this hot in a tux since James Bond. I kept thinking, 'Why do they keep singing about Romans, when all I'm thinking about are Trojans.'"

Teddy Bare fans will be thrilled to learn that he's scheduled to sing two certifiable barihunk roles in 2009: Escamillo in Bilbao next month and his signature hunk role Stanley in Streetcar Named Desire in Sydney this December.

By the way, for all of you who keep writing to me complaining that we never mention voices, this site really isn't about singing as much as it is about hunkiness. However, both the AP and the NY Times reported that Teddy Tahu Rhodes sang well. There are some amazing singers who are also barihunks and Teddy Bare is one (check out Vagabond and the DVD of Peter Grimes). If you're looking for great singing from a barihunk, I would recommend Christopher Maltman's recital disc from Wigmore Hall and Hanno Muller-Brachmann's new Schubert disc. I have been listening to both of these non-stop for the last few weeks. (There is a convenient Christopher Maltman Amazon widget to the right).

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Teddy Bare Days Away From "Barber" Debut

[Photo from NY City Opera]

Rehearsals are underway for Teddy Tahu Rhode's debut in Samuel Barber's glorious Antony and Cleopatra. Here is a photo Teddy Bare hot as ever in a tee shirt during rehearsals.

Playbill describes him as the "...strapping 6-foot-5 baritone from New Zealand," while the City Opera website describes him as, "...a striking baritone from New Zealand." Clearly, we're not the only ones who find it tough to write about Teddy Bare without talking about his stunning good looks. Of course, this is a concert performance, so Barihunks fans will have to focus on the music. If you haven't heard this opera before, it is absolutely ravishing. Here are the words to the duet between Cleopatra and Antony. Cleopatra will be portrayed by the dramatically intense Lauren Flanigan. This should be a highlight of the night.

Antony and Cleopatra

Oh take, oh take, those lips away
That so sweetly were forsworn

Cleopatra

And those eyes, like break of day.
Oh lights that do mislead the morn.
But my kisses bring again.
Seals of love, though seal'd in vain.

Antony

Hide, oh hide, those hills of snow,
Which they frozen blossom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are those that April wears.
But first set my poor heart free.
Bound in those ivy chains be thee.

For ticket information, click here: http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_12457.html?selecteddate=01162009

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Pomponi & Circumstance

The great thing about Google analytics is I can see who Barihunks readers think is hot. Right now it seems to be Franco Pomponi, so feast your eyes on these pictures from his website (www.francopomponi.com). The homoerotic pictures are with German tenor Rainer Trost from a production of Henze's "The Bassarids." Everything else is just Pomponi & Circumstance, so enjoy.