Alexander Elliott takes on Barber in Santa Barbara

Alexander Elliott as the Barber of Sevile

Barihunk Alexander Elliott will perform the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at Opera Santa Barbara, which hasn't performed the audience favorite since 2001. The American baritone will be joined by mezzo-soprano Cassandra Zoé Velasco, tenor Andrew Bidlack and Nathan Stark as Basilio. Opera Santa Barbara’s Artistic & General Director Kostis Protopapas conducts the production.

Performances are on March 2nd and 4th and tickets are available online. 

The Barber of Seville premiered in Rome in 1816 with the title Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione (The Useless Precaution). Rossini's opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro, composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy.

Other operas based on the first play were composed by Giovanni Paisiello (1782), Nicolas Isouard (1796) and Francesco Morlacchi (1816). Though the work of Paisiello triumphed for a time, only Rossini's version has stood the test of time and continues to be a mainstay of operatic repertoire.

Elliott next heads to the Orlando Philharmonic to sing Manuel De Falla's Master Peter’s Puppet Show. The one-act opera combines puppets and real characters adapted from one of the episodes of Don Quixote. There is a single performance on April 7th and tickets are available online.

Barihunk duo featured in fundraiser for Pulse nightclub survivors

Nathan Stark and Brian James Myer

The Timucua Arts Foundation and Opera Orlando have joined forces for “One Voice Orlando,” a benefit concert for Proyecto Somos Orlando. The organization brought the Latino and LGBTQ community together to provide social services and mental health care after the devastating shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016. Proceeds will also be directed to those in need after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.


The shooting at the gay bar was one of deadliest mass shootings by a single gunman in U.S. history, and the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the events of September 11, 2001, killing 49 people and injuring another 53. 

Gabriel Preisser, Brian James Myer and Nathan Stark sing 

"Can't Help Falling In Love WIth You":

Opera Orlando is providing the talent for the show, including barihunks Brian James Myer and Nathan Stark, who will be joined by soprano Maria Laetitia Hernandez. Selections will include “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Miserables,  “No Puede Ser" and selections from Zarzuela.

The event is on Sunday, November 4th at the Timucua White House in Orlando. Tickets are available online. 

Those wishing to donate can visit the Proyecto Somos Orlando website. 

Derek Chester & Marco Vassalli from Barihunks Calendar and Book

Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Three Barihunks regroup for holiday concert and CD

Nate Stark, Brian James Myer and Gabriel Preisser

Back in August, we featured barihunks Nathan Stark, Gabriel Preisser and Brian James Myer who were performing "The Three Baritones" concert for Opera Orlando's annual "Opera in the Park" concert. Now they're back for a "Three Baritone Christmas" concert and a new CD of holiday favorites. The CD will be out by Nov 21st and available for purchase on CD Baby, iTunes and Amazon.

They will be performing on the other side of the country in Bellevue, Washington at Resonance in the SOMA Towers on December 1st and 3rd. Tickets are available HERE for the first show and HERE for the second performance. They will also be performing music from opera and Broadway.

Brian James Myer will be appearing with Opera San José as Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville from November 12-22 and Ponchel in Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night from February 11-24. Fellow barihunk Colin Ramsey will be singing Basilio in the Barber of Seville, while the cast of Silent Night includes a veritable feast of barihunks and hunkentenors, including Kirk Dougherty as Nikolaus Sprink, Ricardo Rivera as Lt. Audebert, Matthew Hanscom as Lt. Gordon, Kyle Albertson as Lt. Horstmayer, Colin Ramsey as Father Palmer, John Lindsey as Jonathan Dale, Nathan Stark as General Audebert, Christopher Bengochea as Kronprinz, Branch Fields as William Dale and Vitali Rozynko as the British Major.

The Barihunks in Bed calendar, which celebrates our 10th Anniversary is now on sale. Get your copy before the holiday rush by clicking on the lulu button.

Three Baritones concert at Opera Orlando

Brian James Myer, Nathan Stark and Gabriel Preisser (L-R)(Photo: Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel)

On August 28th, Opera Orlando's annual "Opera in the Park" will feature a "The Three Baritones" concert starring Brian James Myer, Nathan Stark and Gabriel Preisser.

We introduced Myer to readers back in December, when he joined the 2016 Chautauqua Opera Young Artists after he had performed the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Florida Grand Opera. The multi-talented young artist was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he studied piano, flute, cello, guitar, and voice. He's also a published composer of choral music. Myer will be returning to Opera San Jose this season to perform in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Kevin Puts' Silent Night and Puccini's La bohème.

Gabriel Presser has been a regular on our site since 2010 and we've featured him in singing competitions, starring in the world premiere of Kevin Puts' award-winning opera Silent Night, in webcasts and his new role as the impresario of Opera Orlando.

Gabriel Preisser sings Largo al factotum:

Nathan Stark has appeared on our site, but has never been featured. It was Stark's idea to assemble the three singers for the concert. The California native, who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, is making a number of company debuts this season, including at Tulsa Opera as Colline in La bohème, Hawaii Opera Theatre as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and at Fort Worth Opera in The Gravedigger in Buried Alive and Montressor in Embedded.

The concert starts at 2 PM at the University Club of Winter Park in Orlando. Tickets are available online. Opera Orlando's season kicks off on November 18 and 20 with Donizetti's Don Pasquale, followed by Giancarlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors for the Christmas holiday and wrapping up with Mozart's Don Giovanni with Preisser in the title role.

Sexy pictures of barihunk Christopher Burchett in "Buried Alive"

Christopher Burchett (prone) with Jennifer Feinstein, Jonathan Blalock and Caroline Worra

One of our few regrets in putting together the Barihunks calendar is that we occasionally run out of room to include each and every singer. Such was the case with barihunk Christopher Burchett, but fortunately we have a bunch of pictures from his appearance in composer Jeff Myers and librettist Quincy Long's Buried Alive, which opens today and will be performed again on March 30th at the Fargo Moorhead Opera.

Christopher Burchett in Buried Alive

Buried Alive was written specifically for Burchett, and he has been with the project since the first workshops with the American Lyric Theater in 2010. The opera is part of a partnership between the Fargo Moorhead Opera and American Lyric Theater for the Poe Project Double Bill, which will be the first operatic world premieres in Fargo.

American Lyric Theater asked composer/librettist teams to create contemporary opera thrillers inspired by the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe. The operas are not simply adaptations of Poe stories. The composer/librettist teams were asked, “What might Poe write if he were alive today?”

Christopher Burchett in Buried Alive

Buried Alive draws on themes of anxiety and mortality from Poe’s story “The Premature Burial,” as a painter’s nightmares of death start to become real. The opera is directed by Lawrence Edelson, the producing artistic director of the American Lyric Theater.

The second opera is composer Patrick Soluri and librettist Deborah Brevoort's Embedded. The opera is wittily inspired by Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” as a TV news anchor finds herself on the other side of the headlines. The opera is directed by Sam Helfrich, whose recent work includes productions for Glimmerglass Festival, Virginia Opera, and the Spoleto Festival/USA

Christopher Burchett in Buried Alive

In addition to Burchett, the operas feature a cast of five more of the country’s leading singers, who take on different roles in each opera: soprano Caroline Worra, soprano Sara Gartland, mezzo soprano Jennifer Feinstein, tenor Jonathan Blalock and bass Nathan Stark.

For tickets or additional information, visit the Fargo Moorhead Opera website.