Barihunk duo alternating Guglielmo at Palais Garnier

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Barihunks Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Philippe Sly will be alternating the role of Guglielmo at the beautiful Palais Garnier in Paris from September 12 to October 21. As an added bonus, Sly's performance dates also feature barihunk Paulo Szot as Don Alfonso!

Philippe Sly

The innovative production is being directed by the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, who is using a double cast of singers and dancers to marry song and dance. The stage design is fairly minimal with plexiglass screens suspended on either side, providing plenty of space for the singers and dancers to navigate individually or as a group.

Paulo Szot and his dancer double

De Keersmaeker explained her concept of the opera to Wannes Gyselinck, the senior editor of rekto:verso, "The function of dance is to underline the tension between text and music, and even at times to emphasize it...This duplication creates a third visible voice alongside the music and the text. It was above all because of the music that, despite my doubts about opera as a medium, I accepted the Paris Opera's invitation: it is so full of movement, both bodily and emotional. Taking music as a starting point, I hope to attain a higher degree of abstraction, and through it discover the essence of the work. In most productions, the beauty and depth of the music is drowned under draperies, costumes, doors that open and close."

Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Barihunk trio in Mohammed Fairouz's The New Prince

Joshua Hopkins in The New Prince

Last night, the Dutch National Opera premiered Mohammed Fairouz's The New Prince, which celebrates the 500th anniversary of the book in 2032. The piece is set in both the past and in the future and features the barihunk trio of Joshua Hopkins as Niccolò Machiavelli, Paulo Szot as Alexander Hamilton, Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney (three very different characters!), and Dominic Kraemer as Prince Saud al-Faisal.

Paulo Szot as Bill Clinton

Besides Machiavelli, it features well-known people of our day, including Henry Kissinger, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Osama bin Laden, as well as a fantasy world ruler Wu Virtu. Machiavelli’s lover is Fortuna, who is also his publisher. There is even a scene where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fight over a blow-up globe of the world.

Niccoló Machiavelli’s famous book The Prince describes the means that can be used by a dictator in strengthening his position. He can even permit himself lies and deceit, providing he ensures that they do not come to light. The politician/diplomat/writer was way ahead of his time. 

Dominic Kraemer and a scene from The New Prince

The relevance of Machiavelli’s writing to today inspired composer Mohammed Fairouz to write his second opera. The opera's ultimate message of the piece is delivered by Wu Virtu, which is "the end of war is war" and that aggression met with aggression is a only zero-sum game.

There are three remaining performances on March 26, 28 and 29.

Joyce DiDonato and Paulo Szot in New Year's Eve celebration

Joyce DiDonato and Paulo Szot

Honorary barihunk Joyce DiDonato and barihunk Paulo Szot will ring in 2017 with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in an “Enchanted Evening” of American classics. The duo will perfom selections from Old American Songs by Aaron Copland,  Rodgers & Hammerstein  "Soliloquy" from Carousel and selections from The Sound of Music, as well as music from Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady.

In 2008,  Szot won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Emile De Beque in the Broadway revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theater.  In the current season, the Brazilian baritone sings Don Alfonso in a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Paris Opéra and a solo recital in Madrid as a salute to Antônio Carlos Jobim. He also returns to Feinstein’s 54 Below in New York City for a series of solo performances, and creates the roles of Alexander Hamilton, Bill Clinton, and Dick Cheney in the World Premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s The New Prince at Dutch National Opera.

Less than 3 weeks left to order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar.

 

Paulo Szot to sing Broadway hits at Feinstein’s/54 Below

Paulo Szot

Barihunk Paulo Szot is returning to Feinstein’s/54 Below for six performances from April 5-9 at 7pm and April 9 at 9:30pm. The Tony-winning star of South Pacific will perform romantic songs of the American Songbook, including Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Burton Lane, the Gershwins and Leonard Bernstein.

Tickets are available online. 

Paulo Szot talking about his Feinstein's/54 Below debut in 2013:

Szot just finished a run as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Opéra de Marseille and returns to the opera stage after his run at Feinstein’s/54 in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette at the Palacio das Artes in May. He returns to the Opéra National de Paris next season as Don Alfonso in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

Happy Birthday, Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Hammerstein II in college

Oscar Hammerstein II was born in New York City on July 12, 1895, to a family who worked in theater. His father, William, managed a vaudeville theater, while his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, was a famed opera impresario. 

In 1920, he collaborated with a Columbia undergrad named Richard Rodgers in writing a Varsity Show called Fly with Me. Not long after, Hammerstein dropped out of grad school at Columbia to concentrate his efforts entirely on musical theater. While writing Rose Marie with Otto Harbach, Hammerstein met Jerome Kern. In 1925 the duo teamed up to write Show Boat. The successful musical put Hammerstein on the map as a writer and lyricist. Kern and Hammerstein went on to write a total of eight musicals together.

Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot perform "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific:

He  eventually dissolved his partnership with Jerome Kern to partner up exclusively with that former Columbia undergrad, Richard Rodgers. The Rodgers and Hammerstein team quickly produced a smash hit: In 1943, their first Broadway musical together, Oklahoma!, won a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1950 the duo scored a second Pulitzer with the musical South Pacific. The 1950s and early 1960s produced a string of Tony-winning works for the team, including The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1960).

Sir Thomas Allen sings Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Oh, what a beautiful morning!' from 'Oklahoma' at the Last Night of the Proms 2004.

Lucas Meachem sings "Soliloquy" from Carousel

A number of great songs that have been performed by baritones and bass-baritones were penned by Hammerstein including, A Fellow Needs A Girl (Allegro), Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful? (Cinderella), Edelweiss (The Sound Of Music), I Have Dreamed (The King And I), If I Loved You (Carousel), Lonely Room (Oklahoma!), Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin' (Oklahoma!), Soliloquy (Carousel), Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific), Ten Minutes Ago (Cinderella), The Highest Judge Of All (Carousel), The Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Oklahoma!), This Nearly Was Mine (South Pacific) and You Are Never Away (Allegro).

While still in his professional prime, Oscar Hammerstein II lost his battle with stomach cancer on August 23, 1960. He died at his house in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In Hammerstein's memory the lights on Broadway were turned off at 9 pm that September 1. 

UPDATED: Barihunk trio in Glyndebourne's Carmen

Paulo Szot, Christophe Gay and Gavan Ring (l-r)

CORRECTION - JUNE 24, 2015: We were informed that we were sent a cast list with the wrong Escamillo, as David Soar is singing the role and not Paulo Szot. We apologize for any inconvenience. David Soar was born in Nottinghamshire and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. Highlights in his 2014/15 season include Pistola in a new production of Falstaff at the Saito Kinen Festival and a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Colline La bohème.

David Soar

ORIGINAL POST: The Glyndebourne Festival will feature a barihunk trio in David McVicar's production of Bizet's Carmen with Paulo Szot as Escamillo, Christophe Gay as Le Dancaire and Gavan Ring as Moralés. The opera will run from June 28-July11 and the cast also includes Stéphanie D'Oustrac as Carmen, Pavel Cernoch as Don Jose and Lucy Crowe as Micaela. 

Tony Award-winning baritone Paulo Szot remains one of the most popular singers in the world of opera. Later this year, he'll reprise the role of Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera alongside Toby Spence, Susan Graham and Lucy Crowe.  Other recent appearances at the Met have included the Captain in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer and Kovalyov in Shostakovich's The Nose.

We introduced Gavan Ring to readers in October 2014 after having been impressed by his performance in the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. After Carmen, Ring heads to the Edinburgh International Festival to perform Bill Bobstay in HMS Pinafore and then to Opera North for Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Next year, he'll be back at Opera North for Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.

Christophe Gay, who is new to this site, graduated from the Nancy Conservatoire National in Singing and Chamber Music. He made his debut at the Nancy Opera House in Dallapiccolla's Il Prigioniero followed by Re Cefalo in the world premiere of Detlev Glanert's Enigma at the Montepulciano Festival. In September, Gay will sing Monsieur de Brétigny in Massenet's Manon at the Opéra de Marseille, followed by Bobinet in Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne.

The Dilemma over Crossover Barihunks

Nicky Wuchinger (left) and Jan-Philipp Rekeszus (right)

We're usually pretty clear about our mission at Barihunks, which is to promote baritones (down to bass) who take great care of their voices as well as their bodies. Generally, that has meant operatic baritones, but occasionally those lines get blurred. Take the cases of Ramin Karimloo, Doug Carpenter and Seph Stanek, three of the most popular singers to have appeared on this site. All three were trained as operatic baritones, but both have crossed over into other genres.

Paulo Szot, Seph Stanke and Doug Carpenter

Ramin Karimloo has gone on to be one of the most heralded singers to perform Jean Valjean in Les Mirerables and the title character in Phantom of the Opera. Seph Stanek, who studied classical voice at Furman University and the L'Accademia dell'Arte, went on to have a career as part of the crossover group Figaro, sang on tour with the Twelve Tenors and even starred in Naked Boys Singing! Then there's the case of Paulo Szot, one of opera's biggest stars, who is probably best known for singing Emile De Beque in South Pacific, taking home a Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award the Outer Critic’s Circle Award and the Theater World Award.

That brings us to Jan-Philipp Rekeszus and Nicky Wuchinger, two German singers with operatic pedigree who are making their mark in operetta and musical theater. Wuchinger was a finalist in the Lotte Lenya Competition when fellow barihunk Doug Carpenter took away the top prize. Carpenter has also successfully "crossed over" starring in the national tour of Dirty Dancing.

.

Rekeszus and Wuchinger are mentioned in a new article by Kevin Clarke entitled "Eyes Wide Open: A New Generation of Operetta Superstars?." He even refers to Rekeszus as a barihunk, although upon listening to the two singers we'd be compelled to call them bari-tenors, much like Karimloo. Clark imagines Rekeszus as ideal for Wiener Blut or The Merry Widow, and points out the Wuchinger was hired to sing in Eduard Künneke’s operetta Der Vetter aus Dingsda.

Wuchinger and Rekeszus bothe studied voice at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Wuchinger went on to embark on a successful career singing in Cats, The Who's Tommy, Phantom of the Opera and Hairspray. Rekeszus has made his mark performing in Hair and Bye, Bye, Birdie.

We'd love your thoughts on us featuring crossover artists on the site. However, if our statistics are any indication, we think that we know the answer, as posts about Karimloo, Stanek and Carpenter remain some of the most trafficked on the site.  Feel free to email us at Barihunks@gmail.com or leave a comment below. 

Kristin Chenoweth & Paulo Szot in PBS broadcast

Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth will join barihunk Paulo Szot on the PBS broadcast of Star-Spangled Spectacular: Bicentennial of Our National Anthem on Saturday, September 13 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS. (Check local listings.) The concert is part of a weeklong celebration of the 200^th anniversary of our national anthem.

The duo will perform Leonard Bernstein's Make Our Garden Grow. The gala concert will also include performances by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves-Montgomery, country group Little Big Town, Pentatonix, R&B legend Smokey Robinson,  country crooner, Train, the U.S. Navy’s official chorus The Navy Band Sea Chanters and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Marin Alsop.

Paulo Szot rehearsing for the Star-Spangled Spectacular

The program will also include ceremonial activities at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, historical highlights and an extraordinary fireworks crescendo.

Two hundred years ago, Francis Scott Key, a Maryland-born attorney, was inspired to write the words to what would become the United States’ national anthem.  In 2012, Star-Spangled 200 and the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission began a multi-year commemoration of this legacy which will culminate with Star-Spangled Spectacular, a weeklong festival taking place on September 10–16, 2014. The festival will include tall ships, Navy gray hulls, a performance by the Blue Angels, landside festivities, and this special television program to honor the national anthem.

Met cancels Live in HD transmission of Death of Klinghoffer

Paulo Szot and Ryan Speedo Green

After an outpouring of concern that its plans to transmit John Adams’s opera The Death of Klinghoffer might be used to fan global anti-Semitism, the Metropolitan Opera announced the decision today to cancel its Live in HD transmission, scheduled for November 15, 2014. The opera, which premiered in 1991, is about the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and the murder of one of its Jewish passengers, Leon Klinghoffer, at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.

The opera stars three singers who have been featured on the site before, Paulo Szot as The Captain, Aubrey Allicock as Mamoud and Ryan Speedo Green as Rambo.

Aubrey Allicock (left) and Christopher Magiera in Klinghoffer at OTSL

The Met will go forward with its stage presentation of The Death of Klinghoffer in its scheduled run of eight performances from October 20 to November 15. In deference to the daughters of Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, the Met has agreed to include a message from them both in the Met’s Playbill and on its website.

In recent years, The Death of Klinghoffer has been presented without incident at The Juilliard School (2009), the Opera Theatre of St. Louis (2011), and as recently as this March in Long Beach, California. The Met’s new production was first seen in London at the English National Opera in 2012, and received widespread critical acclaim.

Maltmann and Szot star in Met Fledermaus

Paulo Szot, Christopher Maltmann & Patrick Carfizzi (L-R) Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Two of the most prominent and beloved barihunks in the world will appear onstage together when the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus opens on New Year's Eve. Paulo Szot wil perform the role of Dr. Falke and Christopher Maltmann will be Eisenstein.

The cast also features an amazing blend of talent from the worlds of opera and Broadway. Opera is represented by sopranos Jane Archibald as Adele, Susanna Phillips as Rosalinde, Paulo Szot, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Prince Orlofsky, Michael Fabiano as Alfred and Patrick Carfizzi as Frank. Broadway is represented by Danny Burstein (South Pacific, Golden Boy) as Frosch and Betsy Wolfe (The Last Five Years) as Ida. According to the Met site, "the action is moved to turn-of-the-century Vienna, an elegant, opulent setting with echoes of Gustav Klimt’s glittering paintings and of Sigmund Freud’s newly fashionable ideas."

Paul Armin Edelmann sings "Brüderlein und Schwesterlein" 

Die Fledermaus features a new book by Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane (The Nance, Cinderella) with staging by Tony Award nominee Jeremy Sams (Amour, Noises Off). 

The sold out December 31st performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74. Tickets for the remaining performances are available online.

Barihunks on-the-air from LA Opera & Metropolitan Opera

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Italian barihunk Ildebrando D'Arcangelo will portray Escamillo in the Los Angeles Opera's season-opening production of Carmen on September 21st. The performance will be broadcast as part of "LA Opera on Air" on Classical KUSC 91.5 FM. The performance also features hunkentenor Brandon Jovanovich as Don José, Patricia Bardon as Carmen and South African soprano Pretty Yende in her LA Opera debut as Micaëla. Placido Domingo will conduct.

If you want to see Ildebrando D'Arcangelo live, there are additional performances on September 26, September 29, October 1, October 4 and October 6. The performance of September 28 will feature Dwayne Croft as Escamillo. Tickets are available online.

Mariusz Kwiecien

"The Met: Live in HD" series opens with Polish barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, which also stars Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala. The October 5th transmission features a new production by Deborah Warner and will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Other Live in HD transmissions featuring barihunks are Shostakovich’s The Nose featuring Paulo Szot on October 26 and Ildar Abdrazakov in Borodin’s Prince Igor on March 1.

All 10 of the Met's high-definition productions will be shown live worldwide on Saturdays. Most operas begin at 12:55 p.m. EST/9:55 PST, but check the Met website to confirm starting times. 

Paulo Szot at intimate 54 Below this week

Paulo Szot

Fans of Paulo Szot can catch him in an intimate setting this week,  as he continues his cabaret show of music theater standards at 54 Below. The star of South Pacific an of opera stages worldwide is joined by his musical director and pianist Matthew Aucoin, along with David Fink on double bass and David Ratajczak on drums.

Szot has put together a night of mostly Broadway favorites, including Gershwin's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, "Were Thine That Special Face" from Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, "Old Devil Moon" from Finian's Rainbow, "What Kind of Fool Am I?" from Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, Bart Howard's "Fly Me to the Moon," and a medley that includes "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof, "Money" from Cabaret, and the opening number from The Lion King. 

Performances are running through August 11 and tickets are available online or by calling (866) 468-7619.

Also, keep your eye out for his upcoming CD on GPRrecords called Brazil To Broadway where he will sing Brazilian Standards in English and Broadway Standards in Portuguese.

Christopher Job's traveling preacher off to save Idaho

Christopher Job

American barihunk Christopher Job has some exciting performances coming up this year. On May 25th, he will make his Carnegie Hall debut in Mozart’s Requiem with conductor Joseph Modica. He then returns to the Metropolitan Opera  from September 28 – October 26 in Shostakovich’s The Nose under the baton of Valery Gergiev. He'll be joined in the cast by fellow barihunk Paulo Szot, who is reprising his performance of the bureaucrat, whose satirical misadventures in search of his missing nose are based on Gogol’s comic story.

Samuel Ramey sings "Hear Me, O Lord, I beseech Thee" from Susannah:

In the meantime, Christopher Job will take on the role of the traveling preacher Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Opera Idaho directed by Elise Sandell. Susannah is one of the most performed American operas, second to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. A number of prominent baritones have taken on the role of Olin Blitch, including Samuel Ramey, Norman Treigle, James Morris, Mack Harrell and Daniel Okulitch. Performances are on May 17th and 19th at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise. Tickets are available online.

Kiwi Barihunks Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Hadleigh Adams Wowing Audiences in Sydney and San Francisco

You're more likely to spot a wombat while wandering around Coopracambra National Park than finding a video of Teddy Tahu Rhodes online. For some reason, the Kiwi Barihunk is one of the most underrepresented singers online, which has frustrated his legions of fans for years. He's one of the few big name baritones who doesn't have his own website or blog. It seems like the man we affectionately call "Teddy Bare" prefers his surfboard on a quiet beach to the clutter of the internet.

Now that he's touring in the popular production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific in Australia, videos are finally making their way onto the internet. Here he is singing "Some Enchanted Evening" at the Sydney Opera House.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes sings "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific"

The Tony Award-winning show, which was directed by Bartlett Sher and starred barihunk Paulo Szot at Lincoln Center will be playing for a month in Sydney begging on Thursday, August 9th. About a third of the shows are already either sold out or near capacity. Click HERE for tickets.

The production is part of Opera Australia's aggressive effort to expand their audience. It seems to be paying off, as the Guardian reports that the company's overall funding, including sponsorships, has risen from $A70m to $A100m.

Hadleigh Adams

On the other side of the globe, another Kiwi barihunk has taken San Francisco by storm. Hadleigh Adams, who is part of the 2012 Merola Opera Program, stole the show with his performance of the final scene of Act 2 of Bizet's "La Jolie Fille de Perth" at Merola's Schwabacher Summer Concert.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "The evening's standout was Hadleigh Adams, a formidable bass-baritone from New Zealand who in his only appearance on this program deployed a robust, beautiful tone with both flexibility and power." 

 

Adams will return to the stage one more time on August 18 at the Merola Grand Finale where he will perform “Somnus awake! ... Leave me loathsome light … More sweet is that name”  from Handel's Semele with Suzanne Rigden and Erin Johnson. A number of other barihunks will be performing in the Finale, including Seth Mease Carico as Don Giovanni and Mustafa, Joseph Lattanzi as Jupiter in Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers, Gordon Bintner as Leporello and Belcore, and Matthew Scollin in Lully's Alceste. Visit the San Francisco Opera website for ticket information.

One final New Zealand  connection will be British conductor Nicholas McGegan, who is conducting the Finale and has led the New Zealand Symphony in the past. His recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 24 with Robert Levin with the New Zealand Symphony is a must for any collector.

Samuel Ramey, Marilyn Horne and Sylvia McNair sing "Leave me loathsome light":

Reader Submission: Soloman Howard

Soloman Howard shows he has arms to match his voice

Our latest reader submission is Soloman Howard, affectionately known as SoHo to his friends. 

A native of Washington, D.C.,  Howard is in his second year of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. This season he appears with the Washington National Opera as Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, which runs from September 20-October 13. The Don Giovanni's will be barihunks Paulo Szot and Ildar Abdrazakov and the Leporello is Andrew Foster-Williams. Last season he was seen on stage as High Priest of Baal in Verdi's Nabucco.

Solomon Howard "Total Praise" at the 1:09 mark (Check out those low notes):

His recent credits include a debut with Washington Concert Opera as Leone in Verdi's Attila, and performances at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage with the Conservatory Project. Previous engagements include Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and many concerts with the Morgan State University Choir, including the role of Porgy in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, under the baton of Paul Freeman.

Howard is a graduate of Morgan State University and the Manhattan School of Music.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Set to Tour "South Pacific"

Lisa McCune & Teddy Tahu Rhodes

Another opera barihunk is about to take on the role of Emile de Becque in Rodgers & Hammerstein's timeless musical "South Pacific." Following in the successful footsteps of Ezio Pinza and Paulo Szot, New Zealand barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes will open the show in Sydney on August 8th and then in Melbourne on September 13th.

Tahu Rhodes will be joined by four-time Gold Logie award-winning actress Lisa McCune as Nellie Forbush, Kate Ceberano as Bloody Mary and Eddie Perfect as Luther Billis.

The production by Bartlett Sher, swept the 2008 Tony Awards® taking home seven statues. The show played to sold-out houses for two and a half years, making it one of the Lincoln Center Theatre’s most successful productions. Tickets for the Sydney performances are already on sale and tickets for Melbourne go on sale on Monday, May 7th. Click HERE to get more information or to purchase tickets.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Barihunk Paulo Szot Live in Theaters Worldwide Tomorrow

Paulo Szot as Don Giovanni at the Dallas Opera

The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Massenet’s Manon will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world on Saturday, April 7 as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Barihunk Paulo Szot sings Manon’s cousin Lescaut in the performance.

Anna Netrebko will make her Met role debut as the tragic heroine Manon in the production directed by Laurent Pelly. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will conduct the opera for the first time at the Met, and tenor Piotr Beczala makes his role debut as the ardent Chevalier des Grieux. The Met: Live in HD presentation of Manon will be hosted by soprano Natalie Dessay.

Visit the Met's website for more information on The Met: Live in HD series, now seen in more than 1,700 movie theaters in 54 countries around the world..

Szot starred as Kovalyov in the 2010 Met premiere of Shostakovich’s The Nose and returned last season as a sexy Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen. He won a 2008 Tony Award for his portrayal of Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Classical Singer Coverboy: Paulo Szot

Paulo Szot

The "Barihunk as Coverboy" trend continues this month, as Paulo Szot is gracing the cover of Classical Singer magazine. Here is the article:

For some singers, the secret to a long and fruitful career is a one-track mind. It’s no surprise that more than a few stars—including Mary Costa and Joan Sutherland—have famously used the metaphor of being a horse with blinders on as a way of describing their forward drive and singular goals.

But the last half century has brought with it a staggering number of changes, particularly in how we receive and consume culture. The idea of being a singer who embraces duality between genres is perhaps not revolutionary—while Sutherland was taking the world by storm as Lucia and Norma, mezzo Risë Stevens was holding court both at the Met and on the Ed Sullivan Show—but the ability to embrace such a dichotomy has become much easier and fluid in the new millennium.

Exhibit A in that equation is baritone Paulo Szot, a singer who had gained momentum in the opera world starting with his professional debut in 1997 as Rossini’s Figaro in his native Brazil. It took a Tony-Award-winning Broadway debut in 2008 as Emile De Becque in South Pacific, however, to catapult Szot into the upper echelon of operatic stars. For Szot, such balance is just part of the game.

Born in São Paulo and raised in Ribeirão Pires, Szot was the son of two musically inclined Polish émigrés who settled in Brazil following World War II—an unlikely combination that the baritone nevertheless describes as “a very interesting mixture with many things in common . . . very interesting between the polonaises and Chopin and then bossa nova and Jobim.” Like his siblings, Szot was quickly indoctrinated into the music world, beginning his studies at age four on the piano, moving on to violin at eight, and never recalling a time in his childhood that wasn’t underscored by an LP or cassette tape of Polish folk music or Tchaikovsky.


[Read the entire article HERE.]

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

"South Pacific" Heads to the South Pacific

Teddy Tahu Rhodes to perform Emile de Becque

The Bartlett Sher-directed production of Broadway's "South Pacific," which won seven Tony Awards in 2008 and played to sold-out housed for two years is heading to the South Pacific. The successful show, which catapulted barihunk Paulo Szot to international prominence, will feature New Zealand barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Emile de Becque in the "down under" run.

The production will open in Sydney for a four week run on August 11, 2012 and then head on a nationwide tour of Australia.

Paulo Szot sings the classic "Some Enchanted Evening":

Also, don't forget that for the next two weeks we'll be taking submissions for our first-ever charity Barihunks calendar. Send High Res photos and bio to Barihunks@gmail.com.

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

"Some Enchanted Evening"

Paulo Szot & Rodney Clarke

We thought that it would be fun to compare some versions of "Some Enchanted Evening" from the 1949 hit musical "South Pacific." Two baritones have scored huge successes as Emile de Becque almost 60 years apart, Ezio Pinza and Paulo Szot. We've mixed in emerging barihunk Rodney Clarke and the great Cesare Siepi for comparison purposes. We've also added the hit recording my Perry Como, a version by the legendary Frank Sinatra and a jazzed up version from Ray Charles.

Ezio Pinza, who made this famous with the original 1949 Broadway cast recording:



Paulo Szot, who became a mega-star barihunk with South Pacific:



Cesare Siepi, who shows he could have scored a it with this on Broadway, too:



Ray Charles, jazzing it up for TV:



Frank Sinatra in a classic version from 1949:



Rodney Clarke, one of our emerging barihunks: Perry Como, who had a hit with this in 1949:



Giorgio Tozzi, who recorded his in 1958:


____________________________________________________
Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com
____________________________________________________