Justin Hopkins making Opera Vlaanderen debut as Lord Krishna

Justin Hopkins (Photo @Ellen Appel) and Satygraha (photo @Koen Broos)

American bass-barihunk Justin Hopkins is at Opera Vlaanderen this month, where he'll make his company debut singing Lord Krishna and Parsi Rustomji in Philip Glass' Satygraha in an all-star cast headed by the fearless tenor Peter Tantsits, the lush voiced mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, Rihab Chaieb, Denzil Delaere, Tineke Van Ingelgem and barihunk Robin Adams as Mr. Kellenbach. 

Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”) is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, where he developed his groundbreaking ideas about nonviolent political resistance. Loosely based on the life of Gandhi, it forms the second part of Glass's "Portrait Trilogy" of operas about men who changed the world, which includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten. 

The text is taken from the Bhagavad Gita and is sung in the original Sanskrit

Performances run from November 18-December 2. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Introducing the Komische Opera's Samuli Taskinen

Samuli Taskinen

Finnish bass-barihunk Samuli Taskinen is appearing as Lord Krishna in the Komische Oper's run of Philip Glass' Satyagraha. He is new to our site, other than a brief mention when he was a finalist in the Lappeenranta National Singing Competition.

Samuli began his music studies at the piano at age five and eventually switching to the cello. In 2011, he was accepted into Sibelius Academy's Music education department, where his intention was to become a pop and jazz voice teacher. While at the Academy, he took some voice lessons and was hooked on singing.

Samuli Taskinen and two images from Satyagraha at the Komische

Joining him in the cast are Stefan Cifolelli as Gandhi, Karolina Gumos as Gandni's wife, Cathrin Lange as Miss Schlesen, Mirka Wagner as Mrs. Naidoo, Tom Erik Lie as Mr Kallenbach,  Tomasz Wija as an Indian Colleague and Timothy Oliver as Prince Arjuna, 

Performances of Satyagraha run through November 10th and tickets are available online.

Samuli will remain at the Komische, where he will sing two roles in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, an armored man in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Paolo Calvi in  Schreker's Die Gezeichneten.

Derek Chester & Marco Vassalli/Barihunks book and calendar

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!