The Fort Worth Opera has announced that the barihunk duo of Efrain Solis and Donovan Singletary will perform in the first of two spring concerts on Sunday, March 29th. They'll be joined by fellow cast members from Puccini's La bohème, soprano Talise Trevigne, tenor Giordano Lucà and soprano Tracy Cantin. The performance will be at the Kimbell Art Museum's Renzo Piano Pavilion as part of the company's Pops at the Pavilion.
Efrain Solis sings Sondheim's Johanna:
A second concert on Wednesday, April 22th will feature soprano Talise Trevigne at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Tickets can be purchased online.
Efrain Solis will be singing Schaunard and Donovan Singletary will take on Colline in La bohème in both performances, which are on April 17 and 19. Tickets are available online.
American barihunk Christopher Bolduc will make his house debut tonight as Marcello at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein's Theater Duisburg in Puccini's La bohème. Bolduc will be joined by fellow barihunks Richard Šveda as Schaunard and Luke Stoker as Colline in a cast that also includes as Luiza Fatyol as Mimi, Luis Gomes as Rodolfo and Lavinia Dames as Musetta.
Director Philipp Westerbarkei has updated the production to contemporary times, with the male foursome wearing muscle shirts and even dancing in pink tutus. Performances with Bolduc are on December 21, 25, March 28 and May 2 and 13.
After the first two performances of La bohème, Bolduc returns to his home base at the Hessiscches Staatstheater Wiesbaden to perform Lescaut in Massenet's Manon, Stern in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole and Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.
Luke Stoker and Richard Šveda in La bohème
Bass-barihunk Luke Stoker is new to this site. He hails from Australia, where he received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Queensland and a Master of Music Studies from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music/Griffith University. In 2013, he was awarded the German Opera Scholarship and subsequently became part of the ensembles at Oper Köln and Oper Dortmund. In January 2020, he will make his role and house debut at the Volksoper Wien as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen.
Richard Šveda is also new to this site. He has been a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since the 2010-11 season. He has performed most of the leading Mozart baritone roles, including Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Count Almaviva in the Marriage of Figaro and the title role in Don Giovanni. The famous soprano Edita Gruberová regularly included him in her concerts with young artists. Mozart continues to fill his calendar, as he performs Don Giovanni at the Slovak National Theater Bratislava and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in January and May.
Duncan Rock will be returning to the Glyndebourne Festival this Summer and Fall, where he previously scored a career-changing success as Tarquinius in Fiona Shaw's production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.
From August 11-28, he'll perform the role of Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with an all-star cast that includes Tim Mead as Oberon, Elizabeth DeShong as Hermia and Kate Royal as Helena. From October 15 to December 9, he travels around the U.K. with Glyndebourne on Tour portraying the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with fellow barihunk Brandon Cedel as his sidekick Leporello.
On Wednesday, June 1st he'll be performing with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the spirited conducting of Nic McGegan. The program includes songs by Thomas Arne, Ralph Vaughan Williams' In Windsor Forest , highlights from Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, highlights from Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen and the duet from Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict. He'll be joined by soprano Fflur Wyn, tenor Andrew Henley and mezzo Sandra Piques Eddy.
Barihunk afficionados won't want to miss him as Donald in Deborah Warner's new production of Britten's Billy Budd at the Teatro Real in Madrid, where he will be joined by barihunks Jacques Imbrailo in the title role, Borja Quiza as Novice's Friend and Thomas Oliemans as Mr. Redburn.
He is also slated to make his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in an upcoming season as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème.
Andrew Lovato, John Taylor Ward and Nicholas Nelson
The Lakes Area Music Festival in Minnesota is featuring a barihunk trio in this summer's performances of Puccini's La bohème. The Festival features many of the most promising young musicians from America’s top conservatories who perform alongside members of the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in projects ranging from chamber music to orchestral repertoire and fully produced operas.
La bohème will feature Andrew Lovato as Schaunard, John Taylor Ward as Marcello and Nicholas Nelson as Colline. Lovato and Nelson have been featured numerous times on the site, including a recent post about Lovato making his Cincinnati Opera debut in Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star as Harry Engel.
Lovato is no stranger to Minnesota audiences, having been a member of the Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program and competing in the Upper Midwest Regional competition of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He made his Minnesota Opera debut as the role of Sonora in Puccini's La Fanciulla
del West and performed the role of Young Raymond in the world premier of
The Manchurian Candidate by Kevin Puts as well as the role of El
Dancairo in Bizet's Carmen. He will be returning to Minnesota Opera to perform the role of Harlequin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos as well as Sciarrone in Puccini's Tosca.
Nicholas Nelson recently performed Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute in a co-production between the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Opera in the Rock. Last season he also appeared as Larkens in LaFanciulla del West with Minnesota Opera. From 2010-13, Nelson was a Resident Artist at Portland Opera. Roles in Portland include the Mandarin in Turandot, Inigo Gomez in Ravel's L'heure Espagnole, Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Angelotti in Tosca and Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff. He also appeared in Portland as The Pope/ Cardinal Barberini in Philip Glass' Galileo Galilei. This production was the basis for the world premiere recording of the opera. Nelson also performs as a guitarist, thereminist, and actor in spoken theater.
John Taylor Ward performs Monteverd's: Ab aeterno ordinata sum with Voices of Music:
John Taylor Ward, who is new to this site, was born into a musical family in Boone, North Carolina that featured bluegrass and Broadway tunes. He is also the associate artistic director of the Lakes Area Music Festival.
Ward appeared as a boy soprano soloist at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, Durham Cathedral in the United Kingdom and Claire and King’s Colleges in Cambridge. He received his Bachelor's Degree from the Eastman School of Music in and went on to pursue his graduate studies at the Yale School of Music, where he is currently a doctoral student.
Ward has recorded popular songs written in, around, and about Connecticut in the years 1880-1915. Taylor is a notable interpreter of the roles of Jesus in Bach’s Passions, having performed them across Europe and America with maestro Suzuki, Juilliard 415, and the Yale Schola Cantorum. His Carnegie Hall debut, singing Schütz’s Fili mi Absalon, was listed among Superconductor’s best concerts of 2012, and, in the realm of vocal chamber music, he has made numerous appearances with the eight-voice ensemble Roomful of Teeth, whose debut album recently topped many 2013 album-of-the-year lists, including WNYC’s Soundcheck. As a founding member of the New Haven-based Cantata Profana, Taylor recently performed Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ 8 Songs for a Mad King.
Performances of La bohème will be on August 8 and 9 at the Tornstrom Auditorium in Brainerd, Minnesota and are free to the public.
Laurence Meikle in last night's La bohème in Wiemar (right)
Australian barihunk was a last minute replacement last night in Puccini's La bohème at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar. The singer is no stranger to the opera having performed four roles: Marcello, Schaunard, Benoit and Alcindoro. What's amazing is that he's scheduled to sing Marullo in Verdi's Rigolettotonight at the Theater Nordhausen.
The story is reminiscent of soprano Kristine Opolais, who stepped into the Met's La bohème a night on April 5, 2014 a night after having performed Madama Butterfly. What makes Meikle's back-to-back performances so amazing is that it's not in the same opera house, but 90 minutes down the road.
When he's done with Rigoletto, he heads back to Wiemar to take on Baron Douphol in Verdi's La traviata beginning on January 24.
