Barihunk quartet and hunkentenor featured at Grange Festival's Carmen

A quartet of barihunks are appearing in the Grange Festival's production of Carmen, which is currently running through July 8th. Two of them, Grigory Soloviov and Toby Girling, have appeared on the site, while Phillip Rhodes and Tiago Matos are new to the site. Joining this sexy quartet of low voices is hunkentenor Leonardo Capalbo. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Tiago Matos (left) and Phillip Rhodes (right)

Portuguese barihunk Tiago Matos, who is singing Le Dancäire,  was a member of the Atelier Lyrique at the Opéra national de Paris, where he performed Fiorello in Rossini's Il barbiere di Sivigila, Un Chevalier in Chaussson's Le Roi Arthus, and Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto. He will return to the Opéra national de Paris to perform a number of roles over the next few seasons.

New Zealand native Phillip Rhodes, who is singing Escamillo, was briefly mentioned on our site when he sang Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd with barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes in the title role. He recently peformed Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca and Pere Germont in Verdi's La traviata with Opera New Zealand. This Fall, he will sing the roles of Alfio in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Silvio and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with Opera North.

Renee Fleming and Grigory Soloviov (left) and Toby Girling in Trouble in Tahiti (right)

Bass-Barihunk Grigory Soloviov is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and a former member of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist’s Program. He has already performed with a number of major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Gran Teatro La Fenice, Dallas Opera, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Tours and the Opéra De Montréal.

British barihunk Toby Girling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and former member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus. His most current and future engagements include Nicomedes in Zemlinsky's Der König Kandaules and Pallante in Handel's Agrippina with De Vlaamse Opera, Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore  at the Scottish Opera and Sam in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti with the Oper Leipzig tour in Bolzano, Italy.

Introducing British Barihunk Toby Girling

Toby Girling in Zatopek! (left) and Winterreise (right)

Some singers just seem to inspire directors to get them into various states of undress and British barihunk seems to be one of them. We originally saw the picture of him from Zatopek! (above left) when we were posting about his castmate Peter Brathwaite and then the picture of him on the right from a Bluebeard's Castle/Winterreise double bill showed up in our messages. Girling is the sole vocal performer in Schubert's Winterreise with the Vlaamse Opera, which will run in Antwerp through May 10th. Tickets are available online.

Toby Girling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus in the Michael Grandage production of Britten's Billy Budd, in which he also sang the role of Arthur Jones and covered the role of Donald. Regular readers may recall that Glyndebourne's Billy Budd also featured barihunks Jacques Imbrailo and Duncan Rock. 

Toby Girling sings Der Lindenbaum from Schubert's 'Die Winterreise:

He has sung at a number of major festivals other than Glyndebourne. These include a 2011 performance of Ben in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti at the Wexford Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Verbier Festival, and Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Iford Festival. He also performed in both Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Fiorello in Rossini's the Barber of Seville to great acclaim with the English Touring Company.

He is currenlty a Studio Artist at Oper Frankfurt, where he performed as the Flemish Deputy in a revival of Verdi's Don Carlo.  Other appearances with the company include Ein Steuermann in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Manuel in de Falla's La Vida Breve and Mann in Sallinen's Kullervo.