Hadleigh Adams to make European opera stage debut in Netherlands

Hadleigh Adams (Photo right: Cory Weaver)

Bass-barihunk Hadleigh Adams will make his long overdue European debut in a staged performance of an opera. The San Francisco-based singer will appear in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music at the Nederlandse Reisopera from March 16th through April 9th. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Adams will be performing the role of the buffoonish, hypocritical, yet charming Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, who sings the popular piece "In Praise of Women." The most famous piece from the opera is Desiree's "Send in the Clowns," which has been popularized by numerous singers, including Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan.

Adams has previously performed in Europe, but not in a professionally staged operatic production. He attended the Guildhall School of Music in London, where he sang Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and also performed Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Royal National Theatre in London, as well as Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex in a concert performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dov'è la figlia? from Hadleigh Adams on Vimeo.

Since its premiere in 1973, A Little Night Music has become a staple of Broadway musical theaters and opera companies, toeing the lines between a musical, operetta and opera. Numerous writers and critics have argued whether the piece should be categorized as a musical or an operetta/opera. Although the piece is best known for its runs on Broadway and London's West End, a number of opera companies have produced the piece, including the New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Australia and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler were inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, which involves the romantic lives of several couples. A film of the musical was released in 1977 featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg.

On June 4th, Adams returns to California to join the San Francisco Symphony on June 4th for Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. He then performs in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at both the Cincinnati Opera and the San Francisco Opera.

Complete operas from La Monnaie online; Hunkentenor goes all barihunk

Charles Castronovo and Justin Hopkins

We get asked a lot about live opera broadcasts and streaming video. We probably should post more about it and encourage anyone with information about broadcasts to send it to us at Barihunks@gmail.com.

We recently learned that La Monnaie in Brussels broadcasts their productions online for a month after the performance ends. We were thrilled to find out that we could watch Barihunks calendar model Justin Hopkins in his debut from the theatre in Donizetti's Lucretia Borgia as Astolfo along with fellow barihunk Paul Gay as Don Alfonso. If you like your tenors sexy, as well, you'll be thrilled to know that Charles Castronovo is The Lucretia Borgia broadcast is available online until April.

La Monnaie's sexy ad campaign for Romeo et Juliette

Next up is Mernier's La Dispute with Stéphane Degout as the Prince and Guillaume Andrieux as Mesrin. Andrieux created quite a buzz when he recently debuted on our site rehearsing in a muscle shirt. However, the opera that we're really looking forward to is Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande which is cast with three barihunks, Stéphane Degout as Pelléas, Paul Gay as Golaud and the steamy Jérôme Varnier as Arkel. You can see more of Jérôme Varnier when the streaming video begins next week for Gounod's Romeo et Juliette where he portrays Frère Laurent.

One of our tenor crushes: Glenn Seven Allen (in Streetcar on right with Jacquelynne Fontaine)

Sometimes we shy away from it, but the truth is that we have some tenor crushes. In our "Best of 2012" feature we owned up to crushes on Ed Lyon, Noah Stewart and Glenn Seven Allen. Regular readers will probably know that today's post isn't the first time that we've snuck Charles Castronovo onto the site either.

We were pretty excited to learn that Glenn Seven Allen crossed over into baritone/barihunk territory as Carl Magnus in Sondheim's A Little Night Music with the Indiana Repertory Theater. The singer also recently made his Carnegie Hall debut in Marschner's Der Vampyr with the American Symphony. Although he was distinctly back in tenor territory, he was joined by barihunk Justin Hopkins.