Every GRAMMY nominee for "Best Opera Recording" featiures a barihunk

Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Günther Groissböck, Edward Parks & Aubrey Allicock

Every GRAMMY nominee for  "Best Opera Recording" featiures a barihunk this year.

The nominees, which were announced today, are as follow:

• John Adams, Doctor Atomic, featuring barihunk Aubrey Allicock, Gerald Finley, Julia Bullock and Brindley Sherratt. 
• Mason Bates, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, featuring barihunk Edward Parks, Sasha Cooke, Jessice E. Jones, Wei Wu and Garrett Sorenson. 
• Jean-Baptiste Lully, Alceste, featuring barihunks Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Douglas Williams, Emiliano Gonzalez, Toro and Judith Van Wanroij. 
• Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier, featuring Günther Groissböck, Elīna Garanča and Erin Morley. 
• Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, featuring the late barihunk Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Nadine Sierra. 

Bate's The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs was also nominated for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition" along with Jake Heggie's Great Scott, which features the ageless barihunk Nathan Gunn.  Other nominees in the category are Du Yun's Air Glow, Kernis' Violin Concerto and Mazzoli's Vespers for Violin.

Barihunks Allicock and Hughes up for $100,000 prize!!!

Evan Hughes

Barihunks Aubrey Allicock and Evan Hughes are among 16 young musicians up for a $100,000 cash prize from Warner Music to be given annually to a promising musician between the age of 18 - 35. The Warner Music Prize was created to bolster rising musicians with notable talents or achievements.

This year's inaugural award will be presented to an artist presented by Carnegie Hall who has shown exemplary musicianship in their solo roles throughout the 2014-2015 concert season.

The winner will be announced in the Spring of 2015, after the candidates have been thoroughly evaluated by a juror panel comprised of accomplished classical musicians and key industry leaders. In addition to the cash prize, the winner of the 2015 Warner Music Prize will be showcased at the Warner Music Prize Gala on October 27, 2015 at Carnegie Hall. Money raised at the gala will benefit the Harmony Program and the Weill Music Institute, both of which aim to provide music education to underserved demographics.

Aubrey Allicock

Musicians under consideration will perform at Carnegie-Hall, with Aubrey Allicock scheduled for December 4th and Evan Hughes for March 8th. Other artists under consideration are sopranos Sarah Shafer and Jennifer Zetlan; mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton, Rachel Calloway, Cecelia Hall, Alisa Kolosova, and Peabody Southwell; tenor Dominic Armstrong; violinists Augustin Hadelich and Itamar Zorman; cellist Brook Speltz; double bassist Roman Patkoló; harpist Sivan Magen; and pianist Behzod Abduraimov.

Allicock just made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Mamoud in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer starring fellow barihunk Paulo Szot. Performances run through November 15th and tickets are available online.

Evan Hughes is on the roster of the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany. His roles this season include Zoroastro in Handel's Orlando and Achilla in Giulio Cesare, Don Basilio in Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia, Pietro in Verdi's in Simon Boccanegra, Colline in Puccini's La bohème and Emma Becker in Peter Ronnefeld’s Nachtausgabe.

Don't forget to order your 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar, so you can enjoy 19 of operas hottest men all year!

Aubrey Allicock featured in OUT Magazine

Aubrey Allicock (Photographed by Roger Erickson for Out)

By Julien Sauvalle

In the Metropolitan Opera staging, the gay baritone plays Mahmoud, a Palestinian terrorist. Allicock tackles the controversy surrounding the production—and explains why everybody should see it.

Last year, Aubrey Allicock played the role of gay boxer Emile Griffith in Champion, Terence Blanchard's opera-in-jazz, in St. Louis. A Tuscson native of Guyanese and African-American descent, Allicock has since graduated from Juilliard's top-tier program for opera singers, and performed in productions of Rinaldo and Alice in Wonderland. This fall, he makes his debut on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in a new production of The Death of Klinghoffer. 

Directed by Tom Morris (War Horse) and composed by John Adams (Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic), The Death of Klinghoffer is based on the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian terrorists, which resulted in the killing of a wheelchair-bound Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. 

Since its premiere in Brooklyn in 1991, the work has drawn praise and criticism for its libretto, which some Jewish organizations have called anti-semitic. While this new staging hasn't failed to anger protesters outside Lincoln Center, Allicock, who plays one of the Palestinian terrorists, tells us why Klinghoffer should be required viewing, regardless of where one stands on current affairs. 

Out: The Death of Klinghoffer marks your stage debut at the Met. How are you feeling?  Aubrey Allicock: I worked at the Met back in 2010 as an understudy, but this is my first time singing on the stage. Surprisingly, I feel really comfortable. I know the music because I’ve sung the role before for six productions of Klinghoffer. I know what my voice is able to do with it, and I’m actually finding myself being able to explore my character further. It’s more about being more comfortable with the character—because the music is no problem.

[Continue reading interview at OUT Magazine]

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.

OUT Magazine features Aubrey Allicock

Aubrey Allicock (photo by Roger Erickson)

Barihunk Aubrey Allicock just completed a critically acclaimed run as the lead in Terence Blanchard's Champion at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The buzz in the opera world is that this was a career launching performance. OUT Magazine recently ran a profile of the singer along with this amazing photograph.

Hot List: Aubrey Allicock by Jerry Portwood

Aubrey Allicock, currently studying at Juilliard, is explaining his path as a young opera singer. “As a bass-baritone, I’m a baby, I’m a child!” he says, punctuating his confession with a big, hearty laugh. “I’ll probably be 40 before my voice hits its prime.”  Despite his relative youth in his field, the 29-year-old singer has the opportunity of a lifetime this summer when he originates the role of the young boxer Emile Griffith in the world premiere of Champion at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. [Read the entire article at OUT magazine].

Allicock was also featured in the Sound Bites section of Opera News.

Aubrey Allicock sings "Se vuol ballare" from Le Nozze di Figaro:

Soloman Howard stars as Muhammid Ali

Soloman Howard in Approaching Ali

We're not sure how this almost slipped by us, but thanks to an alert reader, we've learned that the Washington National Opera is presenting the world premiere of composer D.J. Sparr's "Approaching Ali" today at the Kennedy Center. Bass-barihunk Soloman Howard, who we've featured on this site before,  will sing the role of Muhammad Ali. The opera based on the life of Muhammid Ali, is the second opera to premiere about a boxer within a week. Aubrey Allicock is starring as the bisexual boxer Emile Griffith in the world premiere of Tereence Blanchard' s Champion on June 15th in St. Louis.

Sparr's one-hour opera was created under the auspices of the American Opera Initiative, Washington National Opera’s program for commissioning contemporary American opera. The libretto is by Mark Campbell and Davis Miller, based on Miller’s own autobiographical novella.

The opera tells the story of a young boy in North Carolina in the early 1960s who overcomes the loss of his mother and the trauma of being bullied when he sees Muhammad Ali on television. More than 20 years later, as a writer on the brink of middle age, he seeks to rekindle that spirit by visiting his boyhood hero in person at the home of Ali’s mother in Louisville.

Muhammid Ali and Soloman Howard

A number of contemporary composers are writing operas based on news figures from our lifetime. Some of these include John Adams' "Nixon in China" and "The Death of Klinghoffer," Stewart Wallace's "Harvey Milk," Anthony Davis' "X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X," Mark-Anthony Turnage's "Anna Nicole Smith," Philip Glass' "Satyagraha" and Thomas Adès' "Powder Her Face." These operas have been dubbed "CNN opera" or "MTV operas," although with the new focus on sports figures, perhaps we should add "ESPN opera" to the vocabulary.

"Approaching Ali" will also feature baritone David Kravitz as Davis Miller, Aundi Marie Moore as Ali’s mother Odessa Clay, boy soprano Ethan McKelvain as Young Davis, Tim Augustin as Roy Miller and Catherine Martin as Sara Miller.

In addition to today's performance at 7:30 p.m., the opera will be repeated on Sunday, June 9 at 2 p.m. There will be a Q&A with the artists and creative team following both performances.
All tickets are $30 and are available at the Kennedy Center Box Office, by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324, or online at www.kennedy-center.org.

Baritones win two top awards at George London competition & three encouragement awards

Steven LaBrie and John Brancy

The 42nd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition was held Friday night and baritones took two of the top prized and three of the encouragement awards. Nicholas Pallesen and Jamez McCorkle both were awarded the top prize which comes with a $10,000 financial gift. Encouragement awards went to John Brancy, who received the Theodor Uppman memorial award; Steven LaBrie won the Herbert J. Frank memorial award; and, a final baritone winner was Jonathan Michie. Aubrey Allicock, who has been featured on this site along with Pallesen, Brancy and LaBrie, was awarded an Honorable Mention.

The competition took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. A total of $82,000 was given in awards. After three days of preliminary auditions during which ninety singers were heard, 24 were selected as finalists. Of these, seven were selected as winners of George London Awards of $10,000 each and seven were given George London Foundation Encouragement Awards of $1,000 each. The remaining 10 finalists received $500 Honorable Mention awards.

Theodor Uppman as Billy Budd in 1951

Other winners of the $10,000 top prize included tenor Dominic Armstrong, tenor Noah Baetge, soprano Felicia Moore, soprano Jessica Muirhead, and  Additional $1,000 encouragement awards went to tenor Adam Bonanni, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, soprano Marina Costa - Jackson, and mezzo-soprano Shirin Eskandani.

This year’s panel of judges included soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Nedda Casei, opera stage director Bruce Donnell, former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred F. Hubay, George London Foundation President Nora London, former Metropolitan Opera leading tenor and current voice professor George Shirley, and performing arts consultant Thurmond Smithgall.

Since 1971, the annual competition of The George London Foundation for Singers has been giving its George London Awards, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of young American and Canadian opera singers who have gone on to international stardom – the list of past winners includes Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, and Dawn Upshaw.

Aubrey Allicock wins Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation prize

Aubrey Allicock

The Opera Theatre of St. Louis has announced that barihunk Aubrey Allicock is this year’s recipient of the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation prize.

The award recognizes extraordinary artistic potential in early-career artists and provides support for continued artistic and professional development. Allicock will receive a $10,000 cash prize, which may be used toward expenses that further artistic and professional growth. He was selected by a committee of Opera Theatre’s leadership.

Allicock began his professional career in 2009 as a member of Opera Theatre’s Gerdine Young Artist program. He then joined the roster at the Metropolitan Opera in 2010 and joined the Opera Theatre as a principal artist in 2011.

He will star in the title role in the world-premiere of Champion at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, co-starring Denyce Graves with music by Terrance Blanchard. Performances run from June 15-30 and tickets go on sale online on Saturday, February 23rd.

Orozco Hailed in Piazolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires"

Luis Alejandro Orozco

One more reason that we love our Reader Submissions is that we end up following careers as they breakthrough with major successes. The latest example is the hunky Luis Alejandro Orozco who thrived in a production of Astor Piazolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires" by the gifted young director John De Los Santos.

The Lexington Herald-Leader wrote:

In the part of the Payador, Maria’s lover and would-be savior, Luis Alejandro Orozco wields his strong, plangent baritone voice with tender artistry and also cuts a figure of rare physical beauty. His interaction with the utility players, effectively undertaken by Andrew McKinnon, Alexis Slocum and Josh Stone, fairly bristle with dramatic truth.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/02/2500437/review-with-maria-lexington-philharmonic.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

You can read the entire review online. 

There are performance remaining today and tomorrow and tickets are available online. Orozco will next perform the role at the Florida Grand Opera on Thursday March 21th, 22nd, 23rd and 24th. He can next be seen as Le Podestat in Bizet's rarely performed opérette Le Docteur Miracle at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music on February 15th - 17th. He will also cover the role of Young Emile in the new Terence Blanchard opera featuring fellowing barihunk Aubrey Allicock, which we've posted previously.

You can hear audio samples of Luis Alejandro Orozco on his website.  

Director John De Los Santos will be joining forces with yet another barihunk when he directs the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers." If you're anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area, you want want to miss this "one night only" performance featuring Jesse Blumberg in Gordon's masterful mini-opera. Tickets are available online at the Fort Mason box office.

Aubrey Allicock to star as boxer Emile Griffith

Aubrey Allicock and Emile Griffith

The Opera Theatre of St. Louis has announced that barihunk Aubrey Allicock will star as bisexual boxer Emile Griffith in the world premiere of Champion on June 15, 2013. The opera was written by jazz great Tereence Blanchard with a libretto by playwright Michael Cristofer and will also star mezzo Denyce Graves.

Aubrey Allicock has become an instant fan favorite at the Opera Theatre where he played Mamoud in The Death of Klinghoffer in 2011 and the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland in 2012. Local opera fans got to know him during his two year stint with the Gerdine Young Artist program where he performed the roles of Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin and the Customs Official in La bohème.

Terence Blanchard: Taxi Driver:

Emile Griffith was a three-time World Welterweight Champion and twice a World Middleweight Champion, fighting from the late 1950s into the 1970s. However, one of his greatest professional triumphs – winning back the Welterweight Championship from Benny “The Kid” Paret in 1962 – was also one of his greatest personal tragedies. The seventeen punches he landed on Paret in seven seconds resulted in not only a knockout, but also a coma from which Paret would never recover. Paret would die ten days later.

The end of the Griffith-Paret fight + Norman Mailer's commentary:

Before that life-changing televised fight, in a room full of press and officials, Paret mocked Griffith repeatedly with a derogatory term for homosexual. Years later, Griffith’s sexuality as a gay man was revealed to the public after he was nearly killed by a gang outside a gay bar in New York. “I kill a man,” Griffith was quoted to have said, “and most people understand and forgive me. I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgiveable sin.” In an inspiring, moving, and painful journey of self-discovery, Champion presents audiences with a great contemporary tragic hero – a man of strength and courage consumed ultimately by rage, regret, and the terrible consequences of his actions.

Today, Griffith requires full time care and suffers from pugilistic dementia.

Reader Submissions: Michael Redding & Aubrey Allicock

Michael Redding

There are few things we love more than our "Reader Submissions." We've been exposed to some of our favorite singers through our readers. We view our readers as our opera scouts who bring us the best talent from across the globe. A reader recently introduced us to two singers, Michael Redding and Aubrey Allicock.

Atlanta native Michael Redding received his Masters in Music from Indiana University after completing his undergraduate work at the North Carolina School of the Arts.  During his time at the School for the Arts he was also a  resident artist with the Piedmont Opera Outreach Program and later a member of the Young Artist Programs of the Utah Festival Opera and the Janiec Opera Company.

He has performed with the Sarasota Opera, Virginia Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Carolina, the Natchez Festival of Music and the New Orleans Opera. This season Redding debuts the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Piedmont Opera and he'll open the 2012-2013 season with the Berliner Philharmoniker in a concert-version of Porgy & Bess under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Aubrey Allicock

Aubrey Allicock received his Masters of Music from Indiana University and holds a Bachelors of Music from Grand Canyon University. While attending Indiana Universersity, Mr. Allicock studied and coached with renowned teachers who include Andreas Poulimenos, Sherrill Milnes and Carol Vaness.

Last season, Allicock joined the Metropolitan Opera roster where he covered the roles of Astarotte in Armida and Marullo in Rigoletto. In 2011, he made his role debut as Mamoud in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer at the Opera Theater of St. Louis. As a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of St. Louis he also performed the roles of Zaretsky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and covered the title role of Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Allicock has performed with the Wexford Festival Opera, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic and  the bass soloist role with the Concerts-Austria in Mozart’s Coronation Mass at the Karlskirche. 

He returns to Opera Theater of St. Louis in 2012 as the Mad Hatter and Duck in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland. In 2012-13 he becomes an Artist Diploma candidate at Juilliard and returns to the Opera Theater of St. Louis.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com