The creative young opera company Ensemble Parallele is mounting Philip Glass' opera Orphee. Romanian barihunk Eugene Brancoveanu is singing the title role opposite the Eurydice of Susannah Biller, who happens to be married to barihunk Austin Kness, who is also in the cast. For additional cast and performance information, visit the Ensemble Parallele website.
There will be an evening performance on February 26 and a matinee on February 27 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Last year, this young opera company mounted a Wozzeck that was one of the most compelling operatic experiences in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2007, Brancoveanu made a stunning debut with the company in Lou Harrison's "Young Caesar." He was one of the first barihunks to show off more than his vocal acumen on stage when he appeared nude in the Rape of Lucretia with the Merola Opera Program.
Here is some rehearsal footage of the upcoming production:
Joshua Kosman, the always insightful critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, recently spoke with John Relyea about his career and penchant for devilish roles. Relyea will be performing in Gounod's Faust from June 5 to July 1 at the San Francisco Opera.
Local opera lovers with longish memories may recall bass-baritone John Relyea - from his days in the Merola Opera Program and as an Adler Fellow - as a young beanpole with a boyish demeanor and a powerful, dark-hued voice.
The voice is still there, and still deepening. But these days, at 38, Relyea has left boyishness behind in favor of an imposing physical presence that - even in amiable conversation - conveys just a hint of menace.
Joining Relyea in the cast will be two other singers worthy of barihunk status, Brian Mulligan, who plays the army officer Valentin, and Austin Kness, who plays the student Wagner.
I have to admit to being smitten with our last post, Massimiliano Gagliardo. Him singing with Kwiecien in Krakow has to rival any of the hot Giovanni-Leporello combinations involving Schrott, Maltman, Keenlyside, Gilfry and d'Arcangelo that we've seen in recent years. Gagliardo made me realize that there are an abundance of hot, young barihunks singing in and around Italy who this site has missed.
So, imagine my joy when my in-box had a photo of Vittorio Prato this morning? Prato was singing the role of Wagner in Faust to the Mephistopheles of fellow barihunk Erwin Schrott in Valencia. This tall, handsome stud actually studied piano and harpsichord, but his vocal studies in Verona with the great bass-baritone Ivo Vinco, husband of the blazing mezzo Fiorenza Cossotto, led him to a career in opera.
Prato won the “Mattia Battistini” International Competition and took second prize at the International Competition of Sacred Music in Rome. This led to a number of engagements including the title role of Monteverdi's Orfeo, Masetto in Don Giovanni and Gugliemo in Cosi.
It's also interesting how the opera Faust is becoming a vehicle for casting barihunks, as witnessed by the recent performance at Minnesota Opera with Kyle Ketelsen and Lucas Meachem, and the eagerly awaited triumvirate of Austin Kness, John Relyea and Brian Mulligan at the San Francisco Opera in the summer of 2010.
[From top to bottom: John Relyea, Austin Kness, Brian Mulligan, Marco Vratogna, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Greer Grimsley]
The San Francisco Opera announced its 2009-10 season today and hell is going to be really hot. They are performing Gounod's Faust with three barihunks on the stage in the same night! This may be a Barihunks first. The barihunk with the prettiest eyes in all of opera, John Relyea, will be singing Méphistophélès, Brian Mulligan will be singing the Valentin, and Austin Kness (who was a sexy Don Giovanni) will be singing Wagner.
Also burning up the stage in San Francisco will be Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Il Trovatore, Greer Grimsley in Salome and the devilishly hot Marco Vratogna as the evil Iago in Verdi's Otello.
San Francisco under David Gockley always has ravishingly beautiful sopranos, so it's nice to see some barihunks in his casts. We all know that they love hot guys in San Francisco, so the seats should be full and the opera glass rentals sold out.
