Barihunk switcheroo for Handel's Orlando

John Chest

Barihunk John Chest, who recently wowed audiences at the San Francisco Opera as Billy Budd, will step back a few centuries as he takes over as Zoroastro for Luca Pisaroni in Il Pomo d’Oro’s tour of Handel’s Orlando.

The four city tour opens on January 9th at the Teatro Ristori in Verona, before moving on to Paris (13th), Essen (19th) and Madrid (26th). The all-star cast also features Max Emanuel Cencic in the title role, Kathryn Lewek as Angelica, Francesca Ascioti as Medoro, and Nuria Rial as Dorinda. The tour is set to be recorded for a later CD release.

Other upcoming performances for the singer include Papageno in Mozart's Die Zäuberflöte at the Teatro Santiago de Chile from April 16-20 and an all-Mozart concert with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the baton of conductor Raphaël Pichon on May 23.

Barihunks galore in Hamburg's Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy; Livestream of Don Giovanni from Rome

André Schuen and Kyle Ketelson in Don Giovanni (© Brinkhoff/Mögenburg)

The Hamburg State Opera kicked off its Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy of opera with the premiere of Don Giovanni on October 20th featuring the barihunk trilogy of Andrè Schuen in the title role, Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello and Alexander Tsymbalyuk as the Commendatore. Additional performances are on October 23, 26, 29 and November 3, 6 and 9.

On October 22, they will add Così fan tutte to the rotation with barihunk John Chest as Guglielmo.  Additional performances will be on October 22, 27, 31 and November 2. The final opera will be Le Nozze di Figaro, which opens on November 1, with additional performances on November 5, 8 and 12. The cast features barihunks Christoph Pohl as the Count and Wilhelm Schwinghammer as Figaro.

Tickets for all three operas are available online.

Alessio Arduini as Don Giovanni in Rome

If you can't make it to an Hamburg or another opera house featuring Don Giovanni, you can watch a performance from the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma on Oct. 26, 2019 on OperaVision. The cast includes barihunk Alessio Arduini in the title role, along wtih Vito Priante, Emanuele Cordaro, Antonio Di Matteo, Juan Francisco Gatell, Maria Grazia Schiavo, Salome Jicia, and Marianne Croux. The livestream may not play in some countries.

John Chest simultaneously singing two English language operas in Germany

John Chest as Billy Budd in Berlin

American barihunk John Chest, who just finished a successful run as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Philadelphia, is back in his home base of Germany where he's pulling off an amazing feat of operatic stamina: He'll be singing two English language operas in Germany simultaneously!

Chest opened on May 26th in the title character of Britten's Billy Budd at the Deutsche Oper Berlin before heading off to the Semperoper Dresden to sing the role of the wealthy stockbroker Nick Carraway in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby tonight, tomorrow and on June 1st. Hunkentenor Peter Lodahl is singing jay Gatsby and tickets are available online. He then heads back to Berlin for Billy Budd (where the Barihunks team will be in attendance!). To top it off, he also became a father for the first time this year along with his wife soprano Layla Claire.

Chest originally started working on Billy Budd back in 2008 as an apprentice artist and chorus member at the Santa Fe Opera. He made his role debut in 2014 in Berlin in a highly-acclaimed performance, which was the first performance of the piece at the Deutsche Oper. The current production features Gidon Saks as John Claggert, Richard Croft as Edward Vere, Simon Pauly as Donald and fellow barihunk Seth Carico as Mr. Redburn. Tickets are available online.

John Chest at Billy Budd and Gidon Saks as the evil John Claggert

After he wraps us Billy Budd, the jet-setting baritone heads off to the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Chest, where he'll represent the U.S. along with baritone Anthony Clark Evans. He'll be singing more American music, as he plans on performing Aaron Copland’s “Old America Songs.”

Other barihunks in the competition include bass Dominic Barberi representing England, bass Roberto Lorenzi representing Italy and calendar model Iurii Samoilov reprenting the Ukraine.

The Song Prize rounds will be broadcast in the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (June13 -16) with the song prize final live on Radio 3 In Concert (Friday, June 16) and on BBC Four presented by Petroc Trelawny and American soprano Angel Blue (Saturday, June 17).The four concerts at St David’s Hall, Cardiff will be broadcast on BBC Four (June13 - 16). The Grand Final will be broadcast live on both BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 on Sunday, June 18.