Barihunk bliss in Seattle's Eugene Onegin

Michael Adams, John Moore and David Leigh

If you want to start off the new year with some barihunk bliss then you might want to head to the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle Opera will be rotating barihunks as the title character in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin running from January 11-25 with John Moore and Michael Adams both taking on the charming, but jaded character.

Also in the cast will be bass-barihunk David Leigh as Prince Gremin, who sings the beautiful aria "Lyubvi vse vozrasty pokorny," where he tells Onegin how love can change a life at any age, and how he is madly in love with Tatiana.

The remainder of the cast includes Colin Ainsworth as Lenski, Marjukka Tepponen and Marina Costa-Jackson as Tatyana, Melody WIlson as Olga, Meredit Arwady as Filipievna, Margaret Gawrysiak as Larina and Martin Bakari and Triquet. Tickets are available online.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Eugene Onegin at The Met:

Tchaikovsky based his opera on Alexander Pushkin's s novel, which was written in verse and is considered a classic of Russian literature. The idea of setting the story to music was suggested to the composer by the great Russian mezzo-soprano Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya. Tchaikovsky arranged much of the verse himself into the libretto with help from his friend Konstantin Shilovsky.

The opera was first performed in Moscow in 1879 and has remained popular since its premiere.

A number of barihunks have sung Onegin to great acclaim, including Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Mariusz Kwiecien, Nathan Gunn, Simon Keenlyside, Artur Rucinski, Peter Mattei, Paulo Szot, Tobias Greenhalgh, Christopher Maltman, Günter Papendell and Franco Pomponi.   

Other companies performing the opera in 2020 include the Norwegian Opera, Rome Opera, Finnish National Opera, Israeli Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Munich Opera Festival and Opera Australia.        

“The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” wins Grammy for best Opera Recording

Ed Parks as Steve Jobs (Photo courtesy of Santa Fe Opera)

“The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” by composer Mason Bates walked away with the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. The recording featured two barihunks, Edward Parks and Kelly Markgraf, along with Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu and conductor Michael Christie with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.

Daniel Kushner in his "Critic's Choice" review in Opera News wrote of the opera, that it "may well become a staple in the twenty-first century’s operatic canon...it’s the work’s subtle nuances in structure, text and the musical treatment of the characters that are most impactful—and may point to where the future of opera is headed."

Every nominee for Best Opera Recording this year featured a barihunk. The other nominees were:

• John Adams, Doctor Atomic, featuring barihunk Aubrey Allicock, Gerald Finley, Julia Bullock and Brindley Sherratt. 
• 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.

There are two performances of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs coming up on the West Coast. The Seattle Opera will perform the piece from February 23 through March 9th with John Moore as Steve Jobs with Nicole Paiement conducting. The San Francisco Opera will present the opera from June 20 through July 3r with Edward Parks as Steve Jobs and Michael Christie conducting.

Bari-hunky Bizet in Met's Carmen

Kyle Ketelsen and Michael Todd Simpson as Escamillo

Bizet’s Carmen opens at the Met on January 19 with mezzo Sophie Koch making her role debut as the title character. But the big news for barihunk lovers is that both Escamillos, Moralès and Dancäire are all singers who have been featured on this site.

Barihunks Kyle Ketelsen and Michael Todd Simpson will take on the role Escamillo, while John Moore will sing Moralès and Malcolm MacKenzie will perform Dancäire. John Moore just set the opera world abuzz with his stunning (and nude) performance as Jan Nyman in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Breaking the Waves in both Philadelphia and New York.

Performances will run on January 19, 23, 27, 31 and February 3, 7, 11, 15 and 18. Tickets are available online.

Kyle Ketelsen sings the Torreador's Song from Carmen:

Michael Todd Simpson stepped in on Christmas Eve at The Met as Jaufré Rudel for Eric Owens in Kaija Saariaho’s critically acclaimed L’Amour de Loin. He is becoming a regular with the company, performing in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon and Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. From April 7-9, he'll perform the Pirate King in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance in a cast that includes Stephanie Blythe as Ruth, Andrew Stenson as Frederic and barihunk Tobias Greenhalgh as Samuel.

This Fall, Ketelsen will return to the role of Escamillo at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In between New York and Madrid, he'll sing Golaud in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Aix-en-Provence, France

PROTOTYPE Festival to present Breaking the Waves

John Moore in Opera Philadelphia's Breaking the Waves

The PROTOTYPE Festival, along with Beth Morrison Projects will present Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Breaking the Waves on January 6, 7, and 9 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

The piece premiered at Opera Philadelphia premiered on September 22 at Opera Philadelphi with the barihunk John Moore as the main protagonist Jan Nyman. He will reprise the role in with the PROTOTYPE Festival along with co-star Kiera Duffy as Bess McNeill. Singing the role of the Church Councilman is Marcus DeLoach, who has also appeared on this site.

The opera was a co-commission between Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects. In Philadelphia, the opera had a "for mature audiences" warning as both leads appear nude.

The opera is based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. The libretto tells the story of Bess McNeill (sung by Kiera Duffy), a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan, a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, her marital vows are put to the test as he encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell him of her sexual activities. He insists that the stories will feel like they are making love together and keep him alive. Bess’s increasing selflessness leads to a finale of divine grace, but at great cost.

Tickets for all performances are available online. 

The PROTOTYPE Festival will also present the world premiere of Matt Marks' Mata Hari with barihunk Joshua Jeremiah, the New York premiere of David Lang's Anatomy Theater, the New York premiere of M. Lamar and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's Funeral Doom Spiritual, the world premiere of Sarah Small's Secondary Dominance, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ newest project Silent Voices and Julian Wachner's Rev.24.

Order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar TODAY, 

so it arrives before the New Year.  

 

Vittorio Prato

 

John Moore makes two company debuts

John Moore

Barihunk John Moore made his company debut yesterday at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, as Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride. The all-star cast directed by James Darrah includes Alexandra Deshorties in the title role, William Berger as Oreste and Colin Ainsworth as Pylade.

Iphigénie en Tauride, based on the Greek myth about a priestess facing the aftermath of her family’s violent history, is often considered the culmination of Gluck’s life ambition to achieve a perfect union of music and drama. There are performances remaining on March, 7, 9, 11 and 13 and tickets are available online.

Thomas Allen sings Oreste's aria "Dieux qui me poursuivez":

He then heads to the Florida Grand Opera to make his company debut as Tadeusz in Mieczysław Weinberg’s 1968 opera The Passenger. The opera was banned in the Soviet Union and was first premiered in 2010 at the Bregenz Festival. Weinberg, a Soviet composer of Jewish-Polish heritage who died in 1996, never saw a performance of this lost masterpiece in his lifetime. 

John Moore sings Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville:

The opera revolves around an encounter between two women – one a former Auschwitz guard and the other a former prisoner. Melrose plays Tadeusz, a camp inmate and violinist who defies the Commandant byordered by performing some meloncholy music by Bach rather than a frolicking waltz. Needless to say, things don't end well for Tadeusz.

Performances run from April 2-9 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Baritone John Moore added to Carnegie Hall program

Baritone John Moore

Barihunk John Moore has been added to this season's Carnegie Hall lineup. He'll be joining the Met Chamber Ensemble's concert on Sunday, December 13 at 5:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall featuring conductor James Levine.

Moore will perform Poulenc's Le Bal masque (A Masked Ball), in a program that also includes Pierre Boulez's Dérive 1 and Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Tickets are available online.

Poulenc's Le Bal masque was commissioned by the Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles for a 1932 concert at the Théâtre de Hyères. The text is taken from Max Jacob's 1921 anthology Laboratoire central. The score calls for a solo baritone, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, piano, violin, cello, and percussion with the melodies passed from instrument to instrument, which adds Poulenc's trademark musical wit to the text. 

On December 16th, he'll be Philadelphia performing Bach's Ich habe genug, BWV 82 at St. Mark's Church with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Upcoming stage performances for Moore include his debut with the Seattle Opera in February 2016 as Count Almavivia in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (with fellow barihunk Aubrey Allicock as Figaro), his debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in July 2016 as Adario in Rameau's Les indes galantes as well as Tadeusz in Weinberg's The Passenger with Florida Grand Opera, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and Figaro in Opera Omaha's production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.

You can listen to John Moore's Figaro HERE.

Time is running out to order your 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, featuring 18 of the sexiest men in opera. ORDER TODAY by clicking below (you won't regret it!)

 

Seattle Opera keeps barihunk tradition alive in new era

German bass-barihunk Andreas Bauer

The Speight Jenkins era at the Seattle Opera is officially over, as incoming General Director Aidan Lang has announced his first full season, which will be presented in 2015-16. The good news is that the company's long-standing commitment to barihunks is in tact with some of the world's sexiest baritones and basses in all of their casts!

The six season opera will include a new production, a world premiere, and two of the repertory's greatest operas that have never been seen before in Seattle, Verdi's Nabucco and Donizetti's Maria Stuarda. Lang is also maintaining Seattle Opera's great Wagnerian tradition by presenting The Flying Dutchman with barihunk Greer Grimsley. He'll be alternating the role with Alfred Walker.

Nabucco will feature the Seattle debuts of barihunks Andreas Bauer and Christian Van Horn alternating the role of the High Priest Zaccaria, in a cast that also includes Gordon Hawkins in the title role and Mary Elizabeth Williams in the fiendishly difficult role of his daughter Abigaille.

Morgan Smith (left) and John Moore (right)

The company is also presenting the world premiere of Jack Perla's An American Dream, which resulted from the company's story telling initiative, the Belonging(s) Project. The World War II based libretto tells the story of strangers bound together after a Japanese American family is forcibly removed from where they live on an island in Puget Sound, and the new residents slowly piece together the history of their home. Barihunk Morgan Smith will sing the role of Jim, an American soldier married to Eva, a German Jew who has fled the Nazis and moved to the Pacific Northwest.

Morgan Smith will also alternate the role of Count Almaviva in a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with fellow barihunk John Moore. The cast also includes barihunk Aubrey Allicock as Figaro, a role he will rotate with Shenyang.

Sarah Larsen with  Michael Todd Simpson, Steven LaBrie, Joseph Lattanzi, and Colin Ramsey in the Seattle Opera's The Consul modeling Barihunk tee shirts (Photo by Elise Bakketun)

Other barihunks appearing with the company are Michael Todd Simpson as Cecil in Maria Stuarda and Keith Phares and  Brett Polegato rotating the role of Zurga in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. The production will also include the Seattle Opera debut of Jonathan Lemalu as Nourabad. The female leads in the Donizetti will be Christine Rice and Joyce El-Khoury as the doomed queen, while Mary Elizabeth Williams and Keri Alkema sing Queen Elizabeth I, her hated rival.

Tickets and additional cast information are available online.