NSFW: Bernard Lang's new Der Golem with barihunk duo

A scene from Der Golem & Raymond Ayers

The world premiere of Bernhard Lang's new opera Der Golem took place at the Nationaltheater Mannheim on April 16, 2016 with barihunks Steven Scheschareg and Raymond Ayers joined by the sexy countertenor Alin Deleanu. The opera, which features nudity, is breaking traditional norms of the genre, with experimental film (or video libretto) taking the place of a written libretto. Lang didn't want the piece defined by literary parameters, but by optical mechanisms.

The opera is punctuated by two nude men in cone shaped hats and a nude character who crawls out of the prompter's box. Along the way, the 80-minute opera deals with dissociative identity disorder and mirroring, artificial intelligence and reincarnation. The piece is written for soloists, chorus, jazz trio and orchestra.

The video libretto by Peter Missotten for Bernhard Lang's Der Golem

In Gustav Meyrink's fantastic novel, the Golem is a kind of Doppelgänger of the people and completely derails the life of the Jewish jeweler Athanasius Pernath, sung by Raymond Ayers. Almost all of the soloists perform multiple roles (except for Ayers and soprano Marie-Belle Sandis as Miriam).

Countertenor Alin Deleanu

Nicolae Bretan, John Casken and Eugen d'Albert have also written operatic versions of the Golem legend. There is also a German silent film called Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (The Golem: How He Came into the World), which is worth watching.

There are additional performances on April 21 and 28.Tickets and additional information is available online.

Raymond Ayers in sexy Carmen and opera based on Bjork movie

Dagmar Hesse as Selma Ježková and Raymond Ayers as Bill Houston

Remarkably, we haven't featured American barihunk Raymond Ayers on our site. The singer studied at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He's currently a member of the ensemble at the Theater Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, not far Dortmund, Dusselfdorf and Essen.

Perhaps we overlooked Raymond Ayers because our German sources for Barihunks are located in Berlin and Munich. It looks like we need to find some sources in the Western regions of Deutschland.  Over the last four years Ayers has sung a variety of roles with the company, including Germont in La traviata, Jupiter in Orpheus in der Unterwelt, Ottokar in Der Freischutz, Silvio in Pagliacci, La Dandini in La Cenerentola, Chucho in the European premier of Salsi Puedes,  Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte. 

Jaclyn Bermudez as Micaëla and Raymond Ayers as Moralès

He's currently playing a very sexy Moralès in Bizet's Carmen, with performances remaining on June 28, July 3 and July 10. In the photos, he almost looks like Joseph De Rocher from Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking.

He's also performing  in Paol Ruder's one-act opera, “Selma Jezkova,” based on the 2000 Lars von Trier film musical “Dancer in the Dark,” starring Bjork. The opera premiered in September 2010 at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, directed by Kaspar Holten and had its U.S. premiere in July 2011 at the Rose Theater in New York City.

Tickets for both shows are available online. You can listen to sound clips of Raymond Ayers at his website.