(L-R) Oslo Opera House, Ben Wager, duPont Children's Hospital
In the coming year, American bass-barihunk Ben Wager will be singing in two spectacular buildings, which couldn't be more different.
On January 16th, he'll kick off a new collaboration between OperaDelaware and the
duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware for performances in the stunning atrium of their new health care facility. The series was designed to demonstrate the
transformative healing power of music in health care. The performances
begin at noon, and are open to patients, staff, friends, family, and to
the public. Wager started his career in the chorus of OperaDelaware.
Calixto Bieto's racy Carmen
He then heads to Oslo, Norway to perform Bizet's Carmen in arguably the most stunning opera house in the world, which also has the most perfect acoustics of any theater. He'll be performing in Calixto Bieto's racy and somewhat controversial production of the popular opera, which is famous for a fellatio scene that takes place behind a car and poor Zuniga getting kicked to death, only to be pissed on as he lay dying. That thankless role will be sung by Musa Ngqungwana. Additional cast and ticket information is available online. Wager returns to the U.S. in the Spring to sing Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca with Lyric Opera of Kansas CityfromApril 18th – 26th.
The barihunk-laden production of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night from the Minnesota Opera will be broadcast nationally on PBS on Friday, December 13 at 9pm ET (check local listings). The opera was the first commission of Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative, a landmark program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works.
The Minnesota Opera presented the world premiere of Silent Night in November 2011 with a cast that included barihunks Craig Irvin as Lieutenant Horstmayer, Gabriel Preisser as Lieutenant Gordon, Mike Nyby as William Dale, Liam Bonner as Lieutenant Audebert, Troy Cook as Father Palmer, Joseph Beutel as the British Major, Ben Wager as the General and Andrew Wilkowske as Ponchel.
Silent Night is conducted by Minnesota Opera’s Music Director Michael Christie and staged by Academy Award-winning director Eric Simonson.The opera was recently honored with a regional Emmy nomination.
Quartet from Silent Night:
Silent Night was co-produced with Opera Philadelphia, who presented the work in
February of this year. It now travels to the Fort Worth Opera Festival
on May 4 and 10 with barihunks Dan Kempson, Craig Irvin and Morgan
Smith.
The opera is based on the screenplay Joyeux Noël
by Christian Carion and recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one
of the bloodiest wars in human history. On WWI’s western front,
Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and
negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they share
Christmas and bury their dead.
We couldn't agree more with Nashville Opera's artistic director John Hoomes that Craig Verm and Ben Wager are "aural candy as much as they are eye candy." He should know, as he's cast the two singers in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers that still has performances tonight and Saturday.
Although both singers are well known as two of the sexiest men in opera, they have some serious vocal credentials, as well. Verm received his Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music and graduated cum laude from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He was also a 2006 national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is also a former member of the young artist programs of Santa Fe Opera and Cincinnati Opera.
Wager was a 2008 as a member of the prestigious Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and a 2009 graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. In 2009, he became a member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has sung Panthus in Les Troyens, Doctor Grenvil in La traviata, Angelotti in Tosca, and Escamillo in Carmen.
They both are rapidly emerging as major talents on the international stage, who we'll want to keep our eyes and ears on in the coming years.
Craig Verm, who may have the most perfect chest in opera, just wrapped up another role where he is cast shirtless - Britten's Billy Budd in Chile. So being cast in Nashville in a role that takes place on the beach makes perfect sense.
We love that the Nashville Scene picked up on the sexy production with the headline, "Buff baritones spice up Nashville Opera's production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers: Raiders of the Lost Hunks." They go on to state that The Pearl Fishers might be the first "ladies night out" not unlike a trip to see the Chippendales. We've always maintained the belief at Barihunks that a sexy body will get them in the door, but great singing will bring them back.
We think that the Nashville Opera has it right on both accounts.
Craig Verm is also featured in the month of August in our new charity calendar. He appears along with Michael Mayes, Aaron Sorensen and Timothy McDevitt. You purchase your copy today by clicking HERE. Buy one for a friend, too, and join us in helping out the next generation of great singers.
Mozart's Don Giovanni is a key ingredient in the delectable dessert we call Barihunks. It has dominated our pages more than any other opera and for good reason. The story of a sexy, irresistible, sexual predator and his love starved sidekick just seems to invite the casting of some of the hottest singers in the business.
The Kentucky Opera has stuck to that noble tradition by casting AVA graduate Ben Wager as Don Giovanni and former Lindemann Young Artist Program favorite and Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals winner Donovan Singletary as Leporello. Singletary, an avid fitness buff, is living proof that you can take care of your body and your voice simultaneously. The Florida native has won numerous vocal competitions in addition to the Med Auditions, including the 2011 Vienna Prize by the George London Foundation, 2011 Vienna Prize by the George London Foundation Award, First Prize in the 2010 George London Foundation Competition and First Prize in the Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actors Competition.
Donovan Singletary sings "Deh!...ti ferma..ti placa" from Rosini's Semiramide:
Ben Wager was a 2009 graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Enrico in Anna Bolena and the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, In 2009, he joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he sang Zuniga in Carmen, Angelotti in Tosca and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. In 2011, he portrayed General Audebert in the world premiere of Kevin Putz' Silent Night at Minnesota Opera, which we covered extensively.
Ben Wager
The Kentucky Opera will have two performances of the Mozart classic on February 15 and 17. A couple of other young singers of note in the cast whose careers we've been watching are tenor Taylor Stayton as Don Ottavio and soprano Jan Cornelius as Donna Anna. Tickets are available online.
Regular readers might recall that we generously covered the debut of Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera "Silent Night," when it premiered at the Minnesota Opera in 2011. It featured a veritable army of barihunks including Troy Cook, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager, Michael Nyby and Craig Irvin, all of whom posed for a picture that we posted [see below].
Five of the barihunks from that production are reprising their roles at Opera Philadelphia opening on February 8th and running through February 17th. They include Craig Irvin as Lieutenant Horstmayer, the German commanding officer;
baritone Liam Bonner as Lieutenant Audebert, the conflicted French
commander and his aide-de-camp Ponchel sung by Andrew Wikowske; baritone Gabriel Preisser as Lieutenant Gordon; and, Troy Cook as Father Palmer.
Troy Cook, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager, Michael Nyby and Craig Irvin
Tenor William Burden stars as the drafted opera singer whose voice inspires peace among adversaries and soprano Kelly Kaduce as his love interest, Anna Sørenson. Kaduce also happens to be married to a barihunk in real life, Lee Gregory.
Liam Bonner sings Lieutenant Audebert's "J'ai perdu ta photo"
Silent Night, which is based on the 2005 French film Joyeux Noel, recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history. On World War I’s western front, weapons are laid down when Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they come together to share Christmas and bury their dead.
Gabriel Preisser
Tickets and additional information is available online.
Also in 2014, the Fort Worth Opera Festival will give the regional premiere of the opera.
One of our greatest regrets is that we don't post more Verdi. The great Italian composer wrote many of his baritone roles for fathers, deformed jesters or old kings. Occasionally, we get a sexy Germont père like Dmitri Hvorostovsky, which actually makes sense. If Violetta is a young courtesan (say 24), then her father could easily be a handsome and distinguished late 40s guy.
Rarely do we get to post anything about his ever-popular opera Aida, even though it includes three roles for low voice: Amonasro (king of Ethiopia), Ramfis (the high priest) and the King of Egypt. We were thrilled when we saw Ben Wager would be singing the King of Egypt at the Dallas Opera (even though he's not listed on the cast list on their website - hint, hint).*
The dueling women will be Latonia Moore and Nadia Krasteva and performances will run from October 26 through November 11. Visit their website for tickets and additional performance information.
Grace Bumbry & Simon Estes sing the Aida/Amonasro duet in a 1992 telecast:
* Note: We rarely criticize anything on Barihunks, but omitting cast lists entirely or omitting singers is our pet peeve. Singers invest too much time, money and blood, sweat and tears to remain anonymous. Opera is about singing and opera companies should always post complete cast lists.
Last November, we posted about Kevin Puts' new opera "Silent Night," which was being premiered at the Minnesota Opera. We were all atwitter, because not only did it seem like an amazing new American opera, but it featured a cast with more sexy men than a college water polo team. The cast included Gabriel Preisser, Liam Bonner, Mike Nyby, Andrew Wilkowske and Ben Wager and was named as our "Best Barihunk Feast of 2011" in our year-end wrap up.
Apparently, some other pretty impressive musical minds agreed that the opera was worthy of recognition, as the Pulitzer Prize for "Distinguished Musical Composition by an
American" was awarded to composer Kevin Puts for "Silent Night." The opera was commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis
on November 12, 2011, a company that we have long praised for its heartfelt commitment to premiering new works, especially those by American composers. We would like to add ourselves to the chorus of congratulatory messages from the music world.
The opera. with a libretto by Mark Campbell, recounts the true story of a
spontaneous cease-fire among Scottish, French and Germans during World
War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the
heart. The story was based on the 2005 film "Joyeux Noël."
Composer Kevin Puts
Also nominated as finalists in this category were Tod Machover
for "Death and the Powers," premiered by the Boston Modern Opera
Project in Massachusetts on March 18, 2011
and Andrew Norman for “The Companion Guide to Rome,” premiered
on November 13, 2011 in Salt Lake City.
Gabriel Preisser, Liam Bonner, Mike Nyby, Andrew Wilkowske & Ben Wager
The Minnesota Opera is one of the gems in the landscape of American opera houses. It doesn't always get the national notoriety that it deserves, but within music circles it is known for consistently strong vocal performances and their religious commitment to young artists and living composers.
The Minnesota Opera has premiered Oliver Knussen's "Where the Wild Things Are," Libby Larsen's "Frankenstein," Ricky Ian Gordon's "The Grapes of Wrath," and Bernard Herrmann's sole opera "Wuthering Heights." They've also presented the American premieres of Jonathan Dove's Pinocchio, Poul Ruders' "The Handmaid's Tale," Dominick Argento's "Postcard from Morocco," Rossini's "Armida," Laurent Petitgirard's "The Elephant Man," and Reinhard Keiser's "The Fortunes of King Croesus."
The latest premiere from the Minnesota Opera New Works Initiative is Kevin Puts' "Silent Night," which is based on the screenplay for Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion. The opera recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history. On World War I’s western front, weapons are laid down when the Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they come together to share Christmas and bury their dead. Tenor William Burden, who has a place in barihunk history for starring shirtless opposite of Nathan Gunn in the production that gave rise to the term, stars as the soldier whose voice inspired peace among adversaries – if only for a day.
Canadian Mike Nyby plays Scottish soldier William Dale
The opera contains more sexy men than a World Cup soccer championship. There are four barihunks who have appeared on this site before, including Mike Nyby, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager and Liam Bonner. The world premiere was on Saturday, November 12 and there are additional performances on November 15, 17, 19 and 20, 2011. Visit the Minnesota Opera website for additional performance and ticket information.
Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com
Don't forget that you can support young artists like those performing at the Minnesota Opera by purchasing our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar. All proceeds go to benefit young artists. The calendar features the hottest singers from six countries. Click HERE to purchase your own calendar or make it the perfect holiday gift.
Lee Poulis as Heathcliff, carrying the bones of his beloved Catherine (Photo Tom Wallace Star-Tribune)
The Minnesota Opera is presenting Academy Award-winning composer Bernard Herrmann's opera Wuthering Heights, which is based on Emily Brontë's gothic romance novel. The opera opens on Saturday, April 16 and runs through April 23. The production stars Lee Poulis, who we last saw in this cute little outfit from Bonn, where he was starring in The Elixir of Love.
Lee Poulis in a happier role
This production of Wuthering Heights celebrates the centennial of the composer's birth and is the first major revival of this forgotten masterpiece since it was written in Minneapolis in 1951. Click HERE to read Graydon Royce's article about the opera from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Poulis & Blumberg in Wuthering Heights
The production also happens to be a barihunk lovers delight, as it features two other regulars from this site. Ben Wager, who has been honing his skills in Germany, returns to sing the role of Hindley Earnshaw. Jesse Blumberg, a longtime favorite on this site, plays the neighbor Mr. Lockwood.
New York-based Jesse Blumberg
Fans of Blumberg who can't make the Minnesota performance can see him in New York as part of Bargemusic, a floating concert hall in Brooklyn. Blumberg will be performing Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin on Thursday, April 28 followed by Winterreise on Saturday, April 30. Call (718) 624-2083 for reservations. He will be accompanied by the great Martin Katz. If you're in the New York area this is a performance that you won't want to miss!
Here are the latest production shots from the Dallas Opera's production of Don Giovanni. The cast has three barihunks, Paulo Szot, Mirco Palazzi and Ben Wager. It's also the wonderful John Pascoe production of the opera. There are performance left on October 27 and 30, and November 5 and 7. Visit the Dallas Opera website for tickets and cast information.
D Magazine, the source of everything happening in Dallas, has a wonderful piece on Paulo Szot that mentions this site and celebrates his hunkiness and sex appeal. The article keenly observes how opera has celebrated its divas in the past, but perhaps it time for the guys. Here is the article:
Opera has always had its gentlemen matinee idols and glamour-puss divas (Geraldine Farrar, Maria Jeritza, and, most spectacularly, Maria Callas after her slimming makeover) who have set hearts aflutter. But now there’s even a blog called Barihunks that features buff young singers able and willing to take off their shirts—or more.
Stay tuned, Dallas. Paulo Szot, one of the steamiest barihunks working, is coming to you at the Winspear Opera House, straight from his Tony award-winning performance as Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific at Lincoln Center.[Continue reading HERE].
The Dallas Opera will present its first live outdoor simulcast on October 22 at the new Annette Strauss Square. The simulcast will feature the opening-night performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, including Tony Award-winning barihunk Paulo Szot as the titular seducer. The performance will also feature barihunks Ben Wager and Mirco Palazzi as Masetto and Leporello respectively.
Admission is free and the opera performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Like many arts organizations, Opera Cleveland is facing challenging financial times. So we feel it is incumbent upon us to support their efforts, especially when it includes operas with barihunks and sexy marketing campaigns.
Of course, few operas scream for a hot ad campaign more than Bizet's Pearl Fishers and Opera Cleveland doesn't disappoint. They've also cast two barihunks: Michael Todd Simpson as Zurga and Ben Wager as Nourabad.
Performances will run from September 23 through September 26.
As an aside, it should be noted that the term "barihunk" came into common usage after tenor William Burden and barihunk Nathan Gunn performed the Pearl Fishers shirtless and forever changed opera. Here is a clip of the two men performing the famous duet in Philadelphia in 2004.
We've raved about the marketing team at the Dallas Operain the past and for good reason. They are not only brilliant at marketing their male singers, but their promotions are always some of the most creative in the opera world. Their efforts around marketing the world premiere of Jake Heggie's "Moby-Dick" should be a model for any opera company.
So it was no surprise that their latest effort "Baritones & Beachballs" caught our attention. The company has put together a series of events beginning on July 18th that includes beer and vodka tastings, happy hours, opera lectures and movie screenings. They're also promising a production of Don Giovanni with a triumvirate of barihunks: Paolo Szot as Don Giovanni, Mirco Palazzi as Leporello and Ben Wager as Masetto. Regular readers of this site certainly know that all three singers have appeared on Barihunks before.
Readers may also recall that Paolo Szot canceled his last scheduled performance of Don Giovanni in Detroit. Fortunately for fans of barihunks, Detroit replaced Szot with our "Sexiest Don Giovanni in the World" Randal Turner. If Szot cancels, we hope that Dallas follows the lead of the Michigan Opera Theater and plugs in our favorite Don.
We've heard of "hung like a horse," but an actual horse between your legs deserves a posting on Barihunks. Here is Ben Wager enjoying a little playtime with his horsey.
The AVA graduate has joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he will perform Zuniga in Carmen, Angelotti in Tosca, and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. Additional engagements for 2009-10 include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Mozarteum of Salzburg under Ivor Bolton and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Oregon Symphony, and his debut at Los Angeles Opera as Julian Pinelli in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten.
He is also scheduled debut at Opera Cleveland as Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles, Masetto in Don Giovanni at Dallas Opera, and as Nikitich and Chernikovsky in Boris Godunov.
Barihunks waited eagerly for the production of Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" to open at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. We even promoted it over a year ago when we first heard that Nathan Gunn would play the role of Tarquinius, a favorite at this site. Our excitement and anticipation increased when we learned that the role of Collatinus would be played by emerging barihunk Ben Wager. To top things off, the critical role of the Male Chorus was being played by the hunky William Burden, meaning that the Gunn/Burden partnership was returning that created one of the original barihunk/hunkentenor partnerships when they performed Pearl Fishers together topless.
Here's a fun clip of sexy Ben Wager rehearsing the Ringmaster's Song from Jonathan Dove's "Pinocchio" at the Minnesota Opera. If you want to see the final version, you can visit http://www.mnopera.org/watchlisten.
[Top three photos of Tom Corbeil courtesy of Gotham Opera, with soprano Takesha Meshé Kizart; bottom photo courtesy of SF Opera]
The most common email that I get is someone pitching a barihunk. Nine out of ten times, it's a non-starter and usually someone who belongs on BariChunks, not BariHunks.
So imagine my joy in finding Tom Corbeil in my inbox. It didn't take long for me to realize that I'd already seen him as part of San Francisco Opera's young artist program, Merola. With apologies to La Cieca and her definition of a barihunk that appears at the bottom of this blog, the Merola program seems to be pumping out more barihunks than anyone and they can actually sing! Other Merolinis on this site include fan favorite Daniel Okulitch, Lee Poulis, Ben Wager, Eugene Brancoveanu and emerging superstar John Relyea.
Tom Corbeil was not only a standout at Merola, but he has also won awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council and Musical Merit Foundation. He also studied with the great Virginia Zeani.
His current gig is with the Gotham Chamber Opera in Joseph Haydn’s "L’isola disabitata (Desert Island)." Perhaps the title explains the lusciously revealing outfit (it can't always be Pearl Fishers). The performance is staged by Mark Morris and will run from February 18-28 at John Jay College in New York City. For more information, visit www.gothamchamberopera.org.
[Photo from avaoperablog.typepad.com/avaoperablog]
How would you like to look under your tree and find Ben Wager and Ryan Kuster? These guys are two of the hottest young barihunks and immensely talented singers.
Barihunk fans don't need to worry about a shortage of pulchritudinous low voices when Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Nathan Gunn and Rod Gilfry have to exit the stage. Ben Wager is one more example of the deep bench of hunkiness that is out there in our training centers.
Blogger extraordinaire and grande diva La Cieca first defined the phrase "barihunk" and referenced the Santa Fe Apprentice Program as fertile ground for new talent. Other programs around the country like San Francisco's Merola program and Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts have also produced their fair share. Ben Wager went through both programs and he has the potential to be an instant site favorite.
Wager is a fourth year Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts and spent the summer of 2008 as a member of the prestigious Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera. During the 2008-2009 season, he will sing Enrico in Anna Bolena, Il Vescovo in La fiamma, and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Academy of Vocal Arts, and will join Minnesota Opera to sing the bass roles in the North American premiere of Jonathan Dove's Adventures of Pinocchio.
Future engagements include company debuts with Opera Company of Philadelphia (Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia), Baltimore Opera (Der Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte) and Dallas Opera (Masetto in Don Giovanni). These are three of the top operas at Barihunks. We can't wait for him to advance to the roles of Tarquinius, Papageno and Don Giovanni.
