Barihunk Tobias Greenhalgh will make his role debut as Silvio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with the Boston Lyric Opera this Fall. It will be the first time that the company has performed the classic verismo opera.
The opera will be performed at the DCR Steriti Memorial Ice Rink, where the company has previously performed Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. Greenhalgh will be joined by tenor Rafael Rojas as Canio and Lauren Michelle as Nedda. Performances will run from September 27 – October 6, 2019 and tickets are available online.
Tobias Greenhlagh in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin:
This season, Greenhalgh is joining the ensemble at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen where his roles will include Count Almavivia in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in June 2020, Valentin in Gounod's Faust running from April-June 2010 and Ottokar in Weber's Der Freischütz, also running form April-June 2020. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Brandon Cedel, Duncan Rock and David McFerrin (Photos from artist's websites)
Boston Lyric Opera’s season of rebels, dissenters and tales of strong women continues with Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, The entire series of operas is being led by women directors.
The Rape of Lucretia will feature a trio of barihunks, led by Duncan Rock as Tarquinius, Brandon Cedel as Collatinus and David McFerrin as Junius. They'll be joined by Kelley O’Connor as Lucretia, Margaret Lattimore as
Bianca, Sara Womble as Lucia, and Jesse Darden and Antonia Tamer as the Male Chorus and Female
Chorus. The opera runs from March 11-17 at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in Boston's Fort Point Neighborhood. Tickets are available online.
Brandon Cedel & Duncan Rock rehearsing (Photo: BLO)
Duncan Rock created a sensation when he performed the role of Tarquinius with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in a performance that was broadcast worldwide. He also performed the role at the Deutsche Oper Berlin to great acclaim. Rock made his U.S. stage debut the Boston Lyric Opera in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2015.
The opera tells the story of Lucretia, who is raped by the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus, ruler of Rome. Unable to live with the shame, Lucretia commits suicide. The action of the opera is commented on throughout by a Male and Female Chorus who occupy another dimension, at times narrating the story and at times voicing the thoughts of the different characters. The opera was not particularly well received by audiences or critics at the time, but the chamber opera has grown in popularity in recent years.
Duncan Rock rehearsing Tarquinius (Photo courtesy BLO)
Brandon Cedel is making his role debut as Collatinus. David McFerrin has been a regular at the Boston Lyric Opera, appearing as Ferguson in Burke & Hare, an Officer in Glass' In The Penal Colony, Kuligin in Katya Kabanova, Captain McFarlane in Lizzie Borden and Yamadori in Madam Butterfly.
Did you know that Duncan Rock started his musical career playing the
bagpipes, and that he also played basketball as well as the bass?
The Boston Lyric Opera has announced their 2018-2019, which focuses on operas about strong women, inspired by stories of women, and led by women directors. They also add a few barihunks to the mix!
The season kicks off from October 12-21 with Rossini's classic opera The Barber of Seville, directed by Rosetta Cucchi and starring barihunk Matthew Worth in the title role alongside the amazing mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Rosina. The cast is rounded out by Jesus Garcia as Almaviva and David Crawford as Basilio.
Next up is the world premiere of Tod Machover’s and Simon Robson’s Schoenberg in Hollywood, part of the company's New Works commissioning series. The opera is about the composer’s struggle to
assimilate into American culture after fleeing Nazi Europe and maintaining his artistic integrity
amidst the lure of celebrity.
Brandon Cedel and David Cushing
That will be followed by Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, a timely opera for the #MeToo era, as rape and issues about male sexual aggression were not discussed when the composer wrote the piece. For that reason, the opera’s sensitivity to Lucretia’s experience, and
her husband’s response is both prescient and uncomfortably
familiar. The opera will feature the barihunk trio of Duncan Rock as Tarquinius, Brandon Cedel as Collatinus, and David McFerrin as Junius. They'll be joined by Kelley O’Connor as Lucretia, Nancy Maultsby as Bianca and Jesse Darden and Antonia Tamer as the Male Chorus and Female Chorus. Performances run from March 11-17, 2019.
Duncan Rock sings Tarquinius' aria from The Rape of Lucretia:
The season ends with Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid’s Tale directed by Anne Bogart and with new orchestrations. The story centers around Offred, one woman out of many who were stripped of her name, identity, and personhood by a cruel and oppressive government regime. The seem also seems prescient for today's political climate.
The piece features bass-barihunk David Cushing, along with Jennifer Johnson Cano as Offred, Caroline Worra as Aunt Lydia, Maria Zifchak as Serena Joy and Matthew DiBattista as The Doctor.
Additional information about the season can be found at www.BLO.org.
Jesse Blumberg and Craig Colclough (Photo: Liza Voll)
The world premiere of Boston Lyric Opera's The Nefarious,
Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare may be about missing cadavers, but it's certainly not missing its fair share of barihunks. Jesse Blumberg and Craig Colclough portray the title characters Mr. Burke and Mr. Hare, while David McFerrin sings Ferguson and David Cushing is Donald, one of the unfortunate victims of the duo.
Set in 1820s Scotland – when the city’s famed schools of anatomy faced a
severe shortage of fresh cadavers for their lectures – the opera
follows William Burke, William Hare and their accomplices who discover a
money-making opportunity by murdering disenfranchised citizens and
selling their corpses to Dr. Robert Knox at his renowned medical
academy.
David McFerrin and David Cushing
The chamber opera will be the first full-length piece in Boston Lyric Opera's New Works series. Performances will be staged at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, an
historic building whose neoclassical Victorian style reflects the
story’s 19th century time period, and whose circular interior recalls
early operating theaters where observers watched medical procedures.
We also hear that Jesse Blumberg performs the climactic scene in nothing but skivvies.
The cast also includes tenors William Burden and Michael Slattery, sopranos Marie McLaughlin, Michelle Trainor and Antonia Tamer, as well as mezzo-sopranos Emma Sorenson and Heather Gallagher. Performances are on November 8, 9 and 12 (matinee and evening) and tickets are available online.
Brad Baron from Barihunks Calendar and Book
Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for
purchase HERE.
In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book
this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the
calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!
Barihunks Jesse Blumberg and David McFerrin will be featured in the world premiere of composer Julian Grant and librettist Mark Campbell’s The Nefarious,
Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare. The opera will be the first full-length piece in Boston Lyric Opera's New Works series.
Set in 1820s Scotland – when the city’s famed schools of anatomy faced a
severe shortage of fresh cadavers for their lectures – the opera
follows William Burke, William Hare and their accomplices who discover a
money-making opportunity by murdering disenfranchised citizens and
selling their corpses to Dr. Robert Knox at his renowned medical
academy.
The opera will be staged at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, an historic building whose neoclassical Victorian style reflects the story’s 19th century time period, and whose circular interior recalls early operating theaters where observers watched medical procedures.
The cast also includes tenor William Burden and soprano Marie McLaughlin.
The upcoming season will also include Puccini's Tosca, Kurt Weill's Three Penny Opera and Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Attila Dobak in The Merry Widow (left) at Boston Lyric Opera
Jesse Blumberg and David McFerrin, two barihunks who we've frequently featured on this site, just performed in Lehar's The Merry Widow with the Boston Lyric Opera. Not featured in the credits was another barihunk, Attila Dobak, who was in a minor role, but has major barihunk chops.
Dobak was born in Budapest, Hungary and studied clarinet when he was seven and piano when he was twelve. He was inspired to study voice after watching the 3 Tenors Concert with Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. He started studying voice at age sixteen and eventually was accepted into the Béla Bartok Conservatory of Music in Budapest, where he majored in Classic Voice and Opera. He also has a Masters Degree in Marketing & Communications from Corvinus University in Budapest.
He went on to study at the Longy School of Music at Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Longy and Opera North (where he was a young artist), he performed Bartolo and Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Gideon March in Mark Adamo's Little Women.
In 2014, Dobak was invited to perform at the Miami Summer Music Festival
by Michael Rossi, the conductor of the Washington National Opera, where
he sang Figaro in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. He also appeared on NBC giving a solo opera performance with the Miami Summer Music Festival Orchestra.
He is currently based in Boston, where he is a member of the Boston Lyric Opera. In addition to The Merry Widow, he appeared in their production of Puccini's La boheme.
His goal in life is to become an opera/crossover singer and you can find examples of him singing opera on his YouTube page, as well as covers of Bruno Mars, Josh Groban and Broadway musicals.
Barihunk David McFerrin will play The Officer in Boston Lyric Opera's performance of Philip Glass’ In the Penal Colony at the Cyclorama at Boston Center for the Arts from November 11-15, 2015. The production will be directed by the innovative R. B. Schlather and also features tenor Neal Ferreira as the The Visitor and Yury Yanowsky as The Soldier.
In the Penal Colony is a one-act, three-character chamber opera, which Glass dubbed a “pocket opera” for its small cast and musical ensemble. In the Penal Colony is in English and plays out in 16 scenes and features a libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer.
The opera is based on the 1914 Franz Kafka short story: a pitch-black fable about crime and a very unusual punishment. In the Penal Colony tells the story of The Officer and The Visitor -- and an ominous machine designed to punish prisoners for their crimes. The opera debuted in 2000 at ACT Theater in San Francisco in a co-production with Chicago’s Court Theater. It premiered in New York City the following year and has subsequently had several productions in Europe and Australia, but hasn’t been seen in the U.S. for 14 years.
This isn't Boston Lyric Opera's first foray into Glass' operas, as they produced a highly popular version of his Akhnaten in 1999.
Tickets and additional information are available online.
MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGER FROM 9 COUNTRIES.
Andrew Garland and Brandon Cedel (left), Jonathan Beyer and Cedel (center) and a rehearsal break
The Boston Lyric Opera kicked off their new season with a production of Puccini's La bohème. The cast features the barihunk trio of Jonathan Beyer as Marcello, Brandon Cedel as Colline and Andrew Garland as Schaunard. Beyer and Cedel are a couple offstage, making one wonder what is really going on in that Parisian garret.
Directed by Rosetta Cucchi, the opera is updated to the 1968 Paris student revolts that reflected generational unrest and supported strikes that brought the city to its knees, this production is influenced by the spirit of defiance embodied in French New Wave films (particularly Jean-Luc Godard’s “Masculin Féminin”) and the mod clothing inspired by London fashion that upended the city’s haute couture reputation. Boston Lyric Opera's new La Bohème places Puccini’s familiar story of bohemian artists fuled by idealism and passionate love in a graffiti-laden student flat, the revolutionaries’ gathering place Café Momus, and alongside a barricade erected during the student riots. Audio recordings from the era and from the riots are an integral part of the production’s sound design.
Beyer is returning to the company after having performed Figaro in their 2012 production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Garland sang Schaunard in the company's 2007 production of La bohème and Cedel is making his company debut. Also in the cast are Jesus Garcia as Rodolfo and the stunning Kelly Kaduce as Mimì.
There are remaining performances on October 4, 7, 9 and 11. Tickets and addition production information is available online.
Our 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar is now on sale. Order today by clicking below. All proceeds will go to the creation of the Foundation for the Advancement of Baritones (FAB).
Andrew Garland has been one of our favorite lieder/song recitalists ever since we heard his amazing CD of American composers, which is still available for sale. The CD features music of Tom Cipullo, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman and Stephen Paulus and remains one of the best recording of American songs.
On August 7th, Garland will turn his attention to German language lieder in a Schubertiade at the Spire Center for the Performing Arts in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Garland will perform selections from both Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin, as well as selected songs. World's End Trio with guest musicians will also perform the Trout Quintet.
Andrew Garland's American Portraits recital (Complete):
You can catch him on the operatic stage beginning on October 2nd when he performs Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème with the Boston Lyric Opera. The cast includes the real-life barihunk couple of Jonathan Beyer as Marcello and Brandan Cedel as Colline.
A season that was dubbed "A Season of Unforgettable Leading Ladies" by the Boston Lyric Opera, ironically included one of the most anticipated US debuts of a male singer - in an opera named for a male singer. Fans of Aussie barihunk Duncan Rock have been watching his meteoric rise across the pond since 2012 when he generated international buzz appearing in the gender bending "Don Giovanni: The Opera" at London's Heaven. Those clamoring for his US debut were thrilled when the BLO announced a year ago that they were casting him as Don Giovanni. However, there were a few chuckles in the industry when the beefcake singer was lumped together in a marketing campaign with three leading ladies.
We have requested rehearsal photos from the company, but while we're waiting we have the above photos which were recently taken in New York and Boston.
U.K. fans have been enjoying The Rock at Glynebourne and English National Opera in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Billy Budd, Puccini's La boheme, Bizet's Carmen and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea. He also appeared as Billy Bigelow in Carousel at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Marcello in Leed's Rigoletto, Empleado inglés in Britten's Death in Venice in Madrid and Marullo in Rigoletto at the Royal Opera in London. In January, he sang Don Giovanni with the HET Sinfonieorkest in The Netherlands in an intimate production that placed the audience on the stage and around the orchestra.
Performances at the BLO will run from May 1-10, 2015 and tickets are on sale at the BLO website. The remainder of the cast includes the always entertaining Kevin Burdette as Leporello, David Cushing as Masetto, Jennifer Johnson Cano as Donna Elvira, Meredith Hanson as Donna Anna, Steven Humes as the Commendatore, John Bellemer as Don Ottavio and Chelsea Basler as Zerlina.
We recently shared a little bit of trivia about Duncan Rock, which was
that he started his musical career playing the bagpipes. The HET
Sinfonieorkest added that he played basketball and the bass. Let's see what we learn about him during his U.S. run.
Fans of Duncan Rock in the U.K. will get their last chance to see him perform this year, when he joins soprano Anna Devin, tenor Joshua Mills and mezzo Kathryn Rudge for Mozart's Requiem tonight at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
He then heads off to Madrid to take on two roles in Willy Decker's production of Britten's Death in Venice at the Teatro Real. This will be his debut with the company. An additional highlight of this show will be Anthony Roth Costanzo singing the voice of Apollo. Performances run from December 4-23 and tickets are available online.
Duncan Rock as Don Giovanni
Fans in the U.S. are eagerly anticipating his American stage debut when he's featured at the
Boston Lyric Opera in
the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni next season. Performances will run from May 1-10, 2015 and tickets are now on sale at the BLO website. The remainder of BLO's upcoming
season includes Verdi’s La Traviata, Frank Martin’s The Love Potion and Janáček’s Kátya Kabanová.
A little bit of trivia about Duncan Rock, that readers may not know, is that he started his musical career playing the bagpipes.
If want to enjoy an entire year of nineteen of opera's sexiest men, order you 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar today by clicking on the LULU button below.
The highly-anticipated U.S. stage debut of British Barihunk sensation Duncan Rock will occur not far from another rock, Plymouth Rock. The Boston Lyric Opera has snagged the charismatic fan favorite to portray the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni next season.
Fans will have to wait a year, as the opera runs from May 1-10, 2015, but we assure you it will be worth the wait. To order a tickets, call 617-542-6772 or email boxoffice@blo.org. The remainder of their upcoming season includes Verdi’s La Traviata, Frank Martin’s The Love Potion and Janáček’s Kátya Kabanová.
At rehearsals of La bohème at English National Opera
We first discovered Duncan Rock when he was in Britten's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and then as Moralès in a sexy production of Bizet's Carmen directed by Calixto Bieto at the English National Opera. In his young career, Rock has developed a reputation as both a gifted singer and riveting stage presence. His gender bending performance in Don Giovanni: The Opera at London's famous nightclub Heaven was a sensation. He followed that with an portrayal as an often shirtless Tarquinius in Benjmain Britten's The Rape of Lucretia
at Glyndebourne, where Irish actress and theatre and opera director Fiona Shaw pushed him to new dramatic limits. His performance prompted Tim Ashley,
of the Guardian to comment, "Rock undercuts Tarquinius's raffish allure
with unnerving intimations of psychotic violence."
Duncan Rock recently finished a successful run as Marcello in Puccini's La bohème with the English National Opera in a production that was updated to 1950s Paris. European fans can catch him as the waiter in Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice at the Teatro Real in Madrid from December 4-23. The cast also includes the amazing countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo as the voice of Apollo. Tickets are available online.
We can't think of a better opera to promote on Halloween than Jack Beeson's Lizzie Borden. The Boston Lyric Opera is presenting a new chamber version of the piece at their Opera Annex on November 20, 22, 23 and 24.
Of course, we all remember the basic synopsis from the children's rope-skipping rhyme: "Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one."
For those of you who don't know the story, Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted in the 1892 axe murders of
her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. There has been
controversy ever since about her guilt or innocence.
Boston Lyric Opera has commissioned a new chamber version of the work, which premiered in its full-length, three act version at the New York City Opera on March 25, 1965. The revised piece is in seven scenes and stars two singers who have appeared on this site, Daniel Mobbs as the father and David McFerrin as Captain Jason McFarlane.
For additional information or to purchase tickets call 617.542.6772 or email boxoffice@blo.org.
Barihunk and cycling enthusiast Andrew Garland is riding in the 2-day, 192 mile Pan -Mass challenge and proudly wearing his Valkyrie wings to show off his operatic pedigree. The ride raises money for life-saving cancer research and
treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund and crosses the Commonwelath of Massachusetts. Each cyclist commits to raising between $500 and $5,000. Readers of this site can help Andrew Garland reach his goal by clicking HERE.
The ride should help up build up plenty of lung power for his upcoming performance in Boston when he trades in his Valkyrie wings for some bird feathers. On Wednesday, August 7th, he'll be performing some of Papageno's music in "A Little Magic Flute & Birthday Celebration for Verdi, Wagner and Britten," a free preview of the Boston Lyric Opera's upcoming season at the Hatch Shell. The concert begins at 7 PM and no tickets are required. He'll be performing Papageno in its entirety with the Boston Lyric Opera from October 4-13. Tickets are available online.
The Boston Lyric Opera's performance of Handel's "Agrippina" is opening on Friday, March 11 with barihunks Christian Van Horn and David McFerrin (and lots of countertenors). For additional cast and performance information visit the BLO website.
David McFerrin: Rising Star
McFerrin has been featured on this site before as one of the alternating leads in the Seattle Opera's premiere of Daron Hagen's "Amelia" (the other lead was Nathan Gunn). He was also a standout in Steven Blier's "New York Festival of Song" singing some of the more provocative songs on the program. McFerrin was also a Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions finalist and we encourage anyone in the Boston area to check out this rising star.
Here is a clip of Christian Van Horn performing in Lucretia Borgia at the Bavarian State Opera.
[Top photo of Greg Gerbrandt; Bottom photo of Daniel Mobbs by Jeffrey Dunn for Boston Lyric Opera]
We love any opera with a barihunk, but three barihunks in one opera is bariheaven. That's just what Boston Lyric Opera has put together, with Daniel Mobbs as Escamillo, Andrew Garland as Dancaïro, and a favorite on this site, Gregory Gerbrandt as Morales.
In this production we think Carmen should dump Don Jose and run off to Valencia with Dancaïro, Morales and Escamillo. Now that's living like a true gypsy!
Click HERE for tickets and information. *****************
Back in February Barihunks raved about our latest find, the lean and beautiful Vittorio Prato (http://barihunks.blogspot.com/search?q=prato). He was performing with fellow barihunk Erwin Schrott in Faust in Valencia.
Once again, the wait for photos was well worth it as we received this photo from the dress rehearsals. Barihunks has to go on record as loving this trend to cast two hunks in a single performance, like the recent post of Schaldenbrand and Valone in Boston Lyric Opera's Don Giovanni or Alex Esposito and Mariusz Kwiecien in London's Don Giovanni: http://barihunks.blogspot.com/2008/10/don-giovanni-and-leporello.html.
Also, to our loyal readers, keep the pictures and hot tips coming!
[Photo of barechested Chris Schaldenbrand by Dex Woodeard; photo of Valone and Schaldenbrand by T. Charles Erickson - Both courtesy of BLO]
Once again, Mozart's Don Giovanni is providing Barihunks with a stage full of hunky baritones. Two readers fired off emails about Chris Schaldenbrand walking onstage at Boston Lyric Opera with his shirt open as the title character, so the search was on for photos. Luckily, BLO was kind enough to send us rehearsal photos.
The Don Giovanni is Chris Schaldenbrand, who has appeared on this site before. But the pictures also revealed another barihunk in the role of Masetto, Joseph Valone. You can watch them in action at: http://www.blo.org/video/donG_b_roll.html.
For more information or to buy tickets to the remaining performance on Tuesday, May 5, click here: http://www.blo.org. I've also included the banner for Don Giovanni from the BLO site, because they always have great marketing. Clearly, this image was based on Schaldenbrand who looks just as good animated. Even if you can't make the opera, it's worth visiting their site which is as interesting as some of the bigger houses.
