Tristan Hambleton to perform with Oxford Lieder

Tristan Hambleton (from artist's website)

British barihunk Tristan Hambleton will join Oxford Lieder on February 16th for a performance of Schubert's Schwanengesang. Although not intended by the composer as a cycle, it is a collection of the composer's very last songs that sit together perfectly and have formed a core work of the song repertoire.

Hambleton graduated from the Royal Academy of Music Opera School in 2015  and has performed for Glyndebourne Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Welsh National Opera and The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as well as at Bridegwater Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium de Bordeaux and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Tickets are £10 and are available online (and includes coffee and cake).

The songs of Schwanengesang, in the composer's original order, are:

* By Ludwig Rellstab:
o Liebesbotschaft ("Message of love"; the singer invites a stream to convey a message to his beloved)
o Kriegers Ahnung ("Warrior's foreboding"; a soldier encamped with his comrades sings of how he misses his beloved)
o Frühlingssehnsucht ("Longing in spring": the singer is surrounded by natural beauty but feels melancholy and unsatisfied until his beloved can "free the spring in my breast")
o Ständchen (Serenade)
o Aufenthalt ("Dwelling place": the singer is consumed by anguish for reasons we aren't told, and likens his feelings to the river, forest and mountain around him)
o In der Ferne ("In the distance": the singer has fled his home, broken-hearted, and complains of having no friends and no home; he asks the breezes and sunbeams to convey his greetings to the one who broke his heart)
o Abschied ("Farewell": the singer bids a cheery but determined farewell to a town where he has been happy but which he must now leave)
* By Heinrich Heine:
o Der Atlas ("Atlas": the singer, having wished for eternal happiness or eternal wretchedness, has the latter, and blames himself for the weight of sorrow, as heavy as the world, that he now bears)
o Ihr Bild ("Her image": the singer tells his beloved of how he dreamed (daydreamed?) that a portrait of her favoured him with a smile and a tear; but alas, he has lost her)
o Das Fischermädchen ("The fisher-maiden": the singer tries to sweet-talk a fishing girl into a romantic encounter, drawing parallels between his heart and the sea)
o Die Stadt ("The city": the singer is in a boat rowing towards the city where he lost the one he loved; it comes foggily into view)
o Am Meer ("By the sea": the singer tells of how he and his beloved met in silence beside the sea, and she wept; since then he has been consumed with longing — she has poisoned him with her tears)
o Der Doppelgänger ("The double": the singer looks at the house where his beloved once lived, and is horrified to see someone standing outside it in torment — it is, or appears to be, none other than himself, aping his misery of long ago)
* The last song based on a poem written by Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804 - 1875).
o Taubenpost ("Pigeon post"; the song that is often considered as a last lied that Schubert ever wrote. The song is included into a cycle by the first editor and is almost always included in modern performances)

Watch Christopher Maltman in Met's updated Cosi fan tutte

Christopher Maltman as Don Alfonso (Marty Sohl/The Metropolitan Opera)

Christopher Maltman will be featured in the upcoming broadcast of Mozart's Così fan tutte from the Metropolitan Opera as part of its Great Performances Series on Sunday, July 29, 2018. The broadcast begins at 12 PM EDT/9 AM PST.

The Met version of Mozart’s comedy about the sexes is set in a carnival-esque, funhouse environment inspired by 1950s Coney Island—complete with bearded ladies, fire eaters, and a Ferris wheel. Maltman stars as Don Alfonso, while Broadway star Kelli O’Hara takes on the role of the scheming maid Despina in a rare appearance on an operatic stage.

Upcoming broadcast's include Verdi's Luisa Miller and Massenet's Cendrillon with Joyce DiDonato.

Reader Submission: British barihunk Jevan McAuley

Jevan McAuley

A reader alerted us to British barihunk Jevan McAuley after seeing him perform Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Opera Holloway in Wiltshire. The opera has been updated to more contemporary times and is set in World War II. He has additional performances in Surrey on September 3, 22 and 23, in West Sussex on September 10 and in Oxfordshire on September 15. The cast also includes barihunk Przemyslaw Baranek as Don Alfonso, Callie Gaston as Callie Gaston, Sophie Dicks as Dorabella, Tom Morss as Ferrando and Lorena Paz as Despina.

Jevan McAuley hails from Salisbury, Wiltshire and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with a Bachelor of Music (honors) in Classical Voice and a Master of Music in Classical Voice.  At Guildhall he performed Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, as well as roles in Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, La fille du régiment, La Rondine, Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino, Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and in Lennox Berkeley's A Dinner Engagement.

Przemyslaw Baranek

Opera Holloway in 2009 in order to give young artists the opportunity to perform in opera at the early stages of their careers, and to present accessible performances to the public, particularly new audiences. The company has performed in a variety of venues from barns in Sussex to pubs in Wales. Tickets are available online.

Tristan Hambleton in Haydn's Theresienmesse in London

Tristan Hambleton

Barihunk calendar model Tristan Hambleton will be performing Hayden's Theresienmesse at Cadogan Hall in London on March 23rd. He'll be joined by the City of London Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and soprano Grace Davidson, mezzo-soprano Catherine Carby and tenor Nicholas Pritchard.

The concert is part of an ongoing series at Cadogan Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra pairing the great masses of Haydn with Mozart’s late concertos. The program will include Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24, K491 and Tantum Ergo in B flat, K142.

The Theresienmesse is named after Maria Theresa of the Two Sicilies, empress consort of Francis II. The empress herself was the soprano soloist at private performances of both The Creation and The Seasons in May 1801 at the Viennese Court.

The scoring of the mass is a little unusual. Due to a shortage of wind players at Einsenstadt, Austria in 1798 and 1799, the wind section comprises just two clarinets, a bassoon and two trumpets. Haydn skilfully uses this relatively small group to great effect. The mass is a work of marked musical contrasts. Slow, quiet passages, such as the very opening of the Kyrie, are set against vigorous, loud sections like the final pages of the Credo.

Tickets are available online.

Simon Keenlyside rings in the New Year with Broadway musicals

Simon Keenlyside as Macbeth and Hamlet

British barihunk Simon Keenlyside will spend New Year's Eve at the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman performing music from classic Broadway musicals. the concert will include songs from My Fair Lady, Kiss Me Kate, and Oklahoma!

Keenlyside will be joined on stage by the actress and singer Jodie Jacobs, along with the PKF-Prague Philhamonia under the baton of Charles David Abell. Tickets are available online.

Keenlyside is not new to the world of musicals.  In June of this year, he performed the role of Fagin in Lionel Bart’s Oliver! at the Grange Park Opera in England. He also released a CD titled Something’s Gotta Give on Chandos), which includes Cole Porter’s Night and Day, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’, and If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof.

After the New Year concert, he returns to the operatic stage at the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni with barihunk Erwin Schrott as his sidekick Leporello. Tickets are available online.

FINAL CHANCE to order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar before the New Year. 

Glen Seven Allen & Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Introducing British Barihunk Jolyon Loy

British Barihunk Jolyon Loy

Jolyon Loy is a 26-year-old British baritone from Worcestershire, UK, who is new to this site.

Loy can be heard on December 3rd at the Austrian Cultural Forum with Dame Felicity Lott as part of London Song Festival's Lieder Masterclass & Schubert Society Song Prize. Lott will be coaching singers and the Schubert Society Song Prize will be awarded to the best duo at the end. Winners will receive £500 and the offer of engagements with the London Song Festival and the Schubert Society of Britain in 2017.  Second place will be awarded £250 and third place will receive £100. Additional information is available online.

On December 10th and 16th, Loy can be heard in two Russian concerts with Opera Coast called 'The Old Tales of Kitezh Grad', the first in Brighton the second in Pushkin House in London. Singers will perform arias based on Russian fairy tales and folklore from Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Rubinstein's The Demon. Tickets are available online.

Jolyon Loy sings Britten, Handel, Schumann & Strauss:

He began singing at the age of nine as a chorister at Worcester Cathedral, sang in numerous  Three Choirs Festivals, performed for Queen Elizabeth II in the year of her Golden Jubilee, regularly sang as a soloist at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall with Birmingham City Choir and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. At age 17, he joined the Worcester Cathedral Choir as a choral scholar and sang with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and in 2008 was awarded a Choral Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford University.

He was educated at The King's School, Worcester and the University of Oxford and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016.

In 2016, he joined the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus for Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by David McVicar. He has also sung the role of Marquis d’Obigny in Verdi's La traviata for Opera Lyrica, Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute for Hampstead Garden Opera and excerpts from Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tiresias with Salon Opera.

At the Royal Academy of Music, he performed as Onegin in scenes from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, The Vicar in Britten's Albert Herring and Count Robinson in Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto.

THE 2017 BARIHUNKS IN BED CALENDAR
IS NOW ON SALE!!! 

 

Edward Miskie, Aaron Sørensen & Glenn Ayars

 

Reader Submission: British Barihunk Harry Thatcher

British barihunk Harry Thatcher

Reader Submission Harry Thatcher is a British baritone based in London. He is a Betty Brenner Scholar at The Royal College of Music. He is currently performing at the Grange Park Opera, where he is singing Bello in Puccini's La Facciulla del West and the Flemish Deputy in Verdi's Don Carlo. On June 7th, he'll also be giving a recital at the The Royal College of Music, performing music by Rossini, Schubert, Britten and Bolcom.

On the concert platform Harry has performed with the likes of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of Opera North in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Birmingham Symphony Hall. He has sung the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and various Bach Cantatas.    

Operatic roles for The Royal College of Music International Opera School include the High Priest in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Florian in Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida and Frank in Johann Strauss' Die Flederamaus . Harry has covered the role of Death in Holst's Savitri for British Youth Opera

Introducing British barihunk Sam Duffield

Sam Duffield

We saw this sexy picture of British barihunk Sam Duffield on Twitter (@Samuel_Duffield) and realized that we had to introduce him to the world. The North Yorkshire native is currently in his second year of study as an undergraduate at the Royal College of Music.  

He was a member of Leeds Youth Opera for two years before accepting his place at conservatoire, where he made his debut as Martin in Bernstein's Candide. He went on to play Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen and Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the latter of which the Leeds Civic Arts Guild nominated him for ‘Best Male Performer.’ At the Welsh National Youth roles included Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Anaeas.     

In October 2015, he represented the Royal College of Music at the Junior Kathleen Ferrier Awards.     Duffield has performed solo recitals and concerts around Yorkshire as well as oratorio and sacred works. Highlights have included Vivaldi's Magnificat and Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb at Ripon Cathedral.     

In the summer of 2014 he co-founded the student led company Bitesize Opera. The company is run by young professionals and aims to provide opportunities to singers who are currently studying at conservatoire or are on the threshold of their careers. Most recent performances include a series of Mozart opera scenes where Duffield's roles were the title role of Don Giovanni, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Nardo in La finta giardiniera.    

Duffield is also a gifted sketch artist and you can view his work online. 

Introducing British Bass-Barihunk Bradley Travis

Bradley Travis

British bass-barihunk Bradley Travis was introduced to us via Twitter. He's just wrapped up a run performing the roles of the German Father, a youth and the Priest in St. Mark's in Britten's Death in Venice at Garsington Opera.

Upcoming performances include Lesbus in Handel's Agrippina at Iford Opera from July 29-August 5, the Fireman in Voseček's Biedermann and the Arsonists at the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler's Wells and Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni with English Touring Opera next Spring. 

He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music where he was the Drapers’ de Turckheim Scholar, winner of the Alexander Young Award and a finalist in the Frederic Cox Award.  He recently graduated from the Royal College of Music International Opera School where he won the Eric Joseph Shilling Award for Opera. He also received a Sir Gordon Palmer Scholarship supported by the South Square Trust Award.

He has performed Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with Opera North, as well as a number of roles at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, including Don Iñigo Gomez in Ravel's L’heure espagnole, Lord Ellington Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne and Ottone in Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di Poppea.  He recently completed a recording with Simon Lepper of Ancel Newton’s song cycle Doomed Youth.

 
Most recently he received the Garsington Opera's Helen Clarke Award in recognition of his contribution and musical skill during their 2014 season.

Twitter submission: Tom Colwell

Tom Colwell

We getting introduced to an increasing number of barihunks, including our latest submission Tom Colwell. The British singer makes his role debut tonight as the Helmsman in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Longborough Festival Opera in the heart of the Cotswolds. Additional performances are on June 16th, 18th and 20th.

Colwell started singing as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral Choir School in London, performing on tours throughout France, Spain and Japan. He has been a soloist on numerous recordings and sang the title theme to the Channel 4 drama The Big Battalions.

He studied at Junior Royal Academy in London and the Royal Northern College of Music, in Manchester. During his time in Manchester, he performed in Verdi’s Falstaf  and Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.

He has added a number of new roles to his repertory in the last season, including Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at Opera’r Ddraig, Capulet in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet at Riverside Opera, Marcello in Puccini's La Boheme with Opera up Close at the Ravenna International Festival, and Dr Bartolo in Rossini's Barber of Seville at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In August, he will be singing the role of the Inn Keeper in the premiere of Louis Mander's Oh whistle and I will come to you my lad, a ghost story opera set in Sussex. This will be performed as part of the Tete-a-Tete opera festival.

Colwell is also the co-founder and artistic director of Island Opera, a classical vocal ensemble providing entertainment across South Wales and the U.K.

Twitter Barihunk Submission: Simon Dyer

Simon Dyer

British Bass-Barihunk Simon Dyer, who recently performed the Bear in Walton's The Bear and Mr. Grinder in Sullivan's The Zoo at Odyssey Opera, was recently introduced to us via Twitter.

The singer, who began his studies at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in England, is now based in the U.S. after having completed his studies at the Boston Conservatory of Music. He'll be returning to the school to perform The Immigration Officer in a rare American production of Jonathan Dove's comedic opera Flight at the Boston Conservatory of Music from November 19-22. The story is set entirely at an airport terminal, where a storm had stranded passengers, whose lives become a twisted plot of love, regret, injustice, sex, and boredom.

This Fall, he'll return to the U.K. to compete in the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition with the pianist Lindsay Albert. You can listen to him online HERE.

During his time in London, he performed with the Blackheath Halls Community Opera, Thrapston Plaza Opera, Oxbridge Opera and Go Opera. He performed the role of Death in the U.K. premiere of Gregory Rose’s Danse Macabre, conducted by the composer. In 2013, he performed with the Philip Glass ensemble for the 75th birthday celebrations of the composer at Barbican Hall in a performance of Koyaanisqatsi

Introducing British bass-barihunk Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton, who will be competing in the semi-finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards competition on April 22nd, is new to this site. The British bass-barihunk is currently a member of the Opera School at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was awarded the Tom Hammond Opera Prize.  He is an alumnus of St John’s College Cambridgea and Heidelberg Universität, where he pursued his studies in German.

Tristan Hambleton as a bass-baritone and a treble

Hambleton enjoyed considerable success as a treble soloist performing with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Les Arts Florissant in France and at the BBC Proms, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and with various orchestras in many of the major London venues.

In recent years he has established a career as a recitalist and concert singer appearing with orchestras such as The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Hallé, Devon Baroque, Camerata Viva Tübingen and The London Mozart Players.

On the opera stage he has appeared as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Hampstead Garden Opera, Re di Scozia in Handel’s Ariodante for Royal Academy Opera, Cadmus in Handel's Semele for Jackdaw’s, Bottom in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edinburgh Fringe for the award-winning Shadwell Opera.

Tristan Hambleton

In Wagner’s bicentenary year. Hambleton was asked by Sir Mark Elder to sing the role of Herman Ortel in the Halle's concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bridgewater Hall and has since been invited back to sing the bass solos in the Mozart Requiem with the orchestra.

On May 10th, he'll be performing Mozart's Mass in C minor, K427 with the Mayfield Festival Choir. This summer, Tristan will be joining the chorus at the Glyndebourne Opera for their festival season.

You can listen to him sing Tchaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart HERE

Introducing British barihunk Felix Kemp

Felix Kemp showing his Wagnerian side

We discover new barihunks in a variety of ways, with the most common way still being from readers. It used to come almost exclusively from emails and Facebook, but lately we're seeing more suggestions appear on Twitter.

That's how British barihunk Felix Kemp came to our attention. In fact, it came from fellow barihunk James Newby, who we introduced to readers in August 2013 and recently featured on the site.

Kemp lives in London and studies singing with Neil Baker at postgraduate level at Trinity Laban, where he's supported by the Kathleen Roberts vocal scholarship. He also receives coaching from mezzo soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson.

Felix Kemp

Recent concerts have include the bass solos in Bach's St John Passion in Oslo, Bach's Magnificat in London and Bach's Christmas Oratorio in the English town of Leighton Buzzard. Last summer he  performed as part of the Grange Park chorus in Britten's Peter Grimes and Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades. He also participated in masterclasses with British Youth Opera.

In 2014, Felix won the audience prize at the John Kerr Award for English Song competition, and performed in a masterclass with Sir John Eliot Gardiner as part of the Greenwich International Early Music Festival.

Engagements this season include bass solos in Mozart's Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers Tunbridge Wells, Dvorak's Stabat Mater in Leeds, and Wagner's Parsifal in Valencia with the Philharmonia Chorus as part of their Professional Singers' Scheme. He returns to Grange Park Opera this Summer to appear in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Fiddler on the Roof alongside Bryn Terfel.

You can follow both James Newby (@jamesn103) and Felix Kemp (@Felix_Kemp) on Twitter.

James McOran-Campbell to tour as Belcore

James McOran-Campbell

We've been following British barihunk James McOran-Campbell since our "Men in Shorts" feature two years ago.  He was appearing in Stuart MacRae's Ghost Patrol and we couldn't resist introducing him to readers in his tighty-whities.

He is about to embark on a national tour of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love with the Opera Theatre Company, Ireland's National Touring Opera Company. He'll be singing Sargent Belcore in a tour starting in Dun Laoghaire on November 21st and ending on December 8th in Navan. In between, the comic masterpiece will travel to Dundalk, Galway, Kilkenny, Wexford, Tralee, Cork and Ennis.

The opera will be sung in English with a cast that also includes Anthony Flaum as Nemorino, Anna Patalong as Adina and John Molloy as Dulcamara. The Elixir of Love is a co-production with North Ireland Opera and was nominated in the Best Opera category at the Irish Times Theatre Awards.

Tickets for all performances are available online. 

If you like sexy opera singers, you'll love the new 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar featuring 19 of the sexiest men in the business. Purchase your own copy or make someone happy with a holiday gift by clicking below. What are you waiting for?