Barihunk quartet and hunkentenor featured at Grange Festival's Carmen

A quartet of barihunks are appearing in the Grange Festival's production of Carmen, which is currently running through July 8th. Two of them, Grigory Soloviov and Toby Girling, have appeared on the site, while Phillip Rhodes and Tiago Matos are new to the site. Joining this sexy quartet of low voices is hunkentenor Leonardo Capalbo. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Tiago Matos (left) and Phillip Rhodes (right)

Portuguese barihunk Tiago Matos, who is singing Le Dancäire,  was a member of the Atelier Lyrique at the Opéra national de Paris, where he performed Fiorello in Rossini's Il barbiere di Sivigila, Un Chevalier in Chaussson's Le Roi Arthus, and Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto. He will return to the Opéra national de Paris to perform a number of roles over the next few seasons.

New Zealand native Phillip Rhodes, who is singing Escamillo, was briefly mentioned on our site when he sang Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd with barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes in the title role. He recently peformed Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca and Pere Germont in Verdi's La traviata with Opera New Zealand. This Fall, he will sing the roles of Alfio in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Silvio and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with Opera North.

Renee Fleming and Grigory Soloviov (left) and Toby Girling in Trouble in Tahiti (right)

Bass-Barihunk Grigory Soloviov is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and a former member of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist’s Program. He has already performed with a number of major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Gran Teatro La Fenice, Dallas Opera, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Tours and the Opéra De Montréal.

British barihunk Toby Girling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and former member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus. His most current and future engagements include Nicomedes in Zemlinsky's Der König Kandaules and Pallante in Handel's Agrippina with De Vlaamse Opera, Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore  at the Scottish Opera and Sam in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti with the Oper Leipzig tour in Bolzano, Italy.

Jason Duika returning to Palm Beach Opera

Jason Duika after a workout

American barihunk Jason Duika will be returning as a young artist with the Palm Beach Opera, where he will be singing the role of Dancaïre in Bizet's Carmen and covering Zachary Nelson as Escamillo. He'll also be  covering Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Harlequin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. He'll also be featured in the family performance of Don Pasquale.

Regular readers will recall that Duika created a bit of a sensation when his shirtless pictures appeared on the site. 

Joining him at the Palm Beach Opera Young Artist Program will be fellow barihunk Andrew Bogard, who has also been featured on this site as one of our Reader Submissions. Hopefully, we'll be able to convince them to send us a photograph of them together. 

Jason Duika sings "Ah per sempre" from I Puritani:

This year's Opera on the Waterfront will be at the Meyer Amphitheatre on December 12th and usually features the PBO young artists, as well as star singers from the Palm Beach Opera. Their season runs from January 22-March 20 and tickets and cast information is available online. 

Along with fellow barihunk Samuel James Dewese, Duika is also a finalist in this year's James Toland Vocal Arts Competition at Holy Names University in Oakland, California on June 26 and 27. Tickets are available online.

Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek featured in Bleep magazine

Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek in Bleep magazine

Christiaan Smith Kotlarek, who is our Mr. December in the Barihunks charity calendar, is featured in the latest issue of Bleep magazine (he's on page 31). Bleep describes itself as, "The internationally-read online creative culture magazine about people who are creating the future of art."

He's currently appearing as Dancaïre in Carmen with the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. There is a performance tonight and on Sunday, August 3. In the Fall, he returns to New York to perform in his own solo cabaret night with Live Band featuring songs of John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and others. We'll have more details as the performance nears.