Watch Barihunk trio online in Salome from Detroit

Vartan Gabrielan, Jonathan Beyer and Corey Crider (L-R)

The barihunk trio of Corey Crider, Jonathan Beyer and Vartan Gabrielan will be in the cast of Richard Strauss' Salome with will be broadcast live over the internet. You can watch it on Livestream from Orchestra Hall in Detroit at 3 PM EST/Noon PST. The cast of the concert version of Salome also includes the remarkable Lise Lindstrom in the title role, Chris Merritt as Herod and Jane Henschel as Herodias.

Jonathan Beyer can next be seen at the Castleton Festival where he will sing the Count in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro from July 2-10. He'll be joined onstage by his real life husband Brandon Cedel as Figaro.

"Castleton West" A Critical Success

Michael Weyandt & Matthew Worth

Loren Maazel took his Castleton Festival west to California from Virginia, where it was met with the same critical acclaim that it received back East. Many of the same singers returned to reprise their roles, but we found a new addition to the barihunk family in Michael Weyandt, who was a sexy Junius. Cal Performance in Berkeley mounted both the "Rape of Lucretia" and "Albert Herring."

Joshua Kosman, the respected and brutally honest reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, gave "The Rape of Lucretia" a great review, saying this about the trio of barihunks:

Tarquinius was embodied with sonorous menace by baritone Matthew Worth, and bass-baritone Michael Rice brought a gorgeous warmth of tone to the role of Collatinus, Lucretia's ostentatiously virtuous husband. Michael Weyandt did a muscular turn as the ambitious Junius...

We learned during the performance run that Michael Rice plans on making this his final performance on the opera stage. Luckily, we'll still be able to enjoy him on his wonderful OperaNow! podcast, one of the most enjoyable shows about classical music around. We wish him well in his future endeavors. He's one of our favorite people in opera!

Michael Rice Sailing Off Into the Operatic Sunset

"Albert Herring" featured barihunk Adrian Kramer, who stole the show in the critical role of Sid. You can listen to this talented young Canadian at InstantEncore performing songs by Rorem, Barber and Danielpour.

The opera world should be grateful to Loren Maazel, whose Castleton Festival has reintroduced important operas to the repertory as well as talented young singers.

Adrian Kramer

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Benjamin Britten's Barihunks In Berkeley

Opera fans on the West Coast learned this week that they are going to experience the amazing Britten operas that conductor Lorin Maazel has been performing at his ranch in Castleton. Maazel is bringing the barihunk laden "Rape of Lucretia" and "Albert Herring" to Cal Performances in Berkeley. Both operas will be fully staged. Maazel's Castelton Festival has become something of a cult among opera connoisseurs and this promises to be some of the most visually and vocally exciting Britten to hit California in recent memory. Also, make sure to check out classical music critic Anne Midgette's post on this road tour.

[Michael Rice]


Heading the cast of "Rape of Lucretia" will be two of our favorite young barihunks, Matthew Worth and Michael Rice (a.k.a. Steamy Rice). We once had a post called "Our Michael Rice Crush" where we spelled out a number of reasons why we love this young singer. Not only is he eye candy and a wonderful singer, but he is the host of the OperaNow! podcast, one of the most entertaining shows about opera to be found anywhere. You can subscribe to his podcast on iTunes.

[Matthew Worth]


Matthew Worth has become one of the most popular barihunks on this site, often receiving as many hits as established stars like Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Erwin Schrott and Nathan Gunn. He has rapidly developed a reputation in the opera world as a talented young singer, gifted actor and wonderful colleague. Opera fans in the Bay Area should race to buy tickets to see this young singer before he is gobbled up by the Metropolitan Opera and other large companies.

Fans of Matthew Worth in the Midwest can see him from May 8-16 at the Chicago Opera Theater performing the role of Charlie in Jake Heggie's "Three Decembers" opposite Federica von Stade.

[Adrian Kramer]


The second offering at Cal Performances will be "Albert Herring," which along with "Rape of Lucretia" is probably one of Britten's most unfairly neglected operas. It was also written as a companion piece to "Rape of Lucretia" and is another one of Britten's exploration of a societal outcast, a theme that is quite pronounced in his more famous operas "Billy Budd" and "Peter Grimes."

Adrian Kramer, a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, will be singing the role of Sid in "Albert Herring," as he did at the Castleton Festival.

Visit the Cal Performances website for ticket and performance information.

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Our Michael Rice Crush

Barihunks has to confess to having a major crush on Michael Rice, who just finished a run at Castleton, which we covered extensively. Unfortunately, we didn't feature "Steamy Rice" nearly enough.

Our excuse is that "Steamy Rice" played the role of the very unsexy Mr. Peachum in The Beggars Opera under Lorin Maazel. To our dismay, Rice has landed some pretty unsexy roles in his young career, landing parts in Ariadne, Butterfly, Fanciulla, Sonnambula and L'Italiana. We think directors need to start casting him in some Britten operas (which Castleton specialized in), Pearl Fishers, Dead Man Walking or any opera directed by a gay German, because Rice has the sexiest arms in all of opera (and the rest of him isn't too bad, either).

But "Steamy Rice" is more than a hot bod, he's also one of the funniest men in opera (who is actually trying to be funny.) His OperaNow! podcast is the most entertaining opera broadcast on the web. You can access it at iTunes or by clicking here.

The top photo is by David Deal and was part of an NPR feature where the camera seemed to stick to "Steamy Rice." The bottom two photos were sent to us by his colleagues at Castleton who really seemed to enjoy performing with him.

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Paul LaRosa's Hot Chest and Big Balls

There is nothing that we love more than a barihunk who likes to show off some skin, especially when they look like Paul LaRosa. Here he his showing off his hot chest and big balls. Impressive, eh?

Reports from Castleton tell us that this cast is having a great time and putting on some amazing shows (on and off the stage!).

One has to think that it's not easy getting much attention when you're cast opposite barihunk Matthew Worth's Tarquinius, a role he practically owns. Even Allen Boxer as Collatinus could cause one's eye to wander. However, LaRosa can hold his own with any low-voiced stud singing in opera today.

Apparently, the singing wasn't to bad either. Charles Downey in the Washington Post reports that our barihunks sang as beautifully as they looked, "The incisive baritone and feral libido of Matthew Worth's Tarquinius stood out in the male cast, seconded by the powerfully resonant Junius of Paul LaRosa." "Libido" seemed to be the choice word of the critics as Steve Smith penned this about Worth, "Matthew Worth sang powerfully and prowled the stage with an unquenchable libido."

Finally, Barihunks would like to thank Benjamin Britten for providing us with an abundance of barihunk roles.

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Allen Boxer: Not Just a Pretty Face

Some of our readers with sharp eyes noticed that Michael Rice's picture was changed from a boring head shot to a saucy pool picture. A reader was nice enough to send it along and it greatly enhanced the post.

Two days later, along comes this picture of Allen Boxer as Collatinus in Aldeburgh in 2008. Benjamin Britten would have been pleased! Hopefully, we have a little friendly competition going on at Castleton and our mailbox will be filled with sexier pictures than the one's posted. If he is "wearing" the same costume at Castleton, then The Rape of Lucretia is clearly the hottest ticket in opera for July.

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