Hadleigh Adams featured in Pinchgut Opera promo materials

Hadleigh Adams in Pinchgut Opera's marketing

We've always wondered why some opera companies don't use their singers in their marketing materials, particularly when they have marketable appearances. We were thrilled to see that Pinchgut Opera in Australia has Hadleigh Adams' notoriously handsome face prominently featured on their marketing materials for Vivaldi's Bajazet.

The performances will be the Southern Hemisphere premiere of the opera. Hadleigh Adams is wrapping up his second season as a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and returning to Pinchgut after a successful run as Pollux in their production of Rameau's Castor & Pollux in 2012.

Bajazet, a rarely performed operatic tragedy, premiered in Verona in 1735 and is a pastiche of Vivaldi's own arias, as well as those by Johann Adolph Hasse, Geminiano Giacomelli, Nicola Porpora and Riccardo Broschi. The opera is also known as Il Tamerlano and the story was also successfully set to music by Handel.

Hadleigh Adams in Pinchgut Opera's Castor & Pollux

Vivaldi wove into the opera an underlying tale of power struggles and invasion, reflective of the ones going on at the time, when Neopolitan operas were trouncing their local Venetian counterparts in popularity. Music associated with Neapolitan composers is thus cleverly designated to the invaders Tamerlano, Irene and Andronico.

Vivaldi’s Bajazet, a rarely performed operatic tragedy, premiered in Verona in 1735. An opera of romantic entanglement and love triangles, Bajazet tells the tale of a struggle for power between Bajazet, ruler of the Turks, and Tamerlano, ruler of the Tartars. When Bajazet’s daughter Asteria is threatened with marriage to the invading ruler, she conspires to murder him. The plot thickens after Tamerlano’s former betrothed, Irene, turns up to reveal the scheme, having taken issue with being pushed aside onto Tamerlano’s Greek ally (Andronico) who, unfairly, is also in love with Asteria - See more at: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/pinchgut-opera-launches-2015-season#sthash.jSqY461i.dpuf

Vivaldi’s Bajazet, a rarely performed operatic tragedy, premiered in Verona in 1735. An opera of romantic entanglement and love triangles, Bajazet tells the tale of a struggle for power between Bajazet, ruler of the Turks, and Tamerlano, ruler of the Tartars. When Bajazet’s daughter Asteria is threatened with marriage to the invading ruler, she conspires to murder him. The plot thickens after Tamerlano’s former betrothed, Irene, turns up to reveal the scheme, having taken issue with being pushed aside onto Tamerlano’s Greek ally (Andronico) who, unfairly, is also in love with Asteria - See more at: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/pinchgut-opera-launches-2015-season#sthash.jSqY461i.dpuf

Adams has maintained a busy schedule this season while a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, having sung Schaunard in La boheme, the Marquis in La Traviata, Grand commissioner in Madame Butterfly and Jailer in Tosca. He also performed Gendarme in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias with San Francisco's innovative young company Opera Parallèle.

Performances are on July 4, 5, 7 & 8  2015 at City Recital Hall Angel Place in Sydney. Tickets go on sale on February 9th, so mark your calendars. Also in the cast is Christopher Lowrey as Tamerlano, Helen Sherman as Irene, Emily Edmonds as Asteria and Russell Harcourt as Andronicus.

Zachary Gordin in our Barihunks Charity Calendar

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Carimina Catulli with Edwin Crossley-Mercer released tomorrow

Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Don Giovanni

We've been following the creation and performance of composer Michael Linton's 17 movement song cycle Carmina Catulli with barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer since its nascent days. The performance of the work at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and was taped for future release, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Auguest 19th. We recommend checking out iTunes or refinersfire.us.

You can watch a trailer below the includes interviews with the performers and production team, as well as discussions of the difficulty of the pieces, the genesis of the project, and the graphic nature of Catullus' poetry.

The Making of CARMINA CATULLI from Refinersfire LLC on Vimeo.

If you want to catch Crossley-Mercey live, on August 10th, he'll be performing a song recital with accompanist Fernando Pérez at the Sala Verdi in Montevideo, Uruguay. From October 13-21 he reprises his huge success as Pollux in Rameau's Castor et Pollux at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Shirtless pictures from Edwin Crossley-Mercer in L.A. "Nozze"

We posted about the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mozart -Da Ponte Trilogy with a barihunk in Le nozze di Figaro trio back May. The main eye candy in that production, which also included Christopher Maltman and Brandon Cedel, was an oft-shirtless Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Figaro.

The production set was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, with costumes by couturier Azzedine Alaïa. On alternating nights you barihunk connoisseurs feasted their eyes on a Don Giovanni cast that included barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien and Ryan Kuster.

(Click to enlarge)

We posted a semi-shirtless of picture of Crossley-Mercer back in May, but we now have additional photos from the production. We can see why we received a generous amount of emails begging us to find some photos.

If you want to catch Crossley-Mercey live, on August 10th, he'll be performing a song recital with accompanist Fernando Pérez at the Sala Verdi in Montevideo, Uruguay. From October 13-21 he reprises his huge success as Pollux in Rameau's Castor et Pollux at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. Tickets and additional cast information are available online. 

Edwin Crossley Mercer sings Brahms' "Wie soll ich die Freude"

Also, don't forget about his upcoming release of Michael Linton's 17-movement song cycle Carmina Catulli, which we posted about last week. 

Edwin Crossley-Mercer song recital set for release

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

We posted about Michael Linton's 17-movement song cycle Carmina Catulli late last year featuring barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer. The performance was at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and was taped for future release. That performance will now be available on CD and at Digital Stores on August 19th. You can watch a trailer below.

Carmina Catulli ~ Album Trailer from Refinersfire LLC on Vimeo.

If you want to catch Crossley-Mercey live, on August 10th, he'll be performing a song recital with accompanist Fernando Pérez at the Sala Verdi in Montevideo, Uruguay. From October 13-21 he reprises his huge success as Pollux in Rameau's Castor et Pollux at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Hadleigh Adams stars in Castor & Pollux

Hadleigh Adams in Castor & Pollux

Earlier this year, San Franciscans got to witness first-hand barihunk Hadleigh Adams' gifts as an exponent of early music when he brought the house down with “Somnus awake! ... Leave me loathsome light … More sweet is that name”  from Handel's Semele at the Merola Grand Finale. The City by the Bay will be welcoming back the popular Kiwi singer as an Adler Fellow early next year. But Adams is making waves again in early music on the other side of the globe.

Adams is currently performing early music again as Pollux in Rameu's Castor & Pollux with Pinchgut Opera in Australia. For our fans Down Under, there are still three performances of the opera left between now and December 10th. Many people in the business are predicting stardom for the charismatic singer, so now is the time to catch a rising star. Tickets are available online.

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