Joseph Lattanzi in free concert and world premiere

Joseph Lattanzi (Photos from artist website)

Barihunk Joseph Lattanzi will be one of the featured stars of Cincinnati Opera's free Opera in the Park concert on June 9th. He'll be joined at Washington Park by his fellow cast members from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which is being performed on June 13 and 15. They include sopranos Janai Brugger and Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb and tenor Martin Bakari. Also performing will be Piotr Buszewski, Liv Redpath, Thomas Dreeze and hunkentenor Aaron Blake.

No tickets are required for the event, but guests are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs, Concessions and food trucks will be on site.

In addition to The Marriage of Figaro, Lattanzi will join the company from July 22-27 for the world premiere of Scott Davenport Richards and David Cote's opera Blind Injustice, which explores the true stories of these six people who were tried, convicted, imprisoned, then ultimately freed by the Ohio Innocence Project. Joining him in the cast are fellow barihunks Miles Wilson-Toliver and Morgan Smith.

Casts and additional information on the Cincinnati Opera season can be found online. 

Later this season, Lattanzi will reprise the role of Hawkins Fuller in Gregory Spears' Fellow Travelers at the Arizona Opera and then perform Dandini in Rossini's L Cenerentola at the Virginia Opera.

Kelly Markgraf and Sasha Cooke to reprise "As One"

Kelly Markgraf and Sasha Cooke (Photo: Brooklyn Academy of Music)

The real-life married couple of mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and barihunk Kelly Markgraf have made Laura Kaminsky's opera "As One" a bit of a calling card since premiering the work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2014. The couple will perform the work for one night only on August 7th at the Chautauqua Opera. They will be joined by the Fry String Quartet, who premiered the work with them.

Markgraf has performed the work with Opera Colorado and the San Diego Opera, while Sasha Cooke performed it at the Hawaii Opera Theater. 

Kaminsky was inspired to write the opera after reading an article in the New York Times in 2008 about a New Jersey marriage in which one of the parties transitioned from male to female, transforming the couple from heterosexual to homosexual.

As One provides insights into both the personal and philosophical questions at the core of how personhood is defined, as well as into the compromised civil and humans rights of transgender individuals in the broader societal framework.

The opera can also be seen at the Cincinnati Opera with Matthew Worth and Amber Fasquelle on July 30th.    

The Wall opens in Montreal, heads to Cincinnati and possibly the US/Mexican border?

Étienne Dupuis

Julien Bilodeau's new opera The Wall, which is currently playing at Opéra de Montréal through March 24th, will receive it's U.S. premiere at the Cincinnati Opera next season. The work is written for 10 soloists, 48 ​​singers and 70 musicians.

Founding Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters revisited the band's classic 1979 concept album The Wall for a massive world tour that ran from 2010 to 2013, and he worked with Bilodeau on the opera to mark Montreal's 375th anniversary. Waters, who has frequently infused politics into his concerts, has hinted at performing The Wall on the U.S./Mexican border to protest Trump's plan to build a wall to stem immigration.

The opera stars Québecois barihunk Étienne Dupuis as Pink, the fallen rock star, who is overprotected by his mother after his father dies in war. Pink goes on to a failed marriage, a rock career and a dabbling in totalitarianism as he becomes consumed with guilt.

The Cincinnati Opera's production is slated for July 2018 in celebration of the $135 million restoration of Cincinnati Music Hall.

Preview of Gregory Spears' new opera with Joseph Lattanzi

Jospeh Lattanzi in his Barihunk t-shirt at the Seattle Opera (left) and at a Merola Opera performance (right)

Gregory Spears' new opera, Fellow Travelers, will receive a piano-vocal showcase at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on March 20th at 4 PM. This is the composer's first full-length opera, which follows Paul's Case and O Columbia. Paul's Case was a huge success at the 2014 Prototype Festival and subsequently at the Pittsburgh Opera. The opera was originally developed by American Opera Projects. O Columbia was presented last year by the Houston Grand Opera and featured barihunk Ben Edquist.

Fellow Travelers, which was written in collaboration with librettist Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury, was developed in a 2013 Opera Fusion workshop. It will feature former Barihunks calendar model Joseph Lattanzi, who will sing both the showcase and the world premiere.

Performances of Fellow Travelers will run at the Cincinnati Opera from June 17-July 10 at the Jarson-Kaplan Theater. In addition to Lattanzi, it will feature hunkentenor Aaron Blake, Mary Johnson, Alexandra Schoeny and Talya Lieberman. Tickets and additional information is available online. 

 Joseph Lattanzi performs "Our Very Own Home" from Fellow Travelers: 

Fellow Travelers, set in Washington against the backdrop of the McCarthy-era "lavender scare," tells the story of Timothy “Skippy” Laughlin, an aspiring young journalist, and Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller, a handsome, profligate State Department official. A chance encounter with Hawk leads to Tim's first job in DC, and his first love affair. As his involvement deepens, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his religious beliefs, and his love for Fuller – an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal. The libretto is based on the novel by American novelist, essayist and critic Thomas Mallon.

On February 27th, Lattanzi will sing the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Arizona Opera with fellow barihunk Ryan Kuster as Masetto and the talented Matthew Burns as his sidekick Leporello. Barihunk Morgan Smith will sing the other performances of Don Giovanni. Additional cast and ticket information is available online.

Ricky Ian Gordon's new opera Morningstar premieres in Cincinnati

Morgan Smith (left) and Andrew Lovato (right)

The Cincinnati Opera is presenting its first world premiere in 50 years with Ricky Ian Gordon's Morningstar, which opens on June 30th and runs through July 19th. The cast features two barihunks familiar to readers of this site, Morgan Smith as Aaron Greenspan and Andrew Lovato as Harry Engel. The cast also includes Twyla Robinson as Becky, Elizabeth Pojanowski as Sadie, Elizabeth Zharoff as Esther, Jennifer Zetlan as Fanny and hunkentenor Andrew Bidlack as Irving Tashman.

The libretto was adapted from Sylvia Regan’s 1940 play about Russian Jewish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side in the early 20th century. The story revolves are eh 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire where 146 workers perished, most of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Gordon's grandmother, Rebecca Lieberman, who worked at the sweatshop survived because she was home sick the day of the fire.

Gordon teamed up with libbretis William M. Hoffman, who wrote the play As Is and the libretto for The Ghosts of Versailles to compose the piece for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. That effort failed to materialize, but the opera got a second chance in 2012, when Opera Fusion: New Works teamed up with the Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music to present the work at a workshop for unproduced contemporary operas.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online. 

Barihunks Garland and Okulitch in La Calisto profile

Andrew Garland in la Calisto - (Photo:Philip Groshong - Cincinnati Opera)

It's seldom that you see two baritones featured in an article about opera, but that just happened with Andrew Garland and Daniel Okulitch. The two are appearing together in the Cincinnati Opera's first baroque opera production, Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto. Two alums of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), were profiled in Citybeat Cincinnati. 

Read the entire article HERE.

Daniel Okulitch brings fishy realness to Cincinnati

We've had a few straight barihunks on this site appearing in drag for the sake of art, including the inimitable duo of Seth Carico and Michael Mayes in Fort Worth, who were promoting a performance of Mark Adamo's Lysistrata.

Now comes barihunk Daniel Okulitch, who is appearing as Jove in Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto at the Cincinnati Opera. Amazingly, this is the company's first foray in baroque opera in it's 94-year history.

ove hatches a plan to wend his way into her heart (and her bed) by donning a Diana-like disguise. - See more at: http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/performances/la-calisto/#sthash.eCW96qWz.dpuf

Okulitch's drag get up isn't part of some German regie concept that was imported to Cincinnati, but an actual part of the plot. Jove, the ruler of the gods, hatches a plan to wend his way into the heart and bedroom of Calisto by donning a Diana-like disguise. But when Jove’s wife Juno, sung by Alexandra Deshorties, catches wind of the scheme, her fury knows no bounds.

The cast also includes barihunk Andrew Garland as Mercurio [pictures coming!].

There will be five performances between July 17-27 at the Corbett Theater. Tickets are available online.

Alexandra Deshorties

ove hatches a plan to wend his way into her heart (and her bed) by donning a Diana-like disguise. - See more at: http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/performances/la-calisto/#sthash.eCW96qWz.dpufove hatches a plan to wend his way into her heart (and her bed) by donning a Diana-like disguiseJove hatches a plan to wend his way into her heart (and her bed) by donning a Diana-like disguise

ove hatches a plan to wend his way into her heart (and her bed) by donning a Diana-like disguise. - See more at: http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/performances/la-calisto/#sthash.eCW96qWz.dpuf

Interview with stars of Cincinnati Opera's "Silent Night"

Gabriel Preisser (Photo: Provided/Opera Philadelphia, Dominic Mercier)

As the Cincinnati Opera gears up to be the latest company to present Kevin Puts' Silent Night, the Cincinnati Enquirer sat down and interviewed three of the leading baritones from the production. Here is the interview with Craig Irvin, Gabriel Preisser and Andrew Wilkowske.

You were all in the world premiere at Minnesota Opera in 2011. Tell us about your characters.
Preisser: I play Lt. Gordon, the Scottish lieutenant who proposes the truce. I think he’s the kind of person who’s trying to do the right thing. He doesn’t go into it wanting to fraternize, but his troops are exhausted and he’s told they’ll be home for Christmas. The Scottish, I assume, have no idea why they’re fighting. It’s not their war. Yet there they are. So when he sees these German soldiers singing Christmas carols, and the bagpipe player jumps up on the trench, he has no choice but to say we need to have a truce.
Irvin: I’m Lt. Horstmayer, the German, who has to deal with Sprink (a private who is an opera singer), who’s questioning him all the time and going into no-man’s land, where Horstmayer feels he’ll be killed any moment.
Wilkowske: My character is Ponchel, the aide-de-camp of the French lieutenant. He’s the comic relief. … In an opera that’s about people getting killed all the time, it’s nice to be the guy who gets to have a couple of jokes. He carries an alarm clock to remind him that he used to have coffee every day at that time with his mother.
Irvin: In the Muppet opera version, we decided he’s Fozzie.
Preisser: In the “MASH” version, he’s Radar O’Reilly.

[Read the entire interview at the Cincinnati Enquirer]

Performances are on July 10 and 12 and tickets are available online.

Silent Night to make European debut at Wexford; Canadian debut in Montreal; Continues in U.S. in Cincinnati

Ian Beadle (right)

Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night is getting its long-awaited European debut at the Wexford Opera Festival from October 24-November 2. The cast is a mix of Europeans and Americans, with two singers who have been featured on this site, Matthew Worth as Lieutenant Audebart and Quirijn de Lang as the lovable Poncel. There are also a few singers in the cast new to this site. 

Ian Beadle, a graduate from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performs William Dale on the Scottish side of the war. He recently finished a year in the English National Opera’s Opera Works program and performed as part of The Big Barber Bash at the London Coliseum.

His operatic roles have includes Belcore in Donizetti's Elisir d’amore at the Wexford Festival Opera, the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Opera Holland Park, Crébillon in Puccini's La Rondine at Go Opera, Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Sinfonia D’amici, Guccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at Opera Holland Park and Morales in Bizet's Carmen with Co-Opera Co.

Jamie Rock

Irish baritone Jamie Rock sings the role of Gueusselin on the French side of the war. He has performed the roles of Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme, Dancaire in Bizet's Carmen, Tarquinius in Britten's Rape of Lucretia and General Belliard in the world premiere of the original version of Prokofiev's epic masterpiece War and Peace. He has performed with the Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre Company, Opera Ireland, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Opera de Bauge and British Youth Opera.

He is also a member of the vocal ensemble Quartet. The group, under the patronage of Malcolm Martineau, is made up of graduates from the Alexander Gibson Opera School who draw on years of conservatoire training to explore a range of music and look for new ways of presenting the vocal repertoire.

Jamie began his studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama . He is an alumnus of the OTC Young Artist Programme (Dublin), Wexford Festival Opera Young Artist Programme, Leeds Lieder+ Young Artists, Oxford Lieder Young Artists and Josephine Baker Trust. 

Tickets are available online.

Daniel Okulitch (left) and Joseph Lattanzi (right)

Silent Night, which has been performed to great acclaim in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Fort Worth, now heads to the Cincinnati Opera and north of the border for its Canadian debut.

The Cincinnati cast includes many singers familiar to the piece, including the powerful voice of Craig Irvin as Lt. Horstmayer, Gabriel Preisser as Lt. Gordon and Andrew Wilkowske as Ponchel. New to the cast are Joseph Lattanzi as Gueusselin and Phillip Addis as Lt. Audebert. There are only two performances of the opera on July 10 and July 12. Tickets are available online.

Addis also will be performing Lt. Audebert in the Canadian premiere from May 16-23 at the Opéra de Montréal. The cast includes a barihunk favorite in the Lieutenant Horstmayer of Canadian Daniel Okulitch. Tickets go on sale in August 2014, so mark your calendars.

Gueusselin

Gueusselin and Phil

Popular barihunks lead upcoming Cincinnati Opera season

Andrew Garland working out in his Barihunk tee-shirt

The Cincinnati Opera has announced its casting for next season and it is delightfully laden with some of opera's most popular barihunks. Fans of Daniel Okultich can see him twice, as the former Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music graduate appears as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and as Giove in Cavalli's La Calisto. Andrew Garland will also appear in La Calisto as Mercurio.

La Calisto will run from July 17-27, 2014 at the Corbett Theater in the School for Creative and Performing Arts near Music Hall. The cast also includes male soprano Michael Maniaci as Endimione, Jennifer Johnson Cano as Diana/Destino, Alexandra Deshorties as Giunone, Aaron Blake is Pane/Natura and bass Nathan Stark as Sylvano.

Fans of Andrew Garland can purchase his amazing CD American Portraits at the GPR Records website. It includes songs by Stephen Paulus, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman and Tom Cipullo. You won't be disappointed!

Andrew Garland

Okulitch will be opening the season in Bizet’s Carmen on June 12th and the cast includes Stacey Rishoi in the title role, William Burden as Don José, Jessica Rivera as Micaela and Nathan Stark as Zuniga.

Gabriel Preisser backstage in Philadelphia for Silent Night

July 10 and 12 they will be presenting the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by Kevin Puts, Silent Night, which is filled with baritones. The performances will take place near the 100th anniversary of the outset of World War I. A number of baritones are reprising roles from the productions in Minnesota and Philadelphia, including Gabriel Preisser as Lt. Gordon, Craig Irvin as Lt. Horstman and Andrew Wilkowske as Ponchel.

Also in the cast are Thomas Blondelle as Nikolaus Sprink, Erin Wall as Anna Sorensen, barihunk Phillip Addis as Lt. Audebert and the gifted young tenor Thomas Glenn as Jonathan Dale.

Reader Submission: Luis Alejandro Orozco

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Our latest reader submission is Mexican-American baritone Luis Alejandro Orozco. The emerging barihunk was born in El Paso Texas, and raised in Chihuahua, Mexico. Orozco is currently an artist diploma candidate at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He will be performing in Astor Piazzolla's "María de Buenos Aires" at the Cincinnati Opera on July 25 and 27 under Jose Maria Condemi’s direction. Visit their website for tickets and additional performance information. He will reprise the performance with the Lexington Philharmonic in February 2013.

Orozco appeared as the baritone soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Also at the Conservatory Orozco has done the roles of Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia.  He has performed with such companies as Lake George Opera (Saratoga Opera), Des Moines Metro Opera, and El Paso Opera and Cincinnati Opera. He has performed the roles of Marcello in La boheme, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, and le Dancaïre in Carmen.

 Luis Alejandro Orozco sings Mozart's "Deh, vieni alla finestra" at CCM:

Orozco has performed the role of Papageno in Mozart’s Magic Flute, in The Seoul International Opera Festival in South Korea. Also overseas he has performed with CCM Spoleto’s summer festival in the roles of Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, and the title role in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino.

In 2010 he was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera Tri State district, and obtained an encouragement award in 2011 in the Metropolitan Opera Four City District. He obtained a Bachelor of Music degree at The University of Texas at El Paso, and Master of Music degree from Cincinnati Conservatory of music, where he studies under the vocal instruction of William McGraw.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Nathan Gunn Interview on Eve of Debut

Nathan Gunn (Enquirer, Joseph Fuqua II)

Tomorrow is opening night for Nathan Gunn's first "Eugene Onegin," which we've been talking about for a year. The Cincinnati Enquirer recently ran this interview with the "original barihunk.":

It's hard to ignore opera baritone Nathan Gunn's movie star looks, ideal for the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" series, in which he has appeared in movie theaters around the world.

One of opera's most dashing leading men, the South Bend, Ind., native has attracted fans not only for his rich, warm baritone - winning acclaim for roles such as Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera - but also for a few of his shirtless costumes. [Continue reading HERE].

Nathan Gunn

Tickets range from $26-$165 and can be purchased by calling 513-241-2742 or visiting www.cincinnatiopera.org. Here is a preview of the opera by General Director Evans Mirageas.

You can also listen to Anne Arenstein's intelligent interview with Gunn by clicking HERE. 



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Nathan Gunn Debuts Onegin in Cincinnati

Cincinnati Opera's Barihunk worthy banner

About a year ago we announced that Nathan Gunn was going to make his debut as the title character in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Cincinnati Opera.  That debut is upon us, as opening night is on Thursday, July 14, with an additional performance on July 16. Gunn will be joined on stage by fellow barihunk Denis Sedov who is singing Prince Gremin. We have a feeling that these are going to be two special performances. If you haven't seen an opera in Cincinnati's Music Hall, this is a great excuse for a road trip. The opera house, which was built in 1878, is both an acoustic and architectural gem.

We also need to commend the Cincinnati Opera for their excellent website banner for the opera [see above].

After leaving Cincinnati, Gunn then takes the role of Onegin to the Opera Music Festival in Sigulda, Latvia on July 30 and August 2.

Nathan Gunn poster from Latvia

Here is the great bass Nicolai Ghiaurov singing Gremin's aria "Lyubvi fse vozrastï pokornï" (The gift of love is rightly treasured).




Here is Nathan Gunn singing "If Ever I Would Leave You" from Camelot:



Here is Sedov singing some bassa nova the Shablul Jazz Club in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Nathan Gunn To Debut Onegin

The seemingly ageless Nathan Gunn is taking on a new role next year. The barihunk will perform the role of Onegin in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Cincinnati Opera in their upcoming season. Gunn will be joined by Tatiana Monogarova as Tatyana and William Burden as Lensky. Performances are July 14 and July 16, 2011.

Gunn will undoubtedly be compared to two of the greatest Onegin's off all-time, both of whom are still performing. Here are Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Marius Kwiecien:





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Mario Caria Makes U.S. Mainstage Debut in Cincinnati

You have to give the Cincinnati Opera some credit. First, their recent Le Nozze di Figaro featured Barihunks favorite Teddy Tahu Rhodes, then they follow it up with American mainstage debut of Mario Caria. Caria, by the way, also made his U.S. debut at the Cincinnati May Festival. Maybe it's Cincinnati's famous chili, but whatever is bringing the barihunks to this quaint river town, keep 'em coming!

For more information visit: http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/content.jsp?articleId=719

The 32-year-old Sardinian has studied with famed soprano Mirella Freni and has won a series of prestigious vocal awards, including the audience prize at the 2007 Operalia competition. It's easy to see why he'd be an audience favorite, with his smoky Mediterranean good looks and perfect Verdian baritone.

His next U.S. appearance will be with the Washington National Opera portraying Figaro in Rossini's classic comedy: http://www.dc-opera.org/performances/barber.asp

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Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Cincinnati

This may be the longest period of time that we've gone without a post of Teddy Tahu Rhodes. We never did find any juicy pictures of his Billy Budd in Santa Fe, but we're encouraged by the fact that he has plenty of barihunk roles on his schedule. He is performing Escamillo at The Met and in Munich, as well as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Sydney Opera.

The pictures from Cincinnati show him with a full head of blonde hair that makes his philandering all the more believable. Tonight is the last performance. Go to www.cincinnatiopera.org for ticket information.

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Teddy Down Under

Teddy Tahu Rhodes is back in his homeland of New Zealand after taking America by storm. The super sexy barihunks has dozens of new fans after showing off his physical and vocal talents in Peter Grimes and Billy Budd. He returns to the United States on June 11 and 13 at the Cincinnati Opera playing Count Almaviva in the Marriage of Figaro(http://www.cincinnatiopera.com/performances).


You can contact this site at barihunks@gmail.com