Barihunk Geoffrey Hahn will perform in Dichterliebe: POETLOVE, a 27-minute cinematic adaptation of Schumann's song cycle at the new Steinway Hall in Manhattan on Thursday, November 10th.
POETLOVE is a musical short film harnessing the power of art song, but set in modern day New York. Like Schumann's cycle, it tells the story of a young man who falls hopelessly in love, in this case it's a Bushwick-based performer, Amalia -- before spiraling into a manic-depressive state from her rejection. By confronting his demons and putting his story into songs, he's able to reemerge and move forward, older and stronger.
POETLOVE was shot largely in Williamsburg, with additional shooting throughout the city and in New Hampshire, and is told entirely through the Heine/Schumann songs from the cycle. The piece is performed in a new English translation and features Kerri Sohn as Amalia.
Since its premiere in March 2016, the film's had considerable success on the festival circuit, winning prizes at the Geneva and Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festivals, and playing at festivals around the country and in Asia.
California native Geoffrey Hahn is new to this site. He's currently pursuing his Master's degree in voice on a full
scholarship from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he
recently performed the role of Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and will be singing Sam in their upcoming performance of Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti.
Our 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar is now on sale, which celebrated our 10th Anniversary. You can purchase your own copy by clicking on the LULU button.
Emerging talent Brian Mextorf, who we introduced back in February, will be performing as part of operamission's 90-minute recital series, which occurs on the last Thursday of each month. Mextorf will perform Edvard Grieg's Six Songs, Op. 48 on April 30th in a program that also includes soprano Laura Kelleher singing Claude Debussy's Ariettes Oubliées and tenor David Kellett singing Schumann's Dichterliebe. The Grieg will be performed in its original German.
Tenor Cullen Gandy and Brian Mextorf sing the Pearl Fishers duet:
Other performances include a March 26th program featuring German songs peformed by tenor Mark Duffin, baritone Grant Youngblood, soprano Elisabeth Turchi and countertenor David Stanley. On May 28th, tenor Adam Klein will sing Schubert's Schwanengesang along with mezzo-soprano Kimberly Sogioka performing Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Été.
Tickets for the first three programs
are currently on sale for $20 online. Cabaret and conventional seating include light refreshments and opportunity to meet the artists.Conductor Jennifer Peterson accompanies at the piano and curates the programs.
The
2013 winners of the Music Academy of the West's Marilyn Horne Song
Competition, baritone John Brancy and pianist Mario Antonio Marra, will
perform the premiere of Force by up-and-coming composer Chris Kapica,
Schumann's Dichterliebe, works by Dvorák, and American standards in a
trio of East and West Coast recitals. The first will take place at the Music Academy's Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara, California on Tuesday, March 4, followed by Santa Monica's Broad Stage on Friday, March 7, and the National Opera
Center in New York City on Sunday, March 16. The New York recital is
part of OPERA America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, a showcase for
finalists and prizewinners from the nation's most prestigious young
artist programs and competitions.
Barihunk John Brancy, who along with accompanist Mario Antonio Marra, won the 2013 Music Academy of the West's Marilyn Horne Song Competition, will perform concerts on both coasts as part of their prize. The first will take place at the Music Academy's Hahn Hall in Santa
Barbara, California on Tuesday, March 4th, followed by Santa Monica's
Broad Stage on Friday, March 7th, and the National Opera Center in New
York City on Sunday, March 16. The New York recital is part of OPERA
America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, a showcase for finalists and
prizewinners from the nation's most prestigious young artist programs
and competitions.
Brancy will perform the world premiere of cross-genre composer Chris Kapica's "Force," along with Schumann's Dichterliebe, Dvorák's Three Modern Greek Poems, Op. 50, Hoagy Carmichael's The Nearness of You, Jerome Kern's The Folks who Live on the Hill and Cole Porter's Night and Day.
baritone Edward Parks, and pianist In-Sun Suh (2008)
Other baritones who have won the Marilyn Horne Song Competition include Edward Parks in 2008 and Evan Hughes in 2006.
Tickets for the March 4
recital in Santa Barbara are $25 general admission and $10 for
students. Hahn Hall is located at the Music Academy of the West. Free
parking will be available on the campus grounds. For more information,
visit www.musicacademy.org.
Tickets for the March 7 recital range from $16 to $35. The Broad Stage is located at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. in Santa Monica. For more information, visit http://thebroadstage.com or call 310-434-3200.
The recital in New York City on March 16, which will be
live-streamed, will be presented as part of OPERA America's Emerging
Artist Recital Series, which was inaugurated in September by 2012 Music Academy of the West Marilyn Horne Song Competition winners Tracy Cox and Maureen Zoltek. The NationalOpera Center is located at 330 Seventh Avenue. Tickets, which are $20, can be purchased online at www.operaamerica.org/recitals.
Tickets for the March 4th recital in Santa Barbara are $25 general admission and $10 for students. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org. Tickets for the March 7th recital at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center range from $16 to $35. For more information, visit http://thebroadstage.com or call 310-434-3200. The recital in New York City will be at the National Opera Center on March 16th. Tickets, which are $20, can be purchased online at www.operaamerica.org/recitals.
If you can't make any of the recitals, you're in luck as the March 16th performance will be live-streamed as part of OPERA America's Emerging Artist Recital Series.
First of all, we want to congratulate Matt Worth on his recent wedding and wish him and his bride a lifetime of happiness.
We also wanted to share with our readers this video of him singing Robert Schumann's most famous song cycle, Dichterliebe, Op. 48, at this year's Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He is joined by accompanist Shai Wosner.
The whole closely integrated song cycle traces an inner narrative, from the
initial awakening of love, through rapture, disillusion and despair to
tender regret and a final bittersweet, ironic acceptance. Heinrich Heine’s verses
are a distillation of the poet’s ultimately doomed love for two of his
cousins in Hamburg. For Schumann real life was to provide a happier
outcome. Dichterliebe can be heard as his most piercing
recreation of the fluctuating, often anguished, emotions he had
experienced during his long courtship of Clara Wieck (Schumann).
If you want to see Matt Worth live, make sure to make travel plans to Washington D.C. Worth will star as Starbuck in the highly anticipated East Coast premiere of Jake Heggie's epic Moby-Dick
at the Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera from February
22 - March 8, 2014. Queequeg by fellow barihunk Eric Greene. Tickets go on sale
December 4, 2013 to the public and on November 25, 2013 to Kennedy
Center members.
Who gets the money for the 2014 Charity Calendar?
This year we're looking for originality on Facebook and Twitter. We'll consider any idea that involves young artists, not just young artist programs...video projects...recital ideas...you name it.
Most LIKES on Facebook and most retweets on Twitter will increase your odds of winning. (Use #Barihunks2014). Post your comments to our Facebook feed with who you should think is deserving of the a charitable contribution and why.
Popular barihunk calendar model Zachary Gordin will be performing this weekend at the bucolic Olympic Music Festival, located on a turn-of-the-century dairy farm located on 55 acres of tranquil farmland on Washington state's beautiful Olympic Peninsula.
The singer, who is based in the San Francisco Bay area and performs regularly with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, will be performing Robert Schumann’s “Dichterliebe,” Franz Liszt’s “Liebestraume” and the “Chansons Grises” by Reynaldo Hahn. His program is entitled “Songs and Dances of Love," but from the emails that we receive about the bodybuilding singer, he may want to rename it “Songs and Dances of Lust."
Zachary Gordin sings "Estuans interius" from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana
After Gordin kicks off the festival, concerts will continue every Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM now through September 1st. The concerts take place on
hay-bale seating inside a barn with picnicking encouraged on the lawn outside.
Advance
tickets to the Olympic Music Festival are $30 for adults for barn
seating; $28 for seniors 62 and older and $18 for youth age 7 to 17. At
the gate on concert day, those prices go up $3. For lawn seating, there
are no advance sales; tickets at the gate are $20 for adults, $14 for
youth and free for children 6 and younger.
Visit the Olympic Music Festival online for additional program information.
One of the most popular singers in the world, as well as on this site, is the seemingly ageless Simon Keenlyside. The British barihunk turns 53 today, so we thought we'd celebrate his artistry.
Simon Keenlyside is one of the world's most sought after and
charismatic singers, noted for his versatility and highly charged
performances on stage. He has been acclaimed for Billy Budd and Prospero
in the world premiere of Thomas Ades' 'The Tempest' at the Royal Opera
House; Count Almaviva in Milan and Vienna under Muti; Don Giovanni in
Ferrara under Abbado, Pelleas in San Francisco, Geneva, Paris, and most
recently in Salzburg, Berlin and London under Rattle, his first Wozzeck
at the Paris Opera, and Posa (Don Carlos) at the Royal Opera House
under Pappano and at the Metropolitan Opera under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
He has recorded 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' under Rattle, the title role in
'Don Giovanni' under Abbado, 'Carmina Burana' under Thielemann, Marcello
in 'La Bohème' under Chailly, the title role in 'Billy Budd' under
Hickox, Count Almaviva under Jacobs and Papageno under Mackerras. Since
appearing in recital at La Scala in 1998 he has gone on to give
recitals all over the world.
Simon Keenlyside sings Schuman's "Dichterliebe":
Simon will return to the Royal Opera
House (Germont Père and Count Almaviva) and the Vienna State Opera
(Posa, Rigoletto and Wozzeck). For Sony BMG Simon has released an
orchestral arias disc, which won the Gramophone 2007 best recital award,
an operetta disc with Angelika Kirchschlager, and a recital disc of
Brahms Lieder and Schumann's Dichterliebe, and most recently his “Songs
of War” recital disc, both with Malcolm Martineau. His other releases
include a recital disc of Schubert, Wolf, Fauré and Ravel also with
Malcolm Martineau for Wigmore Live.
Keenlyside can next be seen next month at the Vienna State Opera in Verdi's Don Carlo as Rodrigo. Also in the cast is Rene Pape as Philipp II, Roberto Alagna as Don Carlo and Krassimira Stoyanova as Elisabeth. In October, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera in Thomas Ades' "The Tempest."
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose is distinguished by its satirical wit and irony. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris. [Excerpted from Wikipedia]
The first seven lieder from Robert Schumann's "Dichterliebe," set to poetry by Heinrich Heine Performed by Sanaz Sotoudeh and Philippe Sly in Pollack Hall at McGill University in 2009.
Schubert's haunting "Der Doppelgänger" from Schwanengesang sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:
Der Doppelgänger by Heinrich Heine
Still ist die Nacht, es ruhen die Gassen,
In diesem Hause wohnte mein Schatz;
Sie hat schon längst die Stadt verlassen,
Doch steht noch das Haus auf dem selben Platz.
Da steht auch ein Mensch und starrt in die Höhe,
Und ringt die Hände, vor Schmerzensgewalt;
Mir graust es, wenn ich sein Antlitz sehe -
Der Mond zeigt mir meine eigne Gestalt.
Du Doppelgänger! du bleicher Geselle!
Was äffst du nach mein Liebesleid,
Das mich gequält auf dieser Stelle,
So manche Nacht, in alter Zeit?
English Translation
The night is quiet, the streets are calm,
In this house my beloved once lived:
She has long since left the town,
But the house still stands, here in the same place.
A man stands there also and looks to the sky,
And wrings his hands overwhelmed by pain:
Upon seeing his face, I am terrified--
The moon shows me my own form!
O you Doppelgänger! you pale comrade!
Why do you ape the pain of my love
Which tormented me upon this spot
So many a night, so long ago?
Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com
Only two weeks left to purchase our 2012 Barihunks Charity Calendar. Get in the holiday spirit and buy your copy today. All proceeds go to young artist programs. We named our first recipient yesterday, which is the Portland Opera Studio. Scroll down and read about this amazing program.
South African baritone Dawid Kimberg was born in Johannesburg and attended the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School. He moved to the United Kingdon in 2001 and trained at the Royal College of Music with Ryland Davies and the National Opera Studio. He attended the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy in 2008.
He is currently performing in Massenet's "Cendrillon" at the Royal Opera House in London, which runs through July 16th. On July 17th, he will participate in the Jette Parker Young Artists programs. Click HERE for performance and ticket information for either show.
His operatic roles includes Count (Le nozze di Figaro)and Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea) for RCM, Duke (Roméo et Juliette) for British Youth Opera, Bruno (Parthenogenesis) at Canterbury Cathedral, Masetto (Don Giovanni)at the Purcell Room and Morales (Carmen) for Glyndebourne on Tour.
He represented South Africa in the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
He joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in September 2009 and made his Royal Opera debut as Flemish Deputy (Don Carlo), followed by Steersman (Tristan und Isolde), Potapytch (The Gambler), Morales (Carmen)and Second Nazarene (Salome). Upcoming performances include Jokanaan (Salome) in Singapore and Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus)at the Bolshoi.
Gérard Souzay is one of our favorite historical hunks, so it seemed fitting that we celebrate the 201st birthday of Robert Schumann with his Dichterliebe. The song cycle, which roughly translates as "The Poet's Love," was written in 1840 and is based on the great poetry of Heinrich Heine. The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are beautifully mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales. Schumann adapts the words of the poems to his needs for the songs, sometimes repeating phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence.
1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Heine, Lyrical Intermezzo no 1). (In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my suffering and longing.)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (Heine no 2). (Many flowers spring up from my tears, and a nightingale choir from my sighs: If you love me, I'll pick them all for you, and the nightingale will sing at your window.)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Heine no 3). (I used to love the rose, lily, dove and sun, joyfully: now I love only the little, the fine, the pure, the One: you yourself are the source of them all.)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (Heine no 4). (When I look in your eyes all my pain and woe fades: when I kiss your mouth I become whole: when I recline on your breast I am filled with heavenly joy: and when you say, 'I love you', I weep bitterly.)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Heine no 7). (I want to bathe my soul in the chalice of the lily, and the lily, ringing, will breathe a song of my beloved. The song will tremble and quiver, like the kiss of her mouth which in a wondrous moment she gave me.)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (Heine no 11). (In the Rhine, in the sacred stream, great holy Cologne with its great cathedral is reflected. In it there is a face painted on golden leather, which has shone into the confusion of my life. Flowers and cherubs float about Our Lady: the eyes, lips and cheeks are just like those of my beloved.)
7. Ich grolle nicht (Heine no 18). (I do not chide you, though my heart breaks, love ever lost to me! Though you shine in a field of diamonds, no ray falls into your heart's darkness. I have long known it: I saw the night in your heart, I saw the serpent that devours it: I saw, my love, how empty you are.)
8. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen (Heine no 22). (If the little flowers only knew how deeply my heart is wounded, they would weep with me to heal my suffering, and the nightingales would sing to cheer me, and even the starlets would drop from the sky to speak consolation to me: but they can't know, for only One knows, and it is she that has torn my heart asunder.) 9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (Heine no 20). (There is a playing of flutes and violins and trumpets, for they are dancing the wedding-dance of my best-beloved. There is a thunder and booming of kettle-drums and shawms. In between, you can hear the good cupids sobbing and moaning.) 10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (Heine no 40). (When I hear that song which my love once sang, my breast bursts with wild affliction. Dark longing drives me to the forest hills, where my too-great woe pours out in tears.) 11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (Heine no 39). (A youth loved a maiden who chose another: the other loved another girl, and married her. The maiden married, from spite, the first and best man that she met with: the youth was sickened at it. It's the old story, and it's always new: and the one whom she turns aside, she breaks his heart in two.) 12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (Heine no 45). (On a sunny summer morning I went out into the garden: the flowers were talking and whispering, but I was silent. They looked at me with pity, and said, 'Don't be cruel to our sister, you sad, death-pale man.')13. 13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (Heine no 55). (I wept in my dream, for I dreamt you were in your grave: I woke, and tears ran down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, thinking you had abandoned me: I woke, and cried long and bitterly. I wept in my dream, dreaming you were still good to me: I woke, and even then my floods of tears poured forth.)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Heine no 56). (I see you every night in dreams, and see you greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and there is no sprig, and I have forgotten what the word was.)
15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es (Heine no 43). (The old fairy tales tell of a magic land where great flowers shine in the golden evening light, where trees speak and sing like a choir, and springs make music to dance to, and songs of love are sung such as you have never heard, till wondrous sweet longing infatuates you! Oh, could I only go there, and free my heart, and let go of all pain, and be blessed! Ah! I often see that land of joys in dreams: then comes the morning sun, and it vanishes like smoke.)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (Heine no 65). (The old bad songs, and the angry, bitter dreams, let us now bury them, bring a large coffin. I shall put very much therein, I shall not yet say what: the coffin must be bigger than the 'Tun' at Heidelberg. And bring a bier of stout, thick planks, they must be longer than the Bridge at Mainz. And bring me too twelve giants, who must be mightier than the Saint Christopher in the cathedral at Cologne. They must carry the coffin and throw it in the sea, because a coffin that large needs a large grave to put it in. Do you know why the coffin must be so big and heavy? I will also put my love and my suffering into it).
As a bonus, here is Souzay singing Widmung. In "Widmung," Schumann confessed all of the things his beloved Clara Wieck (Schumann) was to him; his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrows, better self and his heaven. In this carefully balanced arrangement of text and music, he revealed the depth of his engagement as a poet-musician. This spirited song contains a few devices which reappeared in his later works, including sweeping keyboard passages and the haunting enharmonic progression (A flat major to E flat major) to the central section. He altered the text by repeating the final verse, and these last measures contain a thoughtful instrumental effect, which eclipses the text and introduces a new motif.
Also, make sure that you check out our recent post of Austrian barihunk Markus Werba singing Schumann's "Faust."
Barihunk Kelly Markgraf received rave reviews for his Schumann recital which we recently posted about. You can read the entire review at the San Diego Union website. Here is the highlight:
"[I]n “Dichterliebe” baritone Kelly Markgraf and pianist Ken Noda offered a carefully calibrated rendering. These 16 songs, each a miniature world unto itself, offer no second chances. You just start to wrap your ears and mind around them and they are gone. Markgraf’s rich, assertive voice seemed to grow in warmth and flexibility as the cycle went on, while Noda seemed to channel Schumann’s unconscious intentions into his sensitive accompaniment."
Kudos to one of our readers who spotted this stunningly hot photo of Kelly Markgraf on Facebook.
You can hear Markgraf perform Schumann's Dichterlibe during the La Jolla Music Society's festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California on Tuesday, August 10, 2010.
Alert readers may recall an earlier appearance by the 31-year-old singer when he performed in New York City Opera's sexy production of Don Giovanni.
