Barihunk duo in Fort Worth's Pops at the Pavilion

Efrain Solis and Donovan Singletary

The Fort Worth Opera has announced that the barihunk duo of Efrain Solis and Donovan Singletary will perform in the first of two spring concerts on Sunday, March 29th. They'll be joined by fellow cast members from Puccini's La bohème, soprano Talise Trevigne, tenor Giordano Lucà and soprano Tracy Cantin. The performance will be at the Kimbell Art Museum's Renzo Piano Pavilion as part of the company's Pops at the Pavilion.

Efrain Solis sings Sondheim's Johanna:

A second concert on Wednesday, April 22th will feature soprano Talise Trevigne at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Tickets can be purchased online.

Efrain Solis will be singing Schaunard and Donovan Singletary will take on Colline in La bohème in both performances, which are on April 17 and 19. Tickets are available online.

Barihunk David Castillo fuses music and food in Seven Deadly Sins

Barihunk David Castillo and his Chefs (photo by Matthew & Becky Noel)

Barihunk David Castillo is taking a night off from singing to become the Creative Director for "The Seven Deadly Sins" at the St. Charles Room at Loyola University in New Orleans on Friday, January 6th.

The fusion-arts event will pair the seven deadly sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride) with food prepared by some of New Orleans' top culinary artists.

Audience  membes will revel in the seven deadly sins through the chefs’ sinful artistic interpretations in a seven-course tasting menu. Music will include Bach BWV 54 “Just Resist Sin,” Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Seven Deadly Sins,” and a performance by Counterclassic that fuses DJ, Instrumentalists, and Projection Mapping.

Efrain Solis, who has been featured on this site, will be joined by fellow opera singers Claire Shackleton, Benjamin Lee and Tyrone Chambers. Tickets are available online.

Castillo can next be heard as a singer on February 5th, when he performs Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. Tickets are available online.

Rare Hunkentenor-Bass/Barihunk concert in East Bay

Jonathan Blalock and Aaron Sørensen

One of the recipients of our proceeds from the Barihunks calendar was the team of hunkentenor Jonathan Blalock and Bass-Barihunk Aaron Sørensen, who came up with the novel idea for a concert with this rarely seen vocal combination.

The duo will perform music by George Gershwin, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Glen Roven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioacchino Rossini. The performance will be at Duende on Wed., May 21 at 7 PM  in the heart of Oakland's burgeoning arts district, The Uptown. Duende has become a popular destination for aficionados of alternative jazz and they've been eager to expand their musical offerings to include classical music. This will debut what we all hope is a regular feature on their calendar. A stones throw away from Duende is the restored Fox Theater, which features some of the biggest names in the music industry.  Tickets for the Blalock/Sørensen recital are available online.

This recital will also be the West Coast debut for two of the most talked about young artists in opera. Jonathan Blalock received rave notices from the New York Times and Alex Ross in the New Yorker for his riveting performance in Gregory Spears' Paul's Case, which featured barihunk Keith Phares. Aaron Sørensen is the bass voice that the opera world continuously clamors for and he recently appeared as the French General in Fort Worth Opera's production of Kevin Puts' Silent Night.

Efrain Solis in an ad for West Edge Opera

Blalock will be returning to the East Bay this summer in West Edge Opera's production of Philip Glass's Hydrogen Jukebox, featuring barihunk Efrain Solis and bass-barihunk Kenneth Kellogg. You can watch a preview of their exciting and innovative upcoming season above and get more information on their website. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you'll want to add their summer festival to calendar.

Met Competition Finalists Arrive in NY: Includes Seven Baritones

Brandon Cedel showing off his barihunk cred

Twenty singers, including seven baritones, who won regional competitions around the United States arrived in New York yesterday to begin rehearsals for the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The Met Auditions, this year celebrating their 60^th anniversary, are a major stepping stone to a career as an opera singer and were crucial in introducing many of today's best-known stars, such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Samuel Ramey, Deborah Voigt, and Dolora Zajick.

We were thrilled that over a third of the semi-finalists are baritones, who we will be rooting for. They include: Matthew Anchel, bass (Eastern Region; New York, NY); Brandon Cedel, bass-baritone (Middle Atlantic Region; Edward Nelson, baritone (Mid-South Region; Los Angeles, CA); Musa Ngqungwana, bass-baritone (Middle Atlantic Region; Richard Ollarsaba, bass-baritone (Upper Midwest Region; Tempe, AZ); Thomas Richards, bass-baritone (Central Region; Burnsville, MN); and, Efrain Solis, baritone (Western Region; Santa Ana, CA).

The semi-finalists will rehearse with the company's music staff for two days in preparation for the Semi-Finals competition on Sunday, March 3. The winners of that event will go on to sing in the Grand Finals Concert accompanied by the Met Orchestra on March 10 at 3 p.m. The finalists will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Concert, which is open to the public. 

Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online atwww.metopera.org. 

Other finalists include: Michael Brandenburg, tenor (Central Region; Austin, IN);  Hershey, PA); Tracy Cox, soprano (Western Region; Dallas, TX); William Davenport,  tenor (Middle Atlantic Region; Rockville, MD); Hye Jung Lee, soprano (Gulf Coast Region; Seoul, South Korea); Juan José de León, tenor (Great Lakes Region; Corpus Christi, TX); Christopher Lowrey, countertenor (New England Region; Johnston, RI); Sydney Mancasola, soprano (New England Region; Redding, CA); Felicia Moore, soprano (Eastern Region; Princeton, NJ);  Port Elizabeth, South Africa);  Rebecca Pedersen, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Bountiful, UT);  Jessica Strong, soprano (Northwest Region; Winnipeg, Manitoba); Karen Vuong, soprano (Eastern Region; Los Angeles, CA); Benjamin Werley, tenor (Midwest Region; Pittsburgh, PA); and,  Melinda Whittington, soprano (Southeast Region; Charlotte, NC).