David Adam Moore returns to Atlanta Opera as Eugene Onegin

David Adam Moore in A Streetcar Named Desire (Photo: David Beloff)

American barihunk David Adam Moore returns to the Atlanta Opera on March 2nd in the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. He previously sang Schubert's Winterreise with the company in a  production designed by GLMMR with costumes by Moore's partner Vita Tzykun.

He last sang the role of Onegin with the Arizona Opera in 2015. The Atlanta cast includes tenor William Burden as Lensky, Raquel González as Tatyana and Megan Marino as Olga. There are additional performances on March 5, 8 and 10 and tickets are available online.

David Adam Moore highlights from Winterreise:

Tchaikovsky based his opera on Alexander Pushkin's s novel, which was written in verse and is considered a classic of Russian literature. The idea of setting the story to music was suggested to the composer by the great Russian mezzo-soprano Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya. Tchaikovsky arranged much of the verse himself into the libretto with help from his friend Konstantin Shilovsky.

Moore will also be making his Teatro Colòn debut in May 2019 singing one of greatest roles,  Stanley Kowalski in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. 

Iurii Samoilov makes US debut in Detroit

Iurii Samoilov (Photo by Maria Shkoda)

Iurii Samoilov made his long overdue American debut on October 13th singing the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit. The cast also includes Corinne Winters as Tatyana, Jamez McCorkle as Lensky and Carolyn Sproule as Olga.

There will be additional performances on October 17, 19 and 21 and tickets are available online.

Samoilov first sang the role of Onegin at age 19 in his native Ukraine. 

He will return to his home base at the Oper Franfurt to sing Riccardo in Bellini's I Puritani on December 2.  According to his website, he is also slated to make his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the near future.

Christopher Bolduc takes on Don Giovanni in new concept

Christopher Bolduc (right) as Don Giovanni in Wiesbaden

Christopher Bolduc continues to make his mark at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in Germany, where he has performed Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore, Lescaut in Massenet's Manon, Wolfram von Eschenbach in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte.

His latest performance will be in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni in Nicholas Brieger's new concept where the Don's conflict is as much with growing older, as it is with women. The current run goes from June 17-29 and includes Netta Or as Donna Anna, Ioan Hotea as Don Ottavio, Young Doo Park as the Commedatore, Heather Engebretson as Donna Elvira, Shavleg Armasi as Leporello, Benjamin Russell as Masetto and Katharina Konradi as Zerlina. The production returns later this year in September and October, as well next year from January 30-February 23. Tickets are available online.

Christopher Bolduc sings Britten's "O Waly, Waly":

Bolduc will take a break from playing Mozart's most famous seducer in November to sing the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin opening on November 10th.

Regular readers will remember his recent sexy debut at the National Theatre (Národní divaldo) in Prague in the title role of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. The photos are worth checking out HERE.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky cancels upcoming concert

The following notice appeared on the website of the National Concert Hall where barihunk Dmitri Hvorostovsky was scheduled to perform on April 29th.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky deeply regrets that he must cancel his recital due to a change in the schedule for his cancer treatments.

Information about the concert has been removed from the Hvorostovsky’s official website, but his manager says that the Russian singer still plans on performing in a gala concert in Toronto on April 25th along with soprano Anna Netrebko and her husband tenor Yusif Eyvazov.

Hvorostovsky was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the summer of 2015 and subsequently cancelled concerts in Kaliningrad, Minsk and Vienna, as well as performances in the Met's current production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. He was replaced by fellow barihunks Peter Mattei and Mariusz Kwiecien.

Barihunk trio in Garsington Opera season

Roderick Williams (photo: Mark Douet) and Quirijn de Lang (photo: Johan Persson)

The 2016 Garsington Opera is well under way and will be running until July 17. They are presenting Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri and a production of Haydn’s The Creation. which incorporates dance. All three operas feature barihunks! The performances are at the Opera Pavilion on the gorgeous, rolling landscape of the Chiltern Hills, less than an hour from London.

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, directed by Michael Boyd, features British barihunk Roderick Williams making his role debut and festival debut as Onegin. He'll be joined by Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw asTatyana and Ukrainian tenor Oleksiy Palchykov as Lensky.

Nicholas Masters timelapse video of makeup prep for Idomeneo:

Mozart’s Idomeneo, directed by Tim Albery, features barihunk Nicholas Masters as Neptune, who will be joined by tenor Toby Spence in the title role and Rebecca von Lipinski as Elletra.

Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, directed by Olivier award-winner Will Tuckett, will feature Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang as Mustafa and Mary Bevan as his long-suffering wife Elvira.

Garsington Opera will also host a number of public screenings of Eugene Onegin in isolated coastal and rural communities, including in Skegness on July 2, Ramsgate from July 25 - 30, Bridgewater on August 20 and Grimsby on September 30.

Watch Dmitri Hvorostovsky's triumphant return to Russia

Dmitri Hvorostovsky

Dmitri Hvorostovsky is back performing regularly after undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. He briefly returned to the stage on September 25, 29 and October 3 to sing some of his scheduled performances of Count di Luna in Verdi's Il trovatore at The Met. The outpouring of love for the Siberian barihunk has been universal, as he's been met with thunderous applause wherever he's gone and social media was filled with "get well" wishes.

On October 12, Russian president Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Alexander Nevsky, one of the country's highest honors.

On October 29th he made a triumphant return to the concert stage joined by mezzo Elīna Garanča at the Kremlin Palace. which they repeated on November 2. They sang selections from Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Il trovatore, La favorita, The Merry Widow and Don Giovanni. You can watch the concert below. You won't want to miss his encore, which was so moving that Elīna Garanča had to wipe away her tears.

On November 18th, he joins fellow barihunk Ildar Abdrazakov at the Bashkir Opera. He returns to the stage on December 19, when he appears in the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House in London.

He returns to the US stage on February 3rd as Count di Luna in Verdi's Il trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera. This is a reprise of the role he first performed after cancer treatment at The Met on September 25, 29 and October 3 of this year.

MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGER FROM 9 COUNTRIES.

Marco Vassalli & Malte Roesner

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Barihunks duo in sold out Onegin in Munich

Mariusz Kwiecien and Anna Netrebko in Eugene Onegin rehearsals

Good luck trying to get tickets for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Munich Summer Opera Festival. The show features and all-star cast led by barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin and Günther Groissböck as Gremin, Anna Netrebko as Tatiana and hunkentenor Pavol Breslik as Lensky. Tickets for both the July 26 and 29 shows are completely sold out.

Fans of Günther Groissböck in Munich need not be dismayed if they can't get tickets, as he'll be back next season in Lohengrin, Der Rosenkavalier and La Juive.

Charles Rice to make role debut as Eugene Onegin

Charles Rice and Gelena Gaskarova in Eugene Onegin

British barihunk will be making his role debut as Eugene Onegin in Tchaikovsky's operatic masterpiece in Nantes and Angers. He previously performed the role of Zaretsky in the opera at the Iford Festival Opera. He'll be part of an all-star cast that includes Gelena Gaskarova as Tatiana, Diana Montague as Madame Larina, Oleg Tsibulko as Prince Gremin and Suren Maksutov as Lensky.

The opera will run from May 19-28 at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes and then be performed at the Grand Théâtre in Angers on June 14 and 16.

Charles Rice in 2012 singing Eugene Onegin in recital:

Recent engagements have included Sid in Britten's Albert Herring with the English Touring Opera, Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes at the Aldeburgh Festival, Morales in Bizet's Carmen at theRoyal Albert Hall and Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca for Grange Park Opera. Rice studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. He was a finalist at Les Azuriales Young Artists Competition 2009 in France and winner of the Garsington Prize 2009.

In December, he heads to the Stasttheater Klagenfurt to sing Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen.

James Newby taking on ill-fated romantic leads

James Newby as Eugene Onegin in London

British barihunk James Newby is performing two very different lovers, both of whom don't see their stories end too well. He just wrapped up a run in the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at St Andrews Church in London and will return to the venue from April 11-16 when he sings Don Giovanni with the Moon-Little Theatre. We'll have additional details soon.

We first featured James Newby back in August 2013, when the 20-year-old rugby-playing baritone was brought to our attention via Twitter (follow him @jamesn103) . He is currently in his third year of study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Newby previously studied with barihunk Omar Ebrahim, who blew up our site when he went for the Full Monty in a post.

We subsequently featured him with vlogger Davey Wavey as part of the barbershop quartet Short, Back and Sides singing "To Russia With (Gay) Love.” The video showed the worldwide support for LGBT Russians from people across the globe. Check out their website and their selection of soundclips.

If you love great low voices, visiting Artist in Voice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music Matthew Rose will perform Schubert’s Die Winterreise with pianist Gary Matthewman on February 6th as part of their Chapel Concert Series. The event is free, but requires tickets.

Reader Submission: Takaoki Onishi

Takaoki Onishi

Our latest Reader Submission is Japanese baritone Takaoki Onishi. He has won the Top Prize in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and the First Prize in both the Opera Index, Inc. Vocal Competition and the Licia Albanese - Puccini International Vocal Competition. He also received a prize in the 2013 Loren L. Zachary Competition, as well as two Grants from the Giulio Gari Foundation.

He made his Lincoln Center debut in the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital at Alice Tully Hall. He has been awarded a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and he received the Makiko Narumi Prize for Outstanding Singer by the Juilliard School.

In 2013, Onishi created the leading male role in the world premiere of Marty Regan’s The Memory Stone, which was presented by the Houston Grand Opera’s East/West program. This spring in New York, he sang in two concerts in the Schubert & Company series, as well as appearing as baritone soloist in Franz Schubert's Mass No. 2 in G major, D.167 at Rockefeller University and in Brahms Requiem with West Village Chorale in New York..

In February, he performed the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Juilliard Opera and in March he performed Jesus in Bach's St. Matthew's Passion. He will also return to Japan to sing in several concerts of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, as well as a solo recital in Tokyo. On June 7th,  he sings at The Opera Ball at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Reader submissions are always welcome at Barihunks@gmail.com

Reader Submission: Tim Stolte

Tim Stolte

Our latest Reader Submission comes to us from a reader in Germany, who informed us that Tim Stolte was a late addition to the Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition, which begins on Friday, April 25. If he makes it to the finals, he'll perform in the gala on Saturday, May 3rd with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra.  1st prize at the competition is  € 20.000, 2nd prize is € 12.000, 3rd prize is € 6.000 and 4th prize is  € 3.000, with and additional Audience prize of € 2.000 and Youth prize of € 1.300.

The 37-year-old German graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg in 2007 where he studied with the great soprano Hanna Schwarz. In 2007, he made his  debut as Dandino in Rossini's La Cenerentola) at the Castle Festival Weikersheim.

From 2008 to 2010,  Stolte was an ensemble member at the Mecklenburg State Theatre where he made his role debut as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen. From 2010 to 2013, he was a member of the Theater Görlitz, where he performed the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La Traviata, Conte Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and Dr. Falke in Strauss' Die Fledermaus.

After the Melchior competition, he returns to Görlitz to perform Herr Fluth in Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor.   

Barihunks and Mariusz Kwiecien together in The Telegraph

We're big fans of music critic Rupert Christiansen in The Telegraph, so we were thrilled when his profile on über-barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien included a link to our site and a mention in the headline. Christiansen goes on to write:

"...another erotic phenomenon in classical music has gone wild on the internet: the cult of “the barihunk”. Its pitch is that the more palpitating charm in opera emanates not from purveyors of high Cs but gym-buffed baritones with smouldering voices to match their six-pack abs."

We love being included in an article on Mariusz Kwiecien, since he was the original inspiration to create the site. Early discussions were actually about creating a Kwiecien fan site, but it seemed too limiting and casting a wider net seemed much more interesting.

Mariusz Kwiecien as Don Giovanni (photo: Bill Cooper)

Kwiecien has just opened at the Royal Opera House in Kasper Holten's amazing production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which we recently previewed. The cast also includes barihunks Alex Esposito as his sidekick Leporello and the thrilling Alexander Tsymbalyuk as the Commendatore.

The entire run is sold out through the final performance on February 24th. Don't fret if you missed buying tickets, as the February 12th performance will be broadcast live to cinemas in Europe. and taped for screenings worldwide throughout March. If you're in Europe, check the Royal Opera House website for listings. If you're outside of Europe, check your local movie listings.

Kwiecien will appear next at the Vienna State Opera in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin from March 7-14, before returning to the Metropolitan Opera from April 17-May 10 in Bellini's I Puritani.

Met Season opens with Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin

Mariusz Kwiecien & Anna Netrebko

Tonight the Metropolitan Opera opened its 2013-14 season with Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," starring barihunk Maurisz Kwiecien, soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Piotr Beczala. Valery Gergiev will conduct Deborah Warner's new production directed by Fiona Shaw. The opera was last performed at the Met in 2009 in Robert Carsen's minimalist production.

Performances of "Eugene Onegin" will run through October 19, with the October 5 performance being transmitted in Live in HD in movie theaters around the world. On Nov. 23, the opera will be revived with barihunk Peter Mattei, soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenor Rolando Villazon in the lead roles.

Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin at the Bolshoi in 2008:

Anna Netrebko will be teaming up with her barihunk husband Erwin Schrott at The Met, opening in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore on January 9, 2014. 

On September 28, another popular barihunk will take the stage, as Paulo Szot opens as Kovalyov in Shostakovich's The Nose.

Listen to Simon Keenlyside on BBC3 in Eugene Onegin

Simon Keenlyside and Krassimira Stoyanova in Eugene Onegin

Make sure to tune in to BBC Radio 3 all week to hear Simon Keenlyside in the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The performance was recorded earlier this year at the Royal Opera House and was Kasper Holten's first production for the company after taking over as Director of Opera. The cast includes Krassimira Stoyanova as Tatyana, Diana Montague as Madame Larina and Pavol Breslik as Lensky.

Simon Keenlyside and Krassimira Stoyanova in Eugene Onegin:

Keenlyside can currently be seen in Wozzeck at the Teatro Real in Madrid with Nadja Michael as Marie. Performances run from June 3-20 and tickets are available online.

Watch Simon Keenlyside in Eugene Onegin (if you live in UK)

Simon Keenlyside and Krassimira Stoyanova

If you're in the U.K., you can watch a new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with the ageless barihunk Simon Keenlyside as Onegin and soprano Krassimira Stoyanova as Tatyana.  The opera from the Royal Opera House was broadcast yesterday under the baton of Robin Ticciati. The opera is introduced by Kasper Holten who makes his debut as stage director at the ROH. Because it's a BBC iPlayer telecast, it's only available in the United Kingdom. The broadcast is available until April 19th.

Regardless of where you are, you can always listen to the BBC radio online with their generous offering of opera.

Mariusz Kwiecien

Next up at the Royal Opera House is barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien as Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa in Verdi's Don Carlo. The cast also includes the riveting Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip II and hunkentenor Jonas Kaufmann as Don Carlo. Most performances are sold out or nearly sold out, so order your tickets online today.

Dreamy Casting: Barihunks on the air

Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Don Giovanni

Thanks to a heads up from an alert reader, we've learned that Edwin Crossley-Mercer just performed his first Don Giovanni in Dijon, France. He was joined by fellow barihunk Damien Pass as Masetto. If you missed the performance, you're in luck, as it's temporarily available on Medici.tv. Click HERE to watch the entire performance.

Medici.tv has a number of current releases featuring barihunks, including Purcell's Dido and Æneas with Lucas Meachem, Gounod's Romeo and Juliet with François Le Roux, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with Stéphane Degout and Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise featuring both Henk Neven and Rod Gilfry.

Guido Loconsolo

On April 4th, Italian barihunk Guido Loconsolo makes his Met debut as the scheming Egyptian general Achilla in Handel's Giulio Cesare. He'll be part of a dream cast that includes David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Alice Coote and the amazing Christophe Dumaux as Tolomeo.

You can watch the April 27th matinee as part of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series which will be transmitted live around the world.

Guido Loconsolo previously sang the role of Achilla at Glyndebourne. Earlier this season, he sang the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne, Publio in a new production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in Freiburg and Essen, Germany.

Simon Keenlyside

Fans of Simon Keenlyside will get plenty of chances to hear the ageless barihunk online. On April 6th, Radio France will broadcast his performance of Berg's Wozzeck from the Vienna, Staatsoper under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. On April 25, BBC 3 will rebroadcast his Macbeth opposite the riveting Lady Macbeth of Liudmyla Monastyrska from the Royal Opera House. This is a performance that is not to be missed! BBC 3 has also announced that they will be broadcasting Keenlyside's Eugene Onegin from the Royal Opera House. The date and time has not been announced, but we believe that it will be June 1st.

Morgan Smith

On Sunday, April 7th at 8:00 PM/PST San Francisco's KDFC will broadcast Jake Heggie's latest masterpiece Moby-Dick. The opera stars barihunk Morgan Smith along with Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne, Matthew O'Neill and Robert Orth. The performance is a rebroadcast from last season.

Des Moines Metro Opera singers hit the gym

Des Moines Metro Opera singers hit the gym
(L-R) Alexander Elliot, Marco Cammarota, Ian Richardson, Gabriel Nochlin-Gargari and Michael Mayes

Our recent post about the quartet of barihunks at the Merola Opera Program generated a lot of interest, which made us realize that you like your singers delivered to you in bunches. So we couldn't resist this group photo of five singers from the Des Moines Metro Opera company hitting the gym. Alexander Elliot, Ian Richardson and Michael Mayes (front center) are all baritones, while Marco Cammarota and Gabriel Nochlin-Gargari are tenors. We have to admit, it's nice to see that tenors are hitting the gym, too. We've heard Nochlin-Gargari used to be a gymnast, so fitness is nothing new to this emerging character tenor.

Michael Mayes working out for "Dead Man Walking" in Tulsa

Michael Mayes will be the lead in Mozart's Don Giovanni, which opens on June 22 and runs through July 15. His Masetto will be Edward Hanlon, who was a 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Semi-Finalist. Also, don't forget to tune in to Michael Mayes' hilarious Texapolitan Opera Roadshow podcast, which is some of the most entertaining stuff about opera on the web. We highly recommend Episode 21 with tenor Chad Johnson, which was taped last year in Des Moines and remains some of the funniest stuff around. PERIOD.

Alexander Elliot

Alexander Elliot, who is an apprentice artist, will be covering John Moore in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Edward Hanlon in La boheme at Seagle Music Colony

Ian Richardson will be covering Hanlon as Masetto and starring in the Des Moines Metro Opera apprentice artist scenes. There are four remaining performances of the scenes on June 27 and 30, and July 5 and 11. Many of the scenes are directed by John De Los Santos, who we named as our Best Director in our "2011 Best of Barihunks" feature for his work on Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado at the Fort Worth Opera Festival. He will also be choreographing Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Check out his work below.

In addition to Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin, the Des Moines Metro Opera season will feature Puccini's La Rondine. Tickets for all of the operas and apprentice scenes are available on their website. If you're anywhere nearby (and we know it's a quick trip from Omaha, Minneapolis and Chicago), you should check out this opera company, which continues to present some of the best young talent around.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Reader Submission: Dmitry Zuev

Dmitry Zuev

We don't get many emails from Russia, so we perked up when we saw an email suggesting we check out the guy singing the title role in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre in Moscow.

Zuev was born in Russia and studied at the famous Moscow State Conservatory. His repertoire includes Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Gryaznoi in The Tsar's Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov), Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Marcello in La boheme (Puccini), the title role in Yevgeny Onegin (Tchaikovsky) and others. He has performed in Israel, Spain, Great Britain, Italy, Estonia and Azerbaijan.

The next performance of Eugene Onegin is on Thursday, April 5th.

We'll keep an eye on this singer as his career progresses. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any video, but here is another famous Russian, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, singing Eugene Onegin.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

"Brokeback Onegin" returns to Munich with new cast

Simon Keenlyside (L), Ain Anger (C) and Pavol Breslik in Eugene Onegin

The famous "Brokeback Onegin" is back at the Bayerische Staatsoper with a new cast that includes barihunks Simon Keenlyside as Onegin and Ain Anger as Gremin. Regular readers might recall that the original production, which generated worldwide press attention, featured barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin and Gunther Groissboeck as Gremin decked out in a muscle tee shirt. From the photo above, it looks like Anger looks pretty good in the muscle tee shirt, as well.

The "Brokeback Boys" backstage and onstage in Onegin

The production is directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, who envisions the opera as a story of suppressed homosexuality and a desire to break free from society. The production was inspired by Tchaikovsky's life story, "Brokeback Mountain" and Warlikowski´s own childhood in a suburban working class ghetto in Poland. When it first premiered in 2008, it was greeted by a combination of critical praise and outrage. The production, which was broadcast in Germany today, has become a bit of a cult classic amongst opera aficionados. There is one performance remaining on Wednesday, March 28th.

Watch the trailer from the 2008 production:

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Should Fellow Singers be Afraid of Günther Groissböck?

Scary? He looks so sweet

Our post about barihunks Thomas Hampson and Günther Groissböck generated a lot of traffic and interest. Much of it seemed focused on Austrian bass-barihunk Günther Groissböck. Our favorite was a comment from another barihunk, Kyle Ketelsen, who commented about performing Leporello opposite Groissböck's Commendatore on Facebook. Ketelsen said that  Groissböck always "scared the shit outta me" around the 3:35 mark of the following scene from he infamous Don Giovanni production by Calixto Bieito at the Liceu in Barcelona is 2008. We can see why!!!

The much discussed and debated production also featured barihunk Simon Keenlyside in the title role and we featured it in previous posts. Calixto Bieto is currently making his U.S. debut in a reimagination of Tennessee Williams' play Camino Real at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Needless to say, he's generating just as much controversy on this side of the Pond.

Günther Groissböck in Die Zauberflote. Nice hair?

We've heard from other singers about Groissböck's dramatic intensity and imposing presence on stage. One soprano wrote us that she was always afraid that he was going to grab her by the hair and throw her down onto the stage. Regular readers and opera buffs may recall that Groissböck also starred in the controversial "Brokeback Onegin" in Munich that featured shirtless dancing cowboys and Groissböck in bed with Lensky.

The Comendatore's entrance and DonGiovanni's descent into hell:

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com