Atilla and Mefistofele to get San Francisco airings; Some Sam Ramey history

Samuel Ramey and Ildar Abdrazakov

Lovers of low voices in the San Francisco Bay Are area in for a real treat this summer, as their local PBS station KQED has announced that both Verdi's Attila and Boito's Mefestofle will be aired.

Attila will feature a veritable feast of Verdi low voices, led by the legendary Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role, Quinn Kelsey as Ezio and Samuel Ramey as Pope Leo I. The 1846 masterpiece about the legendary warrior who is tormented by internal doubts will air on Thursday, August 3 on KQED Channel 9.

Verdi’s 1846 masterpiece about a legendary warrior who is tormented by internal doubts, will air on Thursday, August 3 on KQED 9 - See more at: https://sfopera.com/about-us/press-room/press-releases/KQED-Attila-Mefi/#sthash.LC1AnggY.dpuf

Boito’s Mefistofele will feature barihunk Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role accompanied by Ramón Vargas and Patricia Racette. The retelling of the Faust legend will be telecast on Thursday, August 24th. Adventurous opera goes can also see Abdrazakov as Attilla, as he will be singing the role in April at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Barihunk afficionados will recall that Samuel Ramey attained barihunk status before the word was even coined, when he sang Mefistofele at the San Francisco Opera in 1989 in a cast that included Daniel Harper as Wagner, Gabriela Benacková as Margherita and Dennis O'Neill as Faust. He secured his barihunk status as Attila in 1991 with the company, in a cast that included Elizabeth Connell as Odabella, Vladimir Chernov as Ezio, Philip Skinner as Pope Leo I and Craig Estep as Uldino.

Barihunks on the air from Lyric Opera of Chicago

Thomas Hampson

If you love great baritone singing, make sure to tune in your radio or go online to WFMT, Chicago's public radio station. The next three Saturday's will feature a bevvy of our favorite singers including three in this week's broadcast of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. The opera will feature the ageless barihunk Thomas Hampson in the title role alongside the riveting Ferruccio Furlanetto as Fiesco and rising superstar Quinn Kelsey as Paolo. Amelia will be sung by Krassimira Stoyanova and Adorno by Frank Lopardo.

Hampson is currently starring in Verdi's La traviata at the Wiener Staatsoper. 

Craig Verm

The following week barihunk Craig Verm can be heard as Albert in Massenet's Werther, in a cast that includes tenor sensation Matthew Polenzani in the title role and Sophie Koch as Charlotte. Verm opens as Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes at the Des Moines Metro Opera on June 22nd.

On June 1st, Italian sex symbol Ildebrando D'Arcangelo takes on the very un-barihunk title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale opposite the Norina of Marlis Petersen. D'Arcangelo is currently performing the role of Selim in Rossini's comic masterpiece Il turco in Italia at Barcelona's beautiful Gran Theatre del Liceu.

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Future broadcasts include Richard Strauss' Elektra, Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel, Puccini's La boheme, Wagner's Die Meistersinger, Verdi's Rigoletto and Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire with an all-star cast featuring barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and soprano Renée Fleming. 

NY Post: "He's bari-toned!" - Opera and Fitness

Ildar Abdrazakov

Today' New York Post features an article called "He's bari-toned!," about the new obsession that some opera singers have for fitness. First of all, we love the word "bari-toned" as a term for an opera singer getting fit. (Urban Dictionary, are you listening?). The article also features a "before and after" gallery of soprano Maria Callas, baritone Stan Lacy, tenor Michael Fabiano and soprano Deborah Voight.

With the advent of HD broadcast and YouTube, the issue of a singer's appearance is gaining more attention. Savvy singers are realizing that they're competing with movies and television, as much as the rival singer auditioning for the Met. Singers are also realizing that a healthy diet and a good fitness regimen is lengthening careers in an era of increasing competition. There's a reason that a buff 50-year Dmitri Hvorostovsky is busier than ever or the active 63-year old Ferruccio Furlanetto is playing roles like Attila, a plum leading role sought by singers half his age.

The amazing transformation of emerging talent Chris Carr

It's also refreshing to see someone like Met General Manager Peter Gelb admit that HD broadcasts play into the equation when casting, but also acknowledging that no-one is going to pass up a great voice. What gets lost in this article is the nuance of casting a Brunnhilde or casting a La boheme for international HD broadcast. Also, the old assumption that Maria Callas' voice faded solely because of her weight loss is a huge canard. In 1952, after director Luchino Visconti suggested that she lose weight, the singer swallowed doses of iodine which adversely affected her voice. It wasn't the weight loss, it was how she chose to lose weight.

Seth Carico: Before and After

Singers today, are losing weight through proper diet, exercise and yoga. Many singers like Seth Carico used the Spartacus workout routine to shed a few dozen pounds. Facebook even has a Spartacus site for opera singers called Operaticus where tenors, mezzos, baritones and sopranos share stories and photos about getting in shape. Singers use the site to find others in the area who want to work out together, suggest workout music, ask questions and kvetch about having to get through a routine.

Michael Mayes: Bari-Chunk to Bari-Hunk"

We've seen some amazing physical transformations on this site, including Michael Mayes, whose career took off after an amazing physical transformation allowed him to embody the role of Joseph De Roucher in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, and Chris Carr, who suddenly stood out in a group of emerging young singers as a believable physical and vocal artist. In fact, Michael Mayes' feature "Bari-Chunk to Bari-Hunk" has remained one of our most visited posts and has been cited to us by numerous singers of all vocal types as an inspiration to live a healthier life and work on their appearance. And who can forget William Berger's amazing transformation that made him an operatic pinup boy overnight?

We'll leave you with the words of Peter Gelb from the New York Post's article:

The Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, says that while larger singers aren’t overlooked, appearance is often a consideration. “We don’t pass on any great singers,” insists Gelb, “but we’re also looking for people who are believable in the world they play.” So does the Met cherry-pick its stars with its eyes more than its ears? “We audition with both,” Gelb says, adding: “If you can’t sing on the stage of the Met, it doesn’t matter what you look like.”

If you want to enjoy an entire year of buff baritones, make sure to order you Barihunks calendar today! It's just over two weeks until 2013 arrives and you won't want to miss one day of these hot guys.

Click below for the standard size calendar:

Click below for the oversized calendar:

Watch Thomas Hampson's latest Mahler performance; Verdi's Simon Boccanegra in Chicago

Thomas Hampson & Ferrucio Furlanetto

The ageless American barihunk Thomas Hampson launched the 2012-13 season of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande singing music by the composer with whom he is perhaps most closely associated: Gustav Mahler. The performance of "Das Lied von der Erde" is now available online and we figured it was a beautiful way to the start the week, so we posted it below.

Hampson and tenor Paul Groves performed the piece under Music and Artistic director Neeme Järvi, for two concerts in September in Geneva’s Victoria Hall.  

This unique and transcendent “song-symphony,” featuring texts of Chinese poetry translated into German, with additional texts by Mahler himself, explores nothing less than the meaning of life, from the innocent joys of youth to the inevitable parting from this world.  True to the work’s inspiration, Mahler infuses the orchestral sound with many evocative Eastern touches.  

Hampson recorded “Das Lied” in 1995 with Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and again in 2007 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

Hampson is currently performing the title role in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago through November 9th. As and added treat, the Fiesco is the great Italian Verdi specialist Ferrucio Furlanetto and Paolo is the rising Verdi baritone star Quinn Kelsey. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Ildar Abdrazakov reprises successful Attila

Ildar Abdrazakov in a Met promo photo

We first posted Ildar Abdrazakov as Attila in Verdi's, when he was singing the role in Peru before taking the role to The Met. The post drew an enormous amount of interest and continues to receive a huge number of hits.

The Russian bass in back as the Hun leader in a Pier Luigi Pizzi production at the Teatro dell'Opera Roma under the baton of maestro Riccardo Muti. Also in the cast is fellow barihunk Luca Dall’Amico in the role of Leone. Performances run from May 25 through June 5th.

Luca Dall’Amico with a former Attila, Samuel Ramey

After wrapping up in Rome, Abdrazakov will perform the role in a concert version at the Mikkeli Music Festival under maestro Valery Gergiev. The performance on July 5th at the Mikkeli’s Wooden Church will be only the third performance of the early Verdi masterpiece in Finland.

Ildar Abdrazakov and Claudio Sgura perform “Tardo per gli anni” from Attila:

The San Francisco Opera will also be performing Atilla this summer from June 12-July 1 with a much older Attila than is normally cast in the dramatically intense Ferruccio Furlanetto. The 63-year-old Furlanetto is about 15 years older than Attila was at his death. The cast will include another  great Attila of the past, Samuel Ramey, in the critical but small role of Pope Leo I.

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Early Verdi with Giorgio Caoduro (and some upcoming Attila performances)

Giorgio Caoduro (with Ortrud) and Stefan Kocan

We're huge fans of early Verdi operas at Barihunks, but we don't get nearly enough opportunities to post about them. Recently there have been a number of companies performing Attila, which often features multiple barihunks in the cast. Fortunately, the trend seems to be continuing in 2012.

In May, barihunk Ildar Abdrazakov will take on the title role in Rome in a production by Pier Luigi Pizzi and conducted by Riccardo Muti. Barihunk Luca Dall’Amico will perform the role of Leone. The San Francisco Opera performs it this summer with one of the greatest Attila's ever, Samuel Ramey, in the smaller role of Leone. The great baritone duet will be sung by Ferruccio Furlanetto and Quinn Kelsey, who portray Attila and Ezio respectively. In September, the opera opens in Santiago with barihunk Stefan Kocan in the title role. 

One of the operas that rarely gets performed is La battaglia di Legnano, which has amazing moments of inspiration, Verdian patriotic fervor, a love triangle and some great baritone music (even though the best known piece is the tenor aria "La pia materna mano"). Verdi, in fact, was a baritone and loved writing great roles in that range.

We were thrilled when a reader sent us a video of barihunk Giorgio Caoduro singing the great baritone aria and cabaletta "Se al nuovo di pugnando...Ah scellerate alme d'inferno"" from a recent performance of La battaglia di Legnano at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.



Caoduro can next be seen at the Opéra de Lyon where he is donning his matadors outfit for Escamillo. He can next be seen in the United States in March 2013 at the Washington National Opera singing Lescaut opposite the Manon Lescaut of Patricia Racette. 

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Dmitri Hvorostovsky Coming to a Theatre Near You

Dmitri Hvorostovsky excels in Ernani

On February 2nd, Dmitri Hvorostovsky made his role debut as Don Carlo in Giuseppe Verdi's "Ernani" at the Metropolitan Opera. You can watch the "Siberian Hunky" baritone’s Ernani performances in a Live in HD cinema broadcast on February 25. There will be encore performances in the U.S. on March 14 and in Canada on March 31. Click here to purchase tickets for the Live in HD broadcast nearest to you.

Also, make sure to read this wonderful article from Opera News, which talks about his increasing focus on Verdi and his approach to his career. 

Trovatore at the Met (© Beth Bergman) & Posa in Don Carlo (© Johan Elbers 2012)

Verdi continues to be the focus of Hvorostovsky, as he heads to Vienna for a run as the title character in Simon Boccanegra from March 5-13. Marina Poplavskaya will perform Amelia and Ferruccio Furlanetto, who is de Silva in Ernani, will star as Fiesco. Limited tickets are available and can be purchased HERE. 

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