Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco will make his Florentine Opera debut in Milwaukee as the title character in Rossini's The Barber of Seville on May 5th and 7th. He'll be joined in the cast by Taylor Stayton as Almaviva, Katrina Thurman as Berta, Peter Volpe as Basilio, Andrew Wilkowske as Bartolo and Spanish mezzo-soprano Carol Garcia making her U.S. debut as Rosina. The production will be conducted by Joseph Rescigno, who is now the longest-serving principal conductor in opera.
Orozco has racked up a number of other company debuts over the last two year, including with the Arizona Opera, Anchorage Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Michigan Opera Theater, Lyric Opera Baltimore, and Urban Arias. He previously sang the The Barber of Seville with Syracuse Opera.
He returns to his signature role of El Payador in Astor Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires at the Mill City Summer Opera from July 14-20. Tickets go on sale on May 8th.
Matthew Treviño will make his debut this weekend with the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee as Colline in Puccini's La bohème. The role is becoming a bit of a calling card for the Texas native, as he's performed it with Opera Carolina, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Fresno Grand Opera.
Treviño recently wrapped up a successful stint with the English National Opera where he performed Hobson in Britten's Peter Grimes and Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto.
Performances of La bohème are on Friday, May 9 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, May 11 at 2:30 PM. Tickets are available online.
Our latest "Reader Submission" is Pablo Siqueiros, who is one of this year's four Florentine Opera Studio Artists in Milwaukee. He isn't technically new to this site, as we featured him along with two other singers in 2011 when we asked readers who we've missed featuring. Now that he's well into his career development, we figured he deserved his own post.
He'll be joined by the other three artists, soprano Julie Tabash, tenor Aaron Short and mezzo-soprano Erin Gonzalez, for a holiday concert at the Wayne and Kristine Lueders Florentine Opera Center. They'll be performing on December
20and 21at 7:30 PM. For more information, visit their website or call
414-291-5700, ext. 224.
Prior to his residence with Florentine Opera, Siqueiros participated as a
Young Artist with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, where he performed the
roles of Mr. Lindquist in A Little Night Music, Jean-Paul in French Suite, and covered the role of Schlemil in The Tales of Hoffman.
As
a Studio Artist at Florentine Opera, he will perform the roles of Barone Douphol in La Traviata, Curio in Giulio Cesare in Egitto, and Customs Sergeant in La Bohème.
In the summer of 2012, Siqueiros debuted the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with
Bay View Music Festival. In 2011 he participated in the Los
Angeles-based OperaWorks Advanced Artist Program under the direction of
Ann Baltz.
Siqueiros has received awards from the Virginia Hawk Vocal Scholarship
Competition, NATS San Diego Chapter Auditions, and SDSU Symphony
Orchestra Soloist Competition.
He is a recent graduate with his Master of Music degree from the
Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he
performed the roles of Interpreter/2nd Doctor in Daron Hagenʼs Amelia, Silvester in Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters, Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte.
The San Diego native holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from San Diego
State University, where his passion for opera initiated. While at SDSU,
he performed the roles of Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. Previously, he was assistant to the
director of the choral program at Chula Vista High School, School for
the Creative and Performing Arts where the choirs received numerous
awards in Southern California as well as their first National
Championship. You can check out his audio clips on his website.
The recording of the Milwaukee-based Florentine Opera Company's production of Robert Aldridge's "Elmer Gantry" won two of the three Grammy Awards for which it was nominated.
Composer Robert
Aldridge won for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition" for the opera,
while the Naxos recording won for classical music's "Best Engineered Album." The recording also
was also nominated for "Classical Producer of the Year." The recording features barihunk Keith Phares, who has virtually owned the role. He has performed the work at Montclair State University, Nashville Opera and Florentine Opera.
Keith Phares & Jenny Rivera sing the love duet from Elmer Gantry:
Here is the complete list of classical music Grammy Award winners:
Choral Performance: “Light & Gold,” Eric Whitacre
Classical Contemporary Composition: “Elmer Gantry,” Robert Aldridge & Herschel Garfein
Producer of the Year, Classical: Judith Sherman
Orchestral Performance: “Brahms: Symphony No. 4,” Gustavo Dudamel
Opera Recording: “Adams: Doctor Atomic,” Alan Gilbert, conductor
Best Small Ensemble Performance: Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide
Best Classical Instrumental Solo: Schwantner: Concerto For Percussion & Orchestra Nashville Symphony.
Best Classical Vocal Solo: Diva Divo - Joyce DiDonato
With the Green Packers out of the playoffs and not heading back to the Super Bowl, the good folks of Wisconsin are looking for things to do other than shovel snow. We'd suggest trading one A.R. for another, meaning QB Aaron Rogers for bass-barihunk Anthony Reed.
On Wednesday, January 25th at 7:30 PM, Reed will be performing in a concert sponsored by the Florentine Opera. Reed will be joined by soprano Lindsay Sessing and tenor Kevin Newell. All three singers were winners in the 2011 Metropolitan Opera/Wisconsin District Auditions. The concert will be at St. John's on the Lake, 1840 N. Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. Call (414) 291-5700 for additional information.
Unlike a football game, we can pretty much guarantee that this will be a winner. The young bass has been impressing judges and honed his skills at the Seagle Music Colony.
Anthony Reed sings Mozart's "O Isis und Osiris" from the Magic Flute:
Anthony Reed and four other singers will now advance to the Midwest Regional Auditions to be held Feb. 4, 2012, at the Ordway Center Main Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Ricardo Rivera
A reader who attended the Metropolitan Opera National Council/Eastern Region Auditions alerted us to barihunk Ricardo Rivera who won 1st Place that day and will now advance to the National Semi-Finals on the Metropolitan Opera Stage in March.
Rivera has been cleaning up in competitions, having previously won 1st Place and the Audience Prize in the 2011 NY Lyric Opera Competition, 4th Place in the 2011 Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, Encouragement Awards from the 2011 Gerda Lissner, 2011 Licia Albanese-Puccini, 2011 MONC, 2010 Opera Index, and 2010 Career Bridges Competitions, and was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant in 2009.
On January 29th, he'll perform Orsini in Wagner's "Rienzi" with the Opera Orchestra of NY at Avery Fisher Hall. Click HERE for tickets and additional cast information. On February 15th, he'll be the baritone Soloist in Sophia Gubaidulina's "Perception" with the Pacifica Quartet and eighth blackbird in Chicago." Click HERE for additional information.
Barihunks would like to wish both singers the best of luck!
Sometimes barihunks inadvertently sneak past us even when they're right in our face. In November 2010, we posted about Gabriel Preisser and made a brief mention of Dan Richardson. A reader suggested that he should be featured on Barihunks and we concurred, but for no apparent reason we never did.
Here he is again with the gifted young barihunk Gabriel Preisser singing the famous duet from Bellini's "I Puritani." [Originally posted November 2010]
The Iowa-native recently joined the young artist program at the Florentine Opera Studio [Note to Florentine Opera Studio: You should list the names of your participants].
This past spring, he made his main stage debut with Opera Omaha as Prince Yamadori and the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Other recent roles include Méphistophélès in Faust with Opera Lousiane, Antonio and Figaro (cover) in Le nozze di Figaro with the Des Moines Metro Opera, andAngelottiin Tosca with the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre. He has also performed with the Sarasota Opera, Chamber Opera Chicago, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he performed the role of Don Bartolo for their “Opera in the Neighborhoods” production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
An excerpt of Dan Richardson singing "Il rival salvar tu dei" from Bellini's "I Puritani":
Greer Davis as Venus and Craig Verm as Adonis Florentine Opera (Photo by Kathy Wittman, Ball Square Films)
We recently posted about two production of "Dido & Aeneas" featuring buff barihunks Craig Verm and Zachary Gordin. Although we'll have to wait a week for Gordin's half-naked portrayal at West Bay Opera in Palo Alto, the reviews are in for Craig Verm. He was praised not only for his singing (which is still paramount), but his "sex appeal." Here's what the Third Coast Digest in Milwaukee had to say:
Craig Verm’s potent, lush baritone suits Adonis and Aeneas. Florescu and Verm conceived Adonis as essentially comic (until the poor fellow dies). Rivard and Meyers put him in a Fabio wig and beefcake outfit. Verm (who’s pretty buff) leaned into Davis’ fetching Venus with great and persistent ardor. Her deflections make for nifty comedy, even as the chemistry between them adds sex appeal (and one more thing to love about this show).
You can read the entire review by Tom Strini HERE.
Barihunk Keith Phares just wrapped up a run as the title character in Elmer Gantry at the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee. Phares performed with his wife Patricia Risley, who played the role of the evengelist Sharon Falconer. Phares performed in the world premier at the Nashville Opera, which we also covered on Barihunks. Check out the link which includes a video.
[Vale Rideout and Keith Phares]
Reviews seems to indicate that the audience had a mixed reaction to the opera, but Naxos announced that they were recording the opera from the two performances. The opera mixes operatic style with traditional American gospel hymns. The recording project is being funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfien, and contributions of members of the Florentine Opera Board of Directors. We're pleased to see that American opera is being preserved for posterity.
Phares now heads to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City where he will perform the title role in Don Giovanni from April 24-May 2.
