Barihunks featured in simultaneous productions of Florencia en el Amazonas

Nmon Ford and Steven LaBrie

Two production of Daniel Catán's exotic opera Florencia en el Amazonas are happening almost simultaneously in two very different parts of the United States. Both productions will feature barihunks, with the Madison Opera featuring Nmon Ford and Florida Grand Opera starring Steven LaBrie as Riolobo.

Florida Grand Opera will present five performances between April 28-May 5. Tickets and additional cast information is available online. The Madison Opera will present two performances on April 27 and 29, with tickets and additional cast information available online.

The role of Riolobo has become a popular barihunk vehicle, with such notables as Nathan Gunn, Gabriel Preisser, Shannon De Vine, Luis Alejandro Orozco, Norman Garrett, José Carbó, Joseph Lattanzi and Keith Miller all taking on the role of the ship's mate, who is the focus of the magical realism of the piece. 

Andrew Garland sings Riolobo's Invocation from Florencia:

The two-act opera Florencia en al Amazonas is set on the steamboat El Dorado in 1910, where the famous opera singer Florencia is traveling down the Amazon to perform in Manaus. Florencia desires to encounter her lost love, a butterfly hunter who entered the jungle and never returned. The dramas aboard the steamboat weave love, conflict, loss, a violent storm, and ultimately a cholera epidemic that keeps the passengers quarantined and Florencia’s dream apparently dashed.

In 1996, Florencia en al Amazonas was the first Spanish-language opera to be commissioned by a major American opera house. It premiered at the Houston Grand Opera, and was subsequently performed at the Los Angeles Opera and the Seattle Opera. Daniel Catán died in 2011 at age 62, shortly after the premiere of his last opera, Il Postino, based on the popular Italian film. At the time of his death, he was at work on a new piece, Meet John Doe, inspired by Frank Capra’s classic film of the same title.

"Before Night Falls" gets revival in Miami

Wes Mason as Reinaldo Arenas (left) and Elliot Madore (right)

Jorge Martín's opera Before Night Falls will get its first revival since the summer of 2010, when it premiered at the Fort Worth Opera. The Florida Grand Opera will perform the opera from March 18-25 at the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House in Miami.

Barihunk Elliot Madore will sing the role of Reinaldo Arenas. The only cast member returning from the original production is tenor Javier Abreu, who is reprising the role of Pepe.

Based on the famous memoir of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls follows Arenas’ life from childhood poverty in the Cuban countryside to his emigration to the United States in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, and his last decade in New York City. Disillusioned by the Cuban Revolution and persecuted by the Castro regime as a dissident writer and gay man, the opera follows his trials and tribulations as a political prisoner forced to smuggle his manuscripts abroad for publication.

In 2000, Before Night Falls was made into an award-winning feature film directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp.

Reinaldo Arenas led a life full of tragedy and didn't live to make any real money off his writing. While dying of AIDS in 1990, he committed suicide in his New York apartment because he did not want return to a hospital.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

John Moore makes two company debuts

John Moore

Barihunk John Moore made his company debut yesterday at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, as Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride. The all-star cast directed by James Darrah includes Alexandra Deshorties in the title role, William Berger as Oreste and Colin Ainsworth as Pylade.

Iphigénie en Tauride, based on the Greek myth about a priestess facing the aftermath of her family’s violent history, is often considered the culmination of Gluck’s life ambition to achieve a perfect union of music and drama. There are performances remaining on March, 7, 9, 11 and 13 and tickets are available online.

Thomas Allen sings Oreste's aria "Dieux qui me poursuivez":

He then heads to the Florida Grand Opera to make his company debut as Tadeusz in Mieczysław Weinberg’s 1968 opera The Passenger. The opera was banned in the Soviet Union and was first premiered in 2010 at the Bregenz Festival. Weinberg, a Soviet composer of Jewish-Polish heritage who died in 1996, never saw a performance of this lost masterpiece in his lifetime. 

John Moore sings Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville:

The opera revolves around an encounter between two women – one a former Auschwitz guard and the other a former prisoner. Melrose plays Tadeusz, a camp inmate and violinist who defies the Commandant byordered by performing some meloncholy music by Bach rather than a frolicking waltz. Needless to say, things don't end well for Tadeusz.

Performances run from April 2-9 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Introducing barihunk Brian James Myer

Brian James Myer

Brian James Myer, who is new to our site,  is joining Hans Tashjian as one of the 2016 Chautauqua Opera Young Artists. Myer just wrapped up a run as the title character in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Florida Grand Opera, which was his debut with the company. He will return to Florida Grand Opera this Spring to cover both Tadeusz in Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger and Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Myer was born in Tarzana, California and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he began piano lessons at age nine.  He subsequently studied flute, cello, guitar, and voice.

Recent engagements include Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Sin City Opera and Opera San Jose, Gino Carella in Mark Lanz Weiser's Where Angels Fear to Tread with Opera San Jose, Silvio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with Sarasota Opera, Masetto  in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opera San Jose and Opera Las Vegas, Yamadori in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Opera Las Vegas, Albert in Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe with Chautauqua Opera, and Le Dancaïre in Bizet's Carmen with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. 

Brian James Myer sings Papageno's suicide aria:

Myer won first place prizes at the National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions in both Nevada and Ohio.  He received two young artist encouragement awards from Chautauqua Opera and is a recipient of the Albert Rees Davis Scholarship from The Singers Club of Cleveland  He was also a regional finalist in the NATS Artist Award (Cal-Western Region) and a semifinalist in the American Institute of Musical Studies Meistersinger competition.

Myer volunteered for the music program with the Clark County School District and served as a middle school choir teacher.  He participated in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Outreach Program, bringing opera to over 13,500 students in the Coachella Valley.  He is also a published composer, whose choral octavo can be found and purchased at Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc.

ONLY 8 DAYS UNTIL THE NEW YEAR! Time is running out to order your 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, featuring 18 of the sexiest men in opera. ORDER TODAY by clicking HERE (you won't regret it!).

Vittorio Prato, Malte Roesner & Cyril Rovery

David Pershall to make Met debut

David Pershall at The Met

David Pershall, who just wrapped up a successful run in the title role of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Florida Grand Opera, will now make his house debut in the role at the Metropolitan Opera. His Rosina will be Ginger Costa-Jackson and Almaviva will be sung by Taylor Stayton. He'll perform the role on December 29th and January 1st, alternating the role with fellow barihunk Elliot Madore, who will perform with Isabel Leonard and David Portillo.

He'll be staying at the Met for three months, where he will also perform Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème and one performance of Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda on February llth. In La bohème, Mimi will be sung by Maria Agresta, Musetta by Susanna Phillips, Rodolfo by Bryan Hymel and Marcello by Quinn Kelsey. The cast of Maria Stuarda includes Sondra Radvanvovsky and Elza van den Heever.

Pershall coming to New York from his new home base at the Vienna State Opera, where he has performed Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore, Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Sebastian in Adès' The Tempest. This summer he made his role debut as Rodrigo in Verdi's Don Carlo with Opera Burg Gars.

Time is running out to order your 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, featuring 18 of the sexiest men in opera. ORDER TODAY by clicking HERE (you won't regret it!).

Duncan Rock, Iurii Samoilov & Craig Verm

 

Luis Alejandro Orozco in Piazzolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires" in Lexington and Miami

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco will be performing Astor Piazzolla's tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires in both Lexington and Miami. We introduced him to readers last summer after a reader tip.

His first performances will be February 1-3 at the Black Box Theater in Lexington, Kentucky. The performance features the Lexington Philharmonic with mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian and narrator Enrique Andrade. We're particularly excited because John De Los Santos, our "Best Director" from our "Best of Barihunks 2011" list will be directing. De Los Santos will also be directing the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers," which we recently posted about.

Luis Alejandro Orozco sings "Deh, vieni alla finestra" from Don Giovanni:

Piazzolla’s style, now known as nuevo tango, was initially rebuffed, but later caused a resurgence of popularity in Argentinean tango and Piazzolla’s music. Using two singers and a narrator, the audience is lead through the story, as characters shift and Maria dies and her spirit confronts her life in the streets of Buenos Aires. It is an allegorical tale of Maria and her life, which is the spirit of tango, death and resurrection.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Lexington Philharmonic box office at 859-233-4226 or visiting their website.

Hot directorial talents: John De Los Santos and José Maria Condemi

Orozco will reprise his performance from March 21-24 at the Florida Grand Opera. Maria will be performed by Catalina Cuervo and the piece will be directed by José Maria Condemi, another director whose work has been impressing us. He's currently directing Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas at the Utah Opera with barihunk Nmon Ford.

Tickets for Maria de Buenos Aires are available online.

Luis Alejandro Orozco was born in El Paso Texas, but raised in Juarez, Mexico for most of his life. Orozco is currently an artist diploma candidate at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He has performed with such companies as Lake George Opera (Saratoga Opera), Des Moines Metro Opera, El Paso Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

Teatro di Capua's trailer of Maria de Buenos Aires:

Florida Grand Opera's "Opera's Sexiest Men"

The Florida Grand Opera has been having a great time on Facebook and Twitter with the recent Marie Claire feature about the sexiest men in opera. They've now created they're own meme of "Opera's Sexiest Men."

We certainly won't take issue with ANY of the barihunks on their list, which includes Seth Carico, Mariusz Kwiecien, Nathan Gunn, Randal Turner, Gabriel Bermudez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Michael Mayes, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Keith Miller, all of whom have appeared on this site. They've even included some of our favorite tenors, like Jonathan Blalock, Alek Shrader Michael Fabiano and Eric Margiore.

Make sure to check out Florida Grand Opera's upcoming season, which includes Puccini's La boheme, Mozart's Magic Flute, Verdi's La traviata and Bellini's La sonnambula. Visit their website for additional information.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Rumor Mill: Kwiecien & Florez to Perfom "Pearl Fishers"

Juan Diego Florez & Mariusz Kwiecien sharing the stage?

The hottest rumor floating around the internet is that two of the hottest singers in opera are pairing up for opera's classic shirtless duet. If rumors are true, barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien will be teaming up with heartthrob tenor Juan Diego Florez for a run of Bizet's "Les pecheurs de perles" (The Pearl Fishers" at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria off the coast of Africa. The run is rumored to start on June 18, 2012 and appears on Florez's calendar as well as soprano Patrizia Ciofi's website, but with very few details.

We will be following this story with great interest.

UPDATE: The Pearl Fishers' cast at Las Palmas in June 2012 will be: Patricia Ciofi (Leila), Juan Diego Florez (Nadir), Vasily Ladyuk (Zurga)


The Pearl Fishers' cast at Teatro Real Madrid (concert version) in March 2013 will be : Patricia Ciofi (Leila), Juan Diego Florez (Nadir), Mariusz Kwiecien (Zurga)

Matthew Polenzani & Mariusz Kwiecien sing "Au fond du temple saint" 

from The Pearl Fishers: 

Since we've featured a tenor today, we have to admit that tenor Michael Fabiano looks pretty barihunk-ish as a sex-crazed Duke of Mantua at the Florida Grand Opera.

Nadine Sierra & Michael Fabiano

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com