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.
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.
Thank you again to our readers, who keep this site alive and thriving. Your purchases of our calendars and tee shirts goes to supporting young artists and opera projects.
BEST NEW OPERA (tie): Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Breaking the Waves
John Moore, Kiera Duffy and the cast of Breaking the Waves
Barihunk John Moore performed in the premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia and then reprised his role at the PROTOTYPE Festival along
with co-star Kiera Duffy.
The
opera is based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier and tells of the story of a woman's sexual desires and confessions after her husband becomes paralyzed. The opera was performed with a "mature audience" warning in Philadelphia, as it involved nudity from the leads. More importantly, the opera is a riveting piece of theater.
BEST NEW OPERA (tie): JFK at Forth Worth Opera
Daniel Okulitch as LBJ and Matt Worth as JFK
The Fort Worth Opera, in
collaboration with the American Lyric Theater, debuted David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's JFK in April to rave reviews. The opera, which starred barihunks Matthew Worth as JFK and Daniel Okulitch as LBJ, tells of the final twelve hours of President John F. Kennedy's life. Okulitch performed a memorable and scene stealing, comic piece stripped down to his Texas flag inspired underwear.
Fort Worth was a fitting setting for the opera, as it was the last place that the
President slept before being gunned down in Dallas. JFK left the Hotel
Texas (now the Fort Worth Hilton) on the rain-soaked morning of November
22, 1963, and spoke to thousands who had waited in the rain to hear him
speak. Those remarks were to be his final public speech.
HOTTEST NEW BARIHUNK TO THE SITE: Basque Barihunk Vincent Simonet
Basque barihunk Vincent Simonet
Our hearts starting racing when we saw these pictures of Basque barihunk Vincent Simonet by photographer and fellow barihunk JF l'Oiseleur des Longchamps. Simonet is a decendent of the famous 19th century baritone Paul Barroilhet (aka
Paolo Barroilhet), whose bust still graces the Opera Garnier in Paris.
This summer he performed Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Centre Européen de Musique. He was asked by French composer Philippe Mazé to sing at the 100-year anniversary of the Cathedral of Monaco (Saint Nicholas Cathedral). The cathedral is home to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Monaco where many of the Grimaldis are buried, including Prince Rainier III and his wife Grace Kelly.
Simonet is also one of the initiators of the charity recital "Ensemble pour les Enfants Malades" (Recital for the Sick Children) which is a benefit for the Pediatric Immuno-Hematology Department at the Hôpital Necker de Paris. We love a barihunk who does charity work!
HOTTEST PERFORMANCE: Hadleigh Adams in Powder Her Face at West Edge Opera
Hadleigh Adams as The Duke in Powder Her Face
West Edge Opera, situated across the Bay from it's big budget sister San Francisco Opera, continues to make waves with the most innovative and thrilling productions anywhere. Under the inspired leadership of Mark Streshinsky they have made the Top 10 lists of virtually every music critic on the West Coast. Their productions, which take place in old abandoned train station (where portions of the movie RENT were filmed), are so popular that they often have to add performances.
Such was the case with Thomas Adès' provocative Powder Her Face starring barihunk Hadleigh Adams, hunkentenor Jonathan Blalock and sexy soprano Emma McNairy, who previously made waves with her sizzling Lulu with the company. Adams sang the roles of the vapid Duke (for which he strips down completely!), the condescending hotel manager, and the hypocritical judge who condemns the Duchess.
The opera was brilliantly directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, which the Financial Times dubbed "buoyant" and "exhilirating."
Upcoming performance for Adams include Jonathan Dove's Flight with Opera Parallèle and Puccini's La fanciulla del West with the Michigan Opera Theater.
Ryan McKinny as Amfortas
We have to give a close runner-up mention to Ryan McKinny as Amfortas in Bayreuth's Parsifal. If you can look this sexy in a "man diaper" then you deserve some credit.
BEST BARIHUNK CHARITY WORK: Michael Hewitt/Cancer Research
Michael Hewitt (from our calendar and buffing up for charity work!)
Barihunk Michael Hewitt took to crowd sourcing to raise $3000 for The Decath10n, which raised money for pediatric cancer research at the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston. (Full disclosure: Barihunks contributed to the effort).
Michael is also featured in July in our 2017 "Barihunks in Bed" calendar. He will make his company debut with the Glimmerglass Opera in 2017 in the role of Jud Fry in Oklahoma!
Hewitt also has a fitness website and he says that consistency is the key to staying in shape and that you can't outwork a poor diet.
BEST NEW SOLO WORK FOR BARITONE: Clint Borzoni's Two German Songs for Baritone and String Quartet, sung by Marco Vassalli
Composer Clint Borzoni and barihunk Marco Vassalli worked on this commission over Skype after the German singer chose Hermann Hesse's Stufen and Hilde Domin's Margere Kost for his text. Musica Marin presented the works, which were inspired by adding something other than Samuel Barber's Dover Beach to the repertory for baritone and string quartet. Vassalli performed all three pieces at two sold out concerts in the former home of Ansel Adams in San Francisco.
Borzoni, one of the most talented young composers on the scene is now Musica Marin's "Composer-in-Residence." Barihunk Edward Nelson will perform the composer's new arrangement of his aria "Two Nooses" from his opera When Adonis Calls, arranged for baritone, viola, cello and piano. Borzoni's opera The Copper Queen won the Arizona Opera's award for best new opera.
BEST PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERETTA: Dominik Köninger in Oscar Straus' The Pearls of Cleopatra
Dominik Köninger
What would a Barihunk "Best of..." list be without German barihunk Dominik Köninger? He made our list again by giving the funniest performance of the year as the Roman Officer in Oscar Straus' The Pearls of Cleopatra(Die Perlen der Cleopatra) at the Komische Oper in Berlin.
The operetta has been on the shelves for more than eighty
years and was written before the composer fled the Nazi Anschluss in 1939. As the Roman Officer, Köninger is shown in some pretty sexy situations and there also plenty of scantily clad,
energetic performers on stage, adding to the lively Cabaret feel of the
pre-Nazi Weimar Republic.
The operetta is viewable on the OperaPlatform. We sure hope that someone else produces this work using this Barrie Kosky production, which is perfect in every way.
BEST "OVERNIGHT SENSATION": Björn Bürger
Björn Bürger as Don Giovanni and the Barber
We've been keeping our eye on German barihunk Björn Bürger since 2014, when he caught our eyes and ears at the Mirjam Helin Competition. We continued to be impressed by him as an ensemble member at the Frankfurt Oper, where he performed Pelléas, Schaunard, Plunkett in Martha, Curio in Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Frank and Fritz in Die Tote Stadt. Count Almaviva, Masetto and Owen Wingrave. But we really began to take note with his sexy portrayal in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni at Den Norske Opera.
There is no such thing as an overnight sensation, as years of coaching, training and performing goes into any singer's career, but Bürger may have had just such a moment this year. His performance in the title role of Rossini's Barber of Seville at the Glyndebourne Festival was the talk of the town, where his cast mates included Taylor Stayton as Almaviva and Danielle de Niese as Rosina.
The Guardian said that Bürger "dominates with singing of great bravado and warmth," while The Express wrote that he sang "beautifully...and acted with impressive energy.' Mark
Valencia in What's on Stage wrote, "The handsome young baritone exudes
elegant bonhomie and fourth-wall-breaking razzle-dazzle, and he delivers
Rossini's tongue-twisters with an eloquence it would be hard to
better."
BEST APPEARANCE IN AN ADULT MAGAZINE: Edward Miskie in Britain's Mascular Magazine
Edward Miskie (right) in Mascular Magazine
Edward Miskie, who has appeared in our Barihunks Calendar for the last two years, was asked to pose for the UK's erotic art magazine Mascular Magazine. The
magazine is geared toward those who love bears (and we have a ton of readers who fit that category!)
However, Miskie shows more skin in our new calendar than he did in his photoshoot with Brooklyn-based photographer Ron Amato for the magazine's feature entitled "Pride." Whether in a suit or staring out shirtless from his bed, this is one sexy man who holds his own with any of the models in Mascular Magazine. Check it out for yourself.
BEST JOKE THAT WE PLAYED ON READERS: Nathan Gunn and Anna Netrebko appearing in Wagner's Ring at the MET
Nathan Gunn would make one sexy Wotan. Check out that spear.
Barihunk Zachary Luchetti penned an April Fool's Day joke for us claiming that Nathan Gunn and Anna Netrebko would be appearing the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's Ring as Brünnhilde and Wotan. Luchetti is one of the most entertaining and original personalities in the industry and we loved running with this gag. It was worth it just for the emails from people outraged that this duo would take on role "obviously ill-suited to their voices," as one reader wrote. This is why one should read every post to the end (especially on April 1st).
BEST INTERVIEW: Malte Roesner discussing fitness routineand his fach change
Malte Roesner
When we first met Malte Roesner in France last year, he was singing as a
baritone and wrapping up a decade long run at the Staatstheater
Braunschweig (State Theater of Brunswick). Since that time, he has gone
through a fach change to bass and recently came to California for a series of auditions. We will have an exciting update about his upcoming U.S. debut(s) in a future post. (Yes, debut may be plural).
He is featured prominently in both our 2016 calendar and our "2017 Barihunks in Bed" calendar.Roesner, who is one of the most intelligent singers on the scene, also translates operas, having translated both Jake Heggie's For a Look or a Touch and Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park from English to German.
In our interview with him, the always fascinating singer discussed his recent fach change from baritone to bass, his workout routine, his month-long audition tour in the US and why it's “all about the bass.” You can read the entire interview HERE.
BEST WEIGHT LOSS: Lucas Meachem
Lucas Meachem
When we posted an interview with barihunk Lucas Meachem about his recent weight loss it went viral and jumped to one of our ten most viewed posts ever (and the top post that didn't reveal any "skin")!!!
Prompted by being forced to deal with high cholesterol and the new age of HD opera broadcasts, Meachem took his wife's advice and switched to a plant-based diet, which led to an amazing physical transformation.
When he took the stage as Doctor Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale at the San Francisco Opera, Meachem had slimmed down a remarkable 45 pounds (20.4 kilos). He also sounded as luxurious and resonant as ever.
He told us, "I used to rail against the system for it's
unfairness that weight is even an issue when it came to my voice. For me
vocal prowess should be the main determining factor of an opera singer
but I realized that I couldn't play by those rules anymore. The fact is
it's easier to change yourself than the system. So instead of resisting,
I decided to change myself."
On an unrelated note, Meachem won the San Francisco Opera's inaugural "Emerging Star of the Year" competition, whose goal is to engage the community in
the thrill of experiencing artists on the cusp of greatness, and to
build awareness among the broader opera-going public of San Francisco
Opera's leadership in nurturing and showcasing new talent.
BEST GATHERING OF A BARIHUNK SEXTET IN ONE PLACE (tie): A Midsummer Night's Dream atTeatro Amilcare Ponchielli Cremona and Lakes Area Music Festival
Prior to 2016, the most barihunks that we had ever featured on one stage at the same time was four. It seemed like this year at least two companies decided to blow that number out of the water, as both the Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli Cremona and the Lakes Area Music Festival decided to present operas with SIX barihunks performing together.
Zachary Altman and Nicholas Masters (top); Dario Shikhmiri, Rocco Cavalluzzi, Federico Benetti and Paolo Ingrasciotta (bottom l-r)
The cast list for Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
at the Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli Cremona, included Zachary Altman as Bottom, Nicholas Masters
as Quince, Dario Shikhmiri as Starveling, Rocco Cavalluzzi as Snug,
Federico Benetti as Theseus and Paolo Ingrasciotta as Demetrius.
Eric Broker, Andrew Lovato, Sam Parkinson, John Taylor Ward, Rodolfo Nieto and Benjamin Sieverding
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe the Lakes Area Music Festival's production of the same opera included John Taylor Ward as Bottom, Andrew Lovato as
Demetrius, Rodolfo Nieto as Theseus, Benjamin Sieverding as Quince, Eric
Broker as Starveling and Sam Parkinson as Snug. John Taylor Ward not
only performed in the opera, but he serves as Associate Artistic Director
of the company and wrote the program notes.
All we have to say for 2017, is bring us more performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
BEST SHIRTLESS APPEARANCE: Alessio Arduini in Così fan tutte
Alessio Arduini in Così fan tutte
We don't know how this site could survive without streaming video from opera houses around the world, as it continues to be an endless source of content and visual and audio excitement.
Imagine our reaction when we watched the BBC Radio 3 broadcast of the Royal Opera House production of Mozart's Così fan tutte with a shirtless Alessio Arduni asGuglielmo. German director Jan Philipp Gloger made his house debut with the new production using librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte’s alternative title for the opera: "The School for Lovers." The ROH cast a vocally and visually impressive cast to live up to the title, which included Corinne Winters as Fiordiligi, Angela Brower as Dorabella, Daniele Behle as Ferrando, Johannes Martin Kränzle as Don Alfonso and Sabina Puértolas as Despina.
Arduini is currently performing Marcello at the Metropolitan Opera on Januray 6,11 and 14.
SEXIEST SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT: Zachary Gordin on Instagram
Zachary Gordin on Instagram
If you're not one of Zachary Gordin's 1,450 followers on Instagram (zgordin) then you're missing out on some of the best barihunk shots on the internet. Gordin's site alternates personal posts with images from performances and his brutal gym workouts.
The fitness buff also serves on the voice faculty of Sonoma State University and operates a private vocal studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Upcoming performances include "Mozart at the Opera" with the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio on January 22 and a recital with accompanist Brian Nies at the Green Music Center in Sonoma.
We particularly love him because he includes us in his bio, "Gordin is also widely recognized as the face of the website Barihunks, which celebrates physically fit and vocally-talented operatic baritones from around the globe."
THANK YOU AGAIN TO ALL OF OUR READERS, AS 2017 WILL MARK OUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY. WE REMAIN COMMITTED TO PROMOTING SINGERS IN THE BARITONE TO BASS RANGE AND ENCOURAGING AND FUNDING NEW REPERTORY FOR THOSE VOICES.
Barihunk Mason Jarboe will perform his senior recital at the University of North Texas Recital Hall at 5PM on Friday, December 2nd. Joined by accompanist Boeun Kim, the program features works by Barber, Bach, Chausson, Mahler, Rossini
(featuring mezzo-soprano Madelaine Martinez), Massenet (featuring soprano Megan Gryga), Barber, and Clint Borzoni. Jarboe will also perform the world premiere of Sam Sweet's
Sommerlieder, with texts by the baritone.
Avid readers of the site, might recall that Jarboe has appeared twice on this site, once in a group photo of barihunks doing the "baritone claw" and again with a group of barihunks at Seagle Music Colony sporting Barihunk T-shirts. He was a young artist at Seagle in 2014 and 2015. We've never properly introduced Jarboe, who is a senior vocal performance major at the University of North Texas. We first saw him when he was just 19 and making After making his professional debut at the Fort Worth Opera as the French Sentry in Kevin Puts’
Pulitzer-winning opera Silent Night. He recently sang the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opera in the Ozarks, where he had previously performed Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Michele in Puccini's Il Tabarro. In the 2015-2016 season, he was an education outreach young artist at The Dallas Opera, where he sang the role of Colas in Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne
We asked Jarboe about some of the music on the program and what it meant to him.
Of Samuel Barber's piece he commented, "The first song, Barber's St. Ita's Vision, was one of the few single pieces that I can trace back to really throwing me headlong into the vocal career track."
Randal Turner sings Clint Borzoni's "I Dream'd in a Dream":
This site has been a huge proponent of the American composer Clint Borzoni and helped fund a concert of American music featuring Randal Turner and the world premiere of two songs for String Quartet and Baritone performed by Marco Vassalli.
We were thrilled to see that Jarboe was performing two of our favorite songs and here's what he had to say about them:
"The songs 'I Dreamed in a Dream' and 'That Shadow, my Likeness' are right up there with my favorite English language songs ever written. If I had time I would've thrown in 'Tired' from Vaughan Williams' Last Four Songs, but some other time. For me, those three songs in the final set of my recital paint such a poignant picture of the realization, really the epiphany, I had towards classical vocal music, and Clint's songs perfectly show the progress I have made within my own life; the thankfulness of the first piece in which I can recognize everyone who has so warmly embraced me on my journey towards true artistry as well as the sense of community I have felt; truly a 'city of friends,' and the second, the acceptance of myself. The understanding that every perfectly imperfect aspect of me comes together in such a funny and beautiful way to create a human, a man, an artist, that I am proud to present today, no matter how many high G's he has to put out in a recital (11, and four F#s) and no matter what anyone around him thinks. Thanks to such perfect settings of such perfect texts by Mr. Borzoni, I know that my art matters, that I matter as an artist, and, most importantly, that what I and my brilliant colleagues do as musicians has such an important role in so many people's everyday lives that I will never stop striving to show to them. I just adore his music, and I really can't wait to get to work on my next Borzoni project."
Composer S.K. Sweet's Sommerlieder is a 21st century take on the romantic German song cycle. Its texts, written by Jarboe in the Summer of 2014 at Seagle Music Colony in Schroon Lake, NY, are part of a larger collection titled "Texts you never got from me," a collection of actual text messages that he tried to send that were mostly not delivered due to the poor cell service.
Make sure to order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar, which is on sale now at LULU.
Christopher Burchett and Maren Weinberger in Buried Alive (photos: Brandon Wade)
Back in 2014, we posted about barihunk Christopher Burchett performing in composer Jeff Myers and librettist Quincy Long's Buried Alive at the Fargo Moorhead Opera. He's reprising the role, in which he appears in various states of undress, at the Fort Worth Opera Festival, which is currently underway.
Buried Alive was written
specifically for Burchett, and he has been with the project since the
first
workshops with the American Lyric Theater in 2010. As part of the Poe Project, the goal was to create an opera that Poe himself might have written, although it's based on the author's The Premature Burial. The opera is directed by Lawrence Edelson, who heads up the American Lyric Theater.
The Fort Worth Opera is presenting Buried Alive at the Scott Theatre at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, which is a more intimate space than Bass Hall where they perform their standard repertory pieces. It's part of a double-header with Embedded, based on The Cask of Amontillado, and previewed at Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers showcase for new works in 2013. The stagings include twelve TV monitors with special effects and a large eyeball that ogles the crowd. Burchett also appears as the Producer in Embedded.
Christopher Burchett
Buried Alive tells the story of Victor, a painter whose nightmares of death begin to become real. Alternating realities are juxtaposed and culminate
in a final gruesome ending.
Embedded revolves around an aging American news
anchor who finds herself on the wrong side of
the headlines. Desperate to prove her value while being pushed out of
her job by a young rival, she is tricked by a notorious terrorist into traveling to see him for an exclusive interview. The
opera takes an unexpected twist and ends with a moment of triumph in
face of death.
There are five remaining performances on April 26, 29 and 30, and May 3 and 7. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.
Baritones Trevor Martin, Matt Moeller, Wes Mason, Stephen Clark and Wes Gentile
We made our annual trek to the Fort Worth Opera Festival again this year and hosted another barihunk lunch. It was attended by baritones Trevor Martin, Matt Moeller, Wes Mason, Stephen Clark and Wes Gentile. Normally, we always invite a single Honorary Tenor, but this year we had three of them, as Dane Suarez, Brian Wallin and Kevin Newell joined us.
In an effort to get to know the singers a little better this year, we asked them some questions, which we'd like to share with our readers. Here are the baritone responses.
I'm a self-proclaimed expert on:
Trevor Martin: Game of Thrones
Matt Moeller: College Sports
Wes Mason: Sharks
Stephen Clark: The Bible
Wes Gentile: Nicolas Cage
David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's next opera should be about [blank] and feature me as [blank]
Trevor Martin: Bruce Jenner....Bruce Jenner
Matt Moeller: Game of Thrones...All the Dragons
Wes Mason: The Wild West...Doc Holliday
Stephen Clark: Mice Minutes...Mouse #3
Wes Gentile: Neal DeGrasse Tyson...A Dying Star
Secret Midnight Snack:
Trevor Martin: Whiteburger
Matt Moeller: Sweet potato chips
Wes Mason: Buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks
Stephen Clark: Wendy's
Wes Gentile: Dark chocolate-covered raisins
At age 10 I dreamed of being a....
Trevor Martin: Skywalker in Star Wars
Matt Moeller: Baseball player
Wes Mason: Marine Biologist
Stephen Clark: Writer
Wes Gentile: Primatologist
My pet peave is...
Trevor Martin: Bad drivers
Matt Moeller: Chewing with your mouth open
Wes Mason: Entitlement
Stephen Clark: Ungrateful people
Wes Gentile: Explaining a punchline
My least favorite character in opera is...
Trevor Martin: Micaëla
Matt Moeller: Gianetta
Wes Mason: Everyone in La sonnambula
Stephen Clark: Carmen
Wes Gentile: Chairman Mao's wife
Tenors Dane Suarez, Brian Wallin and Kevin Newell
Here are the tenor responses.
I'm a self-proclaimed expert on:
Dane Suarez: Guessing temperatures with my hands
Brian Wallin: Trolling Facebook for funny animal videos
Kevin Newell: [Declined to answer]
David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's next opera should be about [blank] and feature me as [blank]:
Barihunk Wes Mason, who just finished a successful run as Curly in Oklahoma! at the Utah Festival Opera, will be turning his attention to another American tale. On September 14th, he'll be singing the role of Bernie Madoff in a workshop of composer Luna Pearl Woolf's new opera The Pillar.
The opera is based on Diana Henriques’ bestselling book The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust. The opera tells the tale Ruth Madoff, who has
dedicated her whole life to her husband, a pillar of the community.
When Bernie Madoff falls into disgrace, she must finally confront choices—and
consequences—of truly operatic proportions. The story digs beneath the surface of this contemporary scandal to uncover
a timeless meditation on loyalty, corruption, and the nature of love.
Mason will be part of a workshop at the Opera America Center Recital Hall at 330 Seventh Avenue in New York where the audience can hear selection of the opera and offer feedback.
We asked Wes about working on The Pillar and this is what he told us:
"It
has been such a joy of a process rehearsing and discovering with Luna,
David and everyone. When you are in a room with a top notch team of
artisans that are able to share their insight and take direction from
the creators of a work, you just light up with inspiration. The music,
the words, and the interpretation of the other singers has moved me to
tears. This is a fascinating work so far. Workshops are a real gift."
Upcoming performances include Ford in Nicoai's The Merry Wives of Windsor at Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Stanley in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Kentucky Opera, Jonathan Reed in Dove's Siren Song with Hawaii Opera and the title role of Hamlet in the Ambroise Thomas classic at the Fort Worth Opera Festival.
One
of America's most innovative opera companies, the Fort Worth Opera has
collaborated with the American Lyric Theater to produce an opera based
on President John F. Kennedy's final twelve hours. The opera will star
two of the world's most popular barihunks in the lead roles, as Matthew
Worth takes on JFK and Daniel Okulitch portrays LBJ. Worth shares both
the good looks and New England charm of our 35th President, while
Okulitch matches the Vice President's 6' 4" frame.
Joining them in the cast will be the amazing mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Jackie Kennedy, Talise Trevigne as hotel maid Clara
Harris, and the thrilling tenor Sean Panikkar as JFK's secret
service agent and confidant, Henry Rathbone. The opera is being written by composer David T. Little and librettist
Royce Vavrek, who collaborated on the critically acclaimed opera
Dog Days in 2012.
The
opera, which is slated to premiere at the Fort Worth Opera's 2016
season, is the perfect setting, as it's the last place that the
President slept before being gunned down in Dallas. JFK left the Hotel
Texas (now the Fort Worth Hilton) on the rain-soaked morning of November
22, 1963, and spoke to thousands who had waited in the rain to hear him
speak. Those remarks were to be his final public speech.
The American Lyric Theater
and the Collegiate Chorale will produce a workshop of the
opera-in-progress this November, which will bring together the
world-premiere cast together for the first time. On Tuesday, November 25
at 7:00 PM, American Lyric Theater will present InsightALT: JFK at
Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. The InsightALT series provides the
public with the opportunity to look inside the process of creating new
operas at all stages of their development through a combination of
performance and discussion with the creative artists behind these new
works. InsightALT: JFK will feature excerpts from the opera, as well as a discussion, moderated by ALT artistic director Larry Edelson,
between composer David T. Little, librettist Royce
Vavrek, Fort Worth Opera's General Director Darren K. Woods, and the
cast members.
In the 2015 season, the Fort Worth Opera will present David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's Dog Days, along with Verdi's La traviata and Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, starring barihunk Wes Mason in the title role. Daniel Okulitch can next be seen in September with the Milwaukee Symphony singing Mozart's Don Giovanni with André Courville as Masetto and Matthew Rose as Leporello. You can listen to Matthew Worth on a live stream of Bernstein's Candide on WCRB on August 17th from the Tanglewood Festival.
Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night is getting its long-awaited European debut at the Wexford Opera Festival from October 24-November 2. The cast is a mix of Europeans and Americans, with two singers who have been featured on this site, Matthew Worth as Lieutenant Audebart and Quirijn de Lang as the lovable Poncel. There are also a few singers in the cast new to this site.
Ian Beadle, a graduate from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performs William Dale on the Scottish side of the war. He recently finished a year in the English National Opera’s Opera Works program and performed as part of The Big Barber Bash at the London Coliseum.
His operatic roles have includes Belcore in Donizetti's Elisir d’amore at the Wexford Festival Opera, the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Opera Holland Park, Crébillon in Puccini's La Rondine at Go Opera, Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Sinfonia D’amici, Guccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at Opera Holland Park and Morales in Bizet's Carmen with Co-Opera Co.
Jamie Rock
Irish baritone Jamie Rock sings the role of Gueusselin on the French side of the war. He has performed the roles of Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme, Dancaire in Bizet's Carmen, Tarquinius in Britten's Rape of Lucretia and General Belliard in the world premiere of the original version of Prokofiev's epic masterpiece War and Peace. He has performed with the Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre Company, Opera Ireland, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Opera de Bauge and British Youth Opera.
He is also a member of the vocal ensemble Quartet. The group, under the patronage of Malcolm Martineau, is made up of graduates from the Alexander Gibson Opera School who draw on years of conservatoire training to explore a range of music and look for new ways of presenting the vocal repertoire.
Jamie began his studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama . He is an alumnus of the OTC Young Artist Programme (Dublin), Wexford Festival Opera Young Artist Programme, Leeds Lieder+ Young Artists, Oxford Lieder Young Artists and Josephine Baker Trust.
Tickets are available online.
Daniel Okulitch (left) and Joseph Lattanzi (right)
Silent Night, which has been performed to great acclaim in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Fort Worth, now heads to the Cincinnati Opera and north of the border for its Canadian debut.
The Cincinnati cast includes many singers familiar to the piece, including the powerful voice of Craig Irvin as Lt. Horstmayer, Gabriel Preisser as Lt. Gordon and Andrew Wilkowske as Ponchel. New to the cast are Joseph Lattanzi as Gueusselin and Phillip Addis as Lt. Audebert. There are only two performances of the opera on July 10 and July 12. Tickets are available online.
Addis also will be performing Lt. Audebert in the Canadian premiere from May 16-23 at the Opéra de Montréal. The cast includes a barihunk favorite in the Lieutenant Horstmayer of Canadian Daniel Okulitch. Tickets go on sale in August 2014, so mark your calendars.
Perhaps one of the most anticipated American premieres this year is that of exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger. We covered the opera two years ago when it was at the English National Opera with barihunk Leigh Melrose as Tadeusz. A year earlier the piece was done in Bregenz with Artur Rucinski in the baritone role.
In January 2014, the opera is coming to the Houston Grand Opera with barihunk Morgan Smith as Tadeusz, in a cast that also includes rising tenor sensation Joseph Kaiser, two of our favorite sopranos Kelly Kaduce and Melody Moore, as well as mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt. David Pountney’s production and Johan Engels’s two-level set, which received critical acclaim at ENO and in Bregenz, will be brought to Houston.
Leigh Melrose in The Passenger
The libretto is based on the eponymous novel by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz and is set in the late 1950s. It depicts a German couple, Liese and Walter, on board an ocean liner where former SS officer Liese thinks she recognizes an Auschwitz prisoner among their fellow passengers. Although Weinberg completed his score in 1968, the opera was not performed until 2006 and not fully staged until the 2010 Bregenz Festival.
The Houston Grand Opera will present a number of activities related to the opera. A series of three free concerts begins on November 10 with the world premiere of a new work by HGO Studio alumnus and composer David Hanlon, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht and based on the story of his grandfather, one of the thousands of Jewish people arrested on that infamous night and sent to Dachau. On December 9, they will host a concert exploring the music, art, poetry, and philosophy that emerged from Terezín, a concentration camp located in the Czech Republic. The third and final performance on February 22 features music of memory and hope with world premieres of works by Lawrence Siegel and Paul English based on text and inspiration from Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren.
Morgan Smith
Morgan has a number of new roles besides Tadeusz that he is adding to his repertoire next season. In Novemeber 2013, he takes on
Captain Brandt in Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra at the Florida Grand Opera. In March 2014, he debuts the role of
Fritz in Erich Korngold's Die Tode Stadt at the beautiful Winspear Opera House in Dallas. When he wraps up, he heads down Interstate 30 to the Fort Worth Opera where he performs Lt. Audebert in Kevin Puts' Silent Night in a cast full of his fellow barihunks.
If you've not had the chance to see Morgan Smith live, we highly recommend adding one of these performances to your opera travel calendar. He is one of the most compelling young artists to hit the scene in years.
When a concert promotes its singer as a "barihunk," how can we not post about it? We caught the Tidewater Opera Initiative's post on Facebook about Wes Mason's upcoming recital that refers to Mason as their "handsome barihunk." Make sure to visit their Facebook page and like them.
Wes Mason has been a regular on this site and is one of our favorite singers in the business. He's appeared in our charity calendar, which benefits young artists, and has agreed to appear again this year. Make sure to check out our recent post about his new promotional photos and his celebrity doppelgänger.
Mason will be appearing with the Tidewater Opera Initiative on two consecutive days. On Saturday, July 20th at 7 PM, he will perform a recital featuring some of opera and Broadway's greatest hits. On Sunday, July 21st from 2-5 PM, he will conduct a special master class for members of the Governor's School for the Arts vocal program and
Tidewaters's opera chorus.
Wes Mason and fellow barihunks Michael Mayes, John Boehr and Anthony Reed
Both events will take place at Christ and St. Luke's
church in downtown Norfolk, and all proceeds benefit Tidewater Opera
Initiative's upcoming production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Tickets for Saturday's
concert are $15 and can be purchased at the door. Sunday's master class
is open to the public for a suggested donation of $5 at the door.
Tidewater is a regional opera organization based in the
Tidewater area of Virginia dedicated to the development of local
professional opera singers. Wes Mason hails from Norfolk, Virginia and graduated from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. His big career break when he starred in the world premiere of Jorge Martín’s Before Night Falls with Fort Worth Opera.
We've also witnessed his amazing karaoke skills and ability to impersonate famous actors and singers.
The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia keeps churning out some of the greatest singers performing on major stages today, including sopranos Ailyn Pérez and Angela Meade, tenors Michael Fabiano and Stephen Costello, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and barihunks Keith Miller and Daniel Mobbs.
Once again they have another class with its fair share of great singers, including two who we've regularly featured on Barihunks. Wes Mason and Steven LaBrie, will be joining classmate Christian Bowers in AVA's triple-cast performances of Rossini's Barber of Seville.
Performances will run from November 3-17 in Philadelphia, Warrington and Haverford, Pennsylvania. For tickets and additional cast information call 215.735.1685 or visit the AVA website.
We first discovered Wes Mason in 2010 while he was preparing the role of Reinaldo Arenas in Jorge Martín's Before Night Falls at the Fort Worth Opera Festival. His remarkable performance prompted critic Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News to remark: "Onstage and singing much of the time, Wes Mason portrays Arenas with movie-star looks, a handsome baritone and strikingly clear diction."
He is returning to Fort Worth this year to perform Marcello in Puccini's La boheme from April 20-May 11. We always include the Fort Worth Opera Festival on our travel agenda and this year will be no exception. Visit their website and order your tickets now.
Steven LaBrie sings "Non siate ritrosi" from Mozart's Così fan tutte:
We were tipped off about Steven LaBrie by one of his fans in Philadelphia. We've watched his career progress with his Second Prize win at the 2012 Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition and his performance of Xavier Montsalvatge's operatic telling of the children's classic El gato con botas (Puss in Boots) at Gotham Chamber Opera.
Yesterday's Walt Whitman post included a selection by Kurt Weill, which reminded us that barihunk David McFerrin is performing the composers work on June 3 and 5 as part of the Artist Series Concerts of Saratoga. He'll be joined by soprano Stella Zambalis and pianist Joseph Holt. Tickets are available online. Unfortunately, the website doesn't list the program.
We first featured McFerrin when he was scheduled to sing Weill's "Berlin" with the New York Festival of Song in San Francisco.
David McFerrin singing Libby Larsen's "Before Loving You":
Make sure to check out the video of McFerrin singing Libby Larsen's "Before Loving You" above. The Fort Worth Opera just announced that it will produce the world premiere of the composer's new opera "A Wrinkle in Time," based on the science-fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Learn more here.
We've always maintained that the Fort Worth Opera Festival is one of the best opera festivals in the United States. The quality of their productions combined with excellent musicians and singers always makes for great week of music. They also have their fair share of barihunks on the roster, but even we were shocked when we saw barihunks Michael Mayes and Seth Mease Carico show up to a promotional event for Mark Adamo's "Lysistrata" looking like a cross between a Ukranian mezzo-soprano and a Wal-Mart shopper from Nacogdoches, Texas.
The Fort Worth Opera hosted a Tug-of-War between the women and the men to kick-off the opening night of Lysistrata which features Seth Mease Carico as the Spartan General Leonidas and Michael Mayes as the Athenian Kinesias. Mayes and Carico thought that they would lend some muscle to the women's team, but it was to no avail, as the men won all three sets (that mus mean sex for everyone!).
The comic opera is about the battle of the sexes, where the Athenian and Spartan women are tired of their battle happy husbands refusing to lay down their weapons. They band together and refuse to have sex with the men until peace is declared.
Michael Mayes plants a kiss on fellow barihunk Matthew Worth
There are performances of Lysistrata today and on June 3rd. Other remaining performances at the Festival include Jake Heggie's "Three Decembers" with barihunk Matthew Worth on May 26, 31 and June 2nd, Tosca with the amazing and sexy Scarpia of Michael Chioldi on June 2nd and The Marriage of Figaro with barihunks Donovan Singletary as Figaro and Jonathan Beyer as Count Almaviva. Tickets are available on the Fort Worth Opera website.
If you can't make it this year, make sure to add it to your travel plans next year when the Festival performs La Boheme, Daughter of the Regiment, sAriadne auf Naxos and Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied.
Donovan Singletary takes on the title role in the Marriage of Figaro
The local NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth ran a feature on the upcoming opera festival, which included a nice mention of Barihunks.
Barihunk Donovan Singletary, who is singing the title role in the Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" is prominently featured on the news segment. The cast includes fellow barihunk Jonathan Beyer as Count Almaviva, Andrea Carroll as Susanna, Jan Cornelius as Countess Almaviva, Rod Nelman as Dr. Bartolo, Kathryn Cowdrick as Marcellina and Wallis Giunta as Cherubino. The opera will be performed on May 19, 27 and June 1st.
Visit the Fort Worth Opera Festival website for additional information and tickets. They are also performing Mark Adamo's Lysistrata, Puccini's Tosca and Jake Heggie's Three Decembers.
Malcolm MacKenzie in Trovatore; Dan Kempson & Justin Hopkins in Hydrogen Jukebox
The Ft. Worth Opera Festival continues to establish itself as a major force among summer opera festivals internationally. The company continues to showcase some of the best emerging talent in the business today, as well as mixing standard repertory with operas that both challenge audiences and appeal to a new generation of opera goer.
Among the "second tier" of opera companies, Ft. Worth practically stands alone in terms of both innovation and quality of performance. Next season is no exception, when they will feature two standard repertory operas, Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" and Puccini's "Tosca," with two contemporary operas, Mark Adamo's "Lysistrata" and Jake Heggie's "Three Decembers."
This year's surprise hit is Philip Glass "Hydrogen Jukebox," which has been completely sold out for weeks. It also happens to feature two emerging barihunks, Dan Kempson and Justin Hopkins. The show also features them baring a bit of skin, so warn your grandma. It's no secret that we're huge Glass fans on this site where you can watch his opera "Kepler" in its entirety, so we're thrilled that Glass is being performed deep in the heart of Texas.
Emerging Barihunk Jesse Enderle and Director John de los Santos
This year's Fort Worth Opera Festival is also featuring a critically acclaimed production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" with baritone Malcolm MacKenzie. Also on the program is an updated version of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Mikado" directed by our favorite young director/choreographer John de los Santos, who choreographed last year's hit "Before Night Falls." Fans of countertenors will be delighted with the production of Handel's "Giulio Cesare," which features two countertenors and a male soprano. Despite the high male voices, barihunk fans will be delighted to know that Achillas will sung by the stunning and gifted young singer Donovan Singletary, who was a standout in the Lindeman Young Artists program.
Donovan Singletary
Here is Singletary performing some Rachmaninov songs:
The festival runs through June 5. Check out the Ft. Worth Opera website for performance times and additional cast information.
