Barihunk duo in Edmonton's Merry Widow

Aaron Durand and Mike Nyby

Two barihunks are featured in the Edmonton Opera's English language production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. The operetta opened last night and will be performed again on Tuesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 29.

Michael Nyby sings Danilo Danilowitsch, Hanna Glawari's ex-lover who is less excited about being her lover and sharing in her recently inherited wealth, than most men.  Aaron Durand, who appeared with the company in their Barber of Seville last year, takes on Vicomte Cascada.

Preview of The Merry Widow at Edmonton Opera:

Nyby and lead soprano Sally Dibblee have been tasked with dancing duties as well as singing, as director Brent Krysa and choreographer Dave Ganert have found inspiration in Hollywood dance musicals. Dibblee even took ballroom dancing lessons for the part.

Nyby is a native of Hamilton, Ontario who created the roles of William Dale in Kevin Puts' Silent Night, Brent Colgate in Gregory Vajda's Georgia Bottoms and Demetrio in the US premiere of Kristin Hevner Wyatt's Il Sogno. This season he'll be creating the role of Seth in the Canadian opera Peter-Anthony Togni's Isis and Osiris with Opera in Concert. He'll be joining hunkentenor Karim Sulayman for Händel's Messiah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario on December 7 and 8.

Aaron Durand talks about being an opera singer:

Durand hails from 100 Mile House, British Columbia After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 2012, he joined the Vancouver Opera's Yulanda M. Faris young artist program, performing roles in several mainstage productions including La bohème, The Pirates of Penzance, Albert Herring and Don Giovanni. He was Masetto in the innovative production of #UncleJohn with the Against the Grain Theatre.

You can follow Aaron Durand on Twitter @Gingervanni. 

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Introducing Ivan Oreščanin

Serbian barihunk Ivan Oreščanin is new to this site and he opens tonight as Graf Danilo Danilowitsch in Franz Lehár's Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) at Opera Graz. He has sung the role of Count Danilo before in Graz, as well as on a tour in Switzerland with the Orchestre Symphonique Neuchâtelois.

Oreščanin was born in Belgrade, where he began his vocal studies before moving on to the University of Music and Theater in Munich. He won the first Prize at the National Competition of Serbia in 2000, was a finalist at the International Singing Competition "Debus in Merano" in 2004, and he won the Kulturkontaktpreis at Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna in 2007.

He has been an ensemble member at Opera Graz since 2006, where he as performed in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, La finta giardiniera and Die Zauberlöte, Handel's Alcina, and numerous operetta roles including Strauss' Die Fledermaus and Offenbach's La belle Hélène. As a guest singer, he has appeared in Augsburg, Würzburg, the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, Ingolstadt, the opera festival in St. Margareten in Austria, and the Chiemgau Music Festival in Germany.

Tickets for Die lustige Witwe are available online and performances run through February 25th.  Oreščanin will also be singing Fritz in Korngold's Die tote Stadt with the company during this period.

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