Samuel Hasselhorn at the Queen Elizabeth Competition
German barihunk Samuel Hasselhorn has won the 2018 International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize. he will receive 25,000 EUR and guaranteed concerts in Belgium and abroad. In the last two rounds, he performed music by Schumann, Wolf, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Mendelssohn as well as "Carlos écoute...Ah, je meurs" from Verdi's Don Carlos.
You can listen to Hasselhorn's final round performance HERE.
Second Prize went to French mezzo Eva Zaïcik and Third Prize went to Chinese bass Ao Li.
Hasselhorn is no stranger to walking away with top honors, as he has previously won the 2018 Emmerich Smola Prize, 2017 Das Lied International Song Competition in Heidelberg, 2015 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, 2013 International Schubert Competition and the “Prix de Lied“ at the 2013 Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition in Paris.
He has upcoming recitals in Hannover, Germany on May 17th and June 11th. Fans in the U.K. can catch him at Wigmore Hall on June 24th in a program of Beethoven, Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, and Poulenc.
The brilliant young recitalist Benjamin Appl has been nominated for a 2017 Gramophone Award as best Solo Vocalist for his album Heimat with accompanist James Bailieu. The recording features music by Brahms, Britten, Grieg, Ireland, Poulenc, Reger, Schubert, Adolf and Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Warlock and Wolf.
Other nominees in the category include Florian Boesch and Roger Vignoles for Krenek's Reisebuch aus den österrichischen Alpen and Matthias Goerne and Christoph Eschenbach for Brahms' Vier ernste Gesänge.
The German barihunk was a BBC New Generation Artist and an ECHO Rising Star artist for the 2015/16 season, appearing in recital at major European venues. He became an exclusive SONY Classical recording artist in May 2016 and won the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award in 2016.
Benjamin Appl sings Schubert's Der Lindenbaum:
He is currently performing Schubert recitals in the U.K., including on August 17th at the Edinburgh International Festival's Queen’s Hall with Schumann and Grieg, and at Ireland's Kilkenny Festival where he'll perform Winterreise on August 19th and a program with soprano Ailish Tynan and tenor Robin Tritschler on August 20th.
Tyrolian barihunk Andrè Schuen is making what we believe is his American debut with two concerts of Schubert lieder. He joins composer/pianist Thomas Adès for Tanglewood's “Schubert’s Summer Journey,” a six-concert exploration of the music of the composer. The program includes his famous setting of Goethe’s Wanderers Nachtlied II.
Tickets and additional information is available online.
On July 29th, he'll sings Schubert's Schwanengesang at the Aspen Music Festival with pianist Andreas Haefliger. Schuen and Haefliger will perform the songs not in one grouping but as distinct sets, separated by two solo piano works, Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 101 and Berg's Piano Sonata. Tickets are available online.
Andrè Schuen sings Hugo Wolf's Goethe Lieder:
In October, he returns to the opera stage at the Opéra national de Lorraine to portray the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni. The cast includes Nahuel di Pierro as Leporello, Levente Páll as Masetto, David Leigh as the Commendatore, Kiandra Howarth as Donna Anna, Yolanda Auyanet as Donna Elvira and Julien Behr as Don Ottavio. Additional information is available online.
Barihunk Christopher Dylan Herbert will reprise his unique performance of his
participatory version of Franz Schubert’s 1828 song cycle Winterreise dubbed Winterize at
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Wednesday, December 21.
Winterize will begin at Magnolia Plaza, at 11:30 AM in front of the sundial. Note that admission to the garden is free before noon, and thus this event is free. 1000 Washington Avenue is the closest street number to the meet-up spot.
He released a video highlight of the performance, which is appropriately dubbed Winterize, since it's performed outside in the cold New York winter, the piece reimagines Schubert's WINTERREISE for baritone and
transistor radios.
Performed in collaboration with Make Music New York, the audience holds
the accompaniment playing through
the radios as they walk through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Along the
way, they pass through locations that reflect the imagery of
Wilhelm Müller’s poetry and Schubert’s music.
The piano accompaniment was recorded by Timothy Long
and reimagined by sound designer Jonathan Zalben. The production was
directed by JJ Hudson. This year’s performance also featured twenty-four
new, illustrated German-to-English supertitles by Italian artist Irene
Rinaldi.
On January 6th, you can catch Herbert with the Brooklyn Art Song Society in a performance of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Tickets are available online.
MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2017 BARIHUNKS IN BED CALENDAR (it'll keep you warm during those cold months!)
American barihunk Michael Kelly will perform Franz Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin in an arrangement for guitar and voice, arranged by his accompanist David Leisner. The piece was originally written for voice and piano. Schubert was a guitarist himself, and most likely used the guitar to compose many of his songs.
Franz Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin is a cycle of twenty songs set to poems by the German poet Wilhelm Müller. It tells the tale of a young boy whose journeys bring him to take an apprenticeship at a mill, where he falls instantly in love with the miller's daughter. His love, and advances are sadly unrequited, and when she turns her attention to a hunter he bemoans losing her. Left with only the brook that guided him along the way, he succumbs to a watery grave as the brook lulls him to his final rest.
You can hear Kelly and Leisner perform Der Müller und der BachHERE.
Kelly will perform the Brahms Requiem with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on April 21 and 22 next year. He previously performed Mohammed Fairouz’s Zabur with the orchestra, joined by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir.
Our 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar is now on sale and available on LULU.
Order yours today and help us celebrate our 10th Anniversary.
Marco Vassalli, is back in Germany after his stunning U.S. debut with Musica Marin where he premiered two works for string quartet and baritone by American composer Clint Borzoni, Stufen and Magere Kost. The program also included works by Richard Strauss, Tosti and Schubert.
Schubert continues to play a big part on his current schedule, as he will be singing Winterreise on March 19 in Königslutte Stadtkirsher and on March 20th in Braunschwieg in the Emmauskirche. Schubert's Romantic song cycle of longing and loneliness is the second of composer's two great song cycles based on Wilhelm Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin.
He then returns to performances in Roman Cykowski's Comedian Harmonists at the Theater Osnabruck, which he's frequently performed over the past few years.
In May, he'll sing another world premiere as he performs in David Fennessey's Sweat of the Sun, which is based on Werner Herzog's Conquest of the Useless. The piece was commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale and is being co-produced with the Theater Osnabruck and the Munich Kammerorchestra.
Fennessey has been writing a series of pieces inspired by Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo and the metaphor of a full-size steamboat being dragged over a hill in the swampy jungle by a rubber baron who strives to build an opera house deep in the Peruvian jungle. The first composition was an orchestral prologue fusing chords from Verdi’s Rigoletto with a 10-minute guitar glissando. The second, Caruso (Gold is the sweat of the sun) deals with the initial image, or dream which inspired Herzog to make the film in the first place. Sweat of the Sun is a based on depictions from Herzog's diary, which was published under the name "Conquest of the Useless" and looks inside of the head of a man possessed.
Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Marco Vassalli(left)and Ronny Michael Greenberg (far right)
Rehearsals kicked off for the upcoming U.S. debut of Marco Vassalli with Musica Marin, who is performing the world premiere of the new Clint
Borzoni songs for String Quartet & Baritone along with songs by Schubert, Richard Strauss and Tosti. He'll also be performing Samuel Barber's beautiful and moving Dover Beach, one of the few other pieces scored for String Quartet & Baritone.
Portions of this concert were funded by sales of the 2016 Barihunks calendar, so we would like to personally thank everyone who bought a calendar! Every year we donate proceeds to promote young artists and works written for baritone or bass. This year, we plan on funding a special baritone/bass prize at a major singing competition.
Vassalli's debut performances with Musica Marin are on Friday, January 22 and Sunday, January 24 in San
Francisco. The German-Italian baritone kicked off rehearsals with accompanist Ronny Michael Greenberg, a current Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera and former participant in the Merola Opera Program. The Sunday matinee is almost sold out, but there are still tickets for
the Friday night performance. Tickets for both shows are available on
the Musica Marin website.
Here is a sneak preview of them rehearsing Schubert's Nacht und Träume.
Rehearsals for the Borzoni songs with texts chosen by Vassalli begin on Monday with the composer and members of the Musica Marin quartet led by Ruth Kahn. Vassalli chose Hermann Hesse's Stufen and Hilde Domin's Margere Kost, making these the first German language texts set by the composer. Our first charity calendar helped fund a performance of Borzoni's beautiful setting of Walt Whitman's "I Dream’d in a Dream" sung by Randal Turner, which you can listen to HERE.
Borzoni, one of the most talented of many gifted American composers on the scene, recently completed his fourth opera, When Adonis Calls,
based on the poetry of Gavin Dillard and arranged by John de los Santos. The opera was presented at
Fort Worth Opera’s 2015 Frontiers Showcase. He is currently working on his fifth opera, The Copper Queen, also with librettist John de los Santos for Arizona Opera’s program, Arizona Spark.
Vassalli just wrapped up a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Candide at the Staatsoper Hannover. He grew up on Lake Constance and
began his studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, where he
studied with the famed soprano Edda Moser.
Barihunk Christopher Dylan Herbert encored his unique performance of his participatory version of Franz Schubert’s 1828 song cycle Winterreise at
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He recently released a video highlight of the performance. Appropriately dubbed Winterize, since it's performed outside in the cold New York winter, the piece reimagines Schubert's WINTERREISE for baritone and
transistor radios.
Performed in collaboration with Make Music New York, the audience holds the accompaniment playing through
the radios as they walk through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Along the way, they pass through locations that reflect the imagery of
Wilhelm Müller’s poetry and Schubert’s music.
Christopher Dylan Herbert's Winterize:
The piano accompaniment was recorded by Timothy Long
and reimagined by sound designer Jonathan Zalben. The production was
directed by JJ Hudson. This year’s performance also featured twenty-four new, illustrated German-to-English supertitles by Italian artist Irene Rinaldi.
You can next see Herbert live with the Chamber Music Society in My Brother, Franz Schubert, which will be performed at Princeton on November 7 and Alice Tully Hall on November 8. On November 14, he rejoins New York Polyphony at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square for Songs of Hope, featuring music by Andrew Smith, Francisco de Peñalosa, Cyrillus Kreek and Loyset Compère.
MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGERS FROM 9 COUNTRIES.
We're unabashedly huge Henk Neven fans and his recitals are as magical as those by Simon Keenlyside or Christopher Maltman. His recital from earlier this year was recorded by ONYX and will be released next month. The CD entitled 'Auf einer burg' includes music by Schubert, Faure and Debussy, all with a theme of the sea.
Henk Neven sings Schubert's "Gute Nacht":
If you can't wait for the CD, he has two upcoming recitals of note.
On September 17, Neven will perform a recital of music by Brahms and Liszt at Wigmore Hall with accompanist Hans Eijsackers. On September 22, he'll give a recital at the Huis te Linschoten sponsored by the Schubert Foundation. Neven will perform accompanied by guitar player Fernando Riscado Cordas. Many of Schubert's songs were originally written for both piano and guitar accompaniments.
Amazingly, despite his meteoric rise as one of the top recitalists in Europe, no one has booked Neven yet in the United States.
When we woke up this morning and saw the announcement of New York's first performance of the complete songs of Franz Schubert, we thought that we had died and gone to heaven. It wasn't because of the thought of eight months of virtually non-stop Schubert, but it was the lineup of singers, which includes a dozen of our favorite barihunks.
The project is the brainchild of Lachlan Glen and Jonathan Ware who run Schubert & Company in the Big Apple. They've assemble fifty-three singers who have volunteered their services to perform all 603 songs at the Central Presbyterian Church the corner of 64th Street and Park Avenue.
The roster of barihunks consists of a virtual Who's Who of this site, including Tyler Simpson, Edward Parks, Kelly Markgraf, Michael Kelly, Jonathan Estabrooks, Jeong-Cheol Cha, Brandon Cedel, John Brancy, Jesse Blumberg, Julian Arsenault and others.
The duo is trying to raise the necessary funds for this project on Kickstarter and we encourage everyone to give even a few dollars/euros to makes this a reality.
We've been huge fans of Edwin Crossley-Mercer ever since he first came to our attention in 2008 after a fan of the site heard him in recital. Once we heard him (and saw him), we were hooked. However, he has been mysteriously absent on the internet, despite the development of an increasingly loyal fan base.
We were thrilled to learn that the gifted French barihunk now has an artist page on IMG Artists, as well as a personal site with his schedule. You can follow him on Twitter @EdwinXleyMercer. We also love his new head shot, which could be right out of GQ magazine.
Edwin Crossley-Mercer sings excerpts from Othmar Schoeck's cantata:
Upcoming performances include:
* June 3, 2012 : Recital of songs by Franz Schubert with pianist David Fray at Festival de Saint Denis, France
* June 14, 17, 20, 24, 27, 30, July 4, 7, 10, 2012 : Graf Dominik in Arabella by Richard Strauss, Opéra Bastille, Paris
* June 15, 2012 : Die Winterreise by Franz Schubert with Laurent Martin, piano, Festival de piano à Riom, France
* July 13, 2012 : Thésée in Hippolyte et Aricie by J.P. Rameau, festival de Beaune, France
* July 22, 2012 : Opera Gala, Orchestra of Scala Accademia, Bad Kissingen, Germany
* September 2012 : Jean Jacques Rousseau in the world premiere of "Jean Jacques Rousseau, citoyen de Genève" by Philippe Fénelon. Opéra de Genève, Switzerland
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose is distinguished by its satirical wit and irony. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris. [Excerpted from Wikipedia]
The first seven lieder from Robert Schumann's "Dichterliebe," set to poetry by Heinrich Heine Performed by Sanaz Sotoudeh and Philippe Sly in Pollack Hall at McGill University in 2009.
Schubert's haunting "Der Doppelgänger" from Schwanengesang sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:
Der Doppelgänger by Heinrich Heine
Still ist die Nacht, es ruhen die Gassen,
In diesem Hause wohnte mein Schatz;
Sie hat schon längst die Stadt verlassen,
Doch steht noch das Haus auf dem selben Platz.
Da steht auch ein Mensch und starrt in die Höhe,
Und ringt die Hände, vor Schmerzensgewalt;
Mir graust es, wenn ich sein Antlitz sehe -
Der Mond zeigt mir meine eigne Gestalt.
Du Doppelgänger! du bleicher Geselle!
Was äffst du nach mein Liebesleid,
Das mich gequält auf dieser Stelle,
So manche Nacht, in alter Zeit?
English Translation
The night is quiet, the streets are calm,
In this house my beloved once lived:
She has long since left the town,
But the house still stands, here in the same place.
A man stands there also and looks to the sky,
And wrings his hands overwhelmed by pain:
Upon seeing his face, I am terrified--
The moon shows me my own form!
O you Doppelgänger! you pale comrade!
Why do you ape the pain of my love
Which tormented me upon this spot
So many a night, so long ago?
Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com
Only two weeks left to purchase our 2012 Barihunks Charity Calendar. Get in the holiday spirit and buy your copy today. All proceeds go to young artist programs. We named our first recipient yesterday, which is the Portland Opera Studio. Scroll down and read about this amazing program.
October 17, 2011 at 1:00 PM, American barihunk Chris Herbert will perform in St. Paul's Chapel at the Trinity Wall Street Church in New York (talk about another great way to occupy Wall Street!). He will be a soloist in Bach's Cantata BWV 76, "Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes" with the Trinity Choir and Baroque Orchestra.
Here's a performance of the piece from Vienna in 1951:
Christopher Herbert performs concerts and opera throughout the United States and Europe, principally with his ensemble, New York Polyphony. He played a prominent part of "Sing for Hope's" 2010 and 2011 Pop-Up Pianos throughout New York. Check out the New York Polyphony website for upcoming concerts in your area. They are not to be missed!
Riley McMitchell
On November 11th, which is Canadian "Remembrance Day," barihunk Riley McMitchell will be performing the "Mass No. 2 in G major, D.167" by Franz Schubert. The performance will begin at 8 PM at the Canadian Memorial United Church at 15th and Burrard in Vancouver, B.C.
Coming soon to Barihunks: Havard Stensvold
Here is a highlight of Schubert's Mass in G major, which includes the bass Havard Stensvold, who we can assure you will be seen on Barihunks soon!
If you can't get enough of Joshua Bloom in the Met's "Don Giovanni," you're in luck. On Monday, November 28th at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City, the Aussie barihunk will perform Schwanengesang by Franz Schubert, as well as songs by Tom Lehrer and Poulen'c "Le Bestiaire."
Joshua Bloom was a member of the Merola Program and an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera. In 2005 he sang Garibaldo in "Rodelinda" for the San Francisco Opera, in 2006 he made his role debut as Nick Shadow in "The Rake’s Progress" for Opera Australia under Richard Hickox and appeared in "Die Zauberflöte" and "Salome" for Santa Fe Opera. For Opera Australia he has sung Dandini, Escamillo and Mozart's Figaro and Leporello. He made his Chicago Opera Theater debut in "Béatrice et Bénédict". Engagements include Masetto ("Don Giovanni") and Truffaldino ("Ariadne auf Naxos") for the Metropolitan Opera, Alidoro and Leporello for Garsington Opera Festival, and Rodolfo ("La Sonnambula") and Figaro for Opera Australia.
Here is the great Thomas Allen singing "Le Bestiaire":
First, we appreciated all of the nice emails about John Cage's . Unfortunately, it is not better known, but it is a beautiful piece of music and it was our pleasure to introduce it to many of you. Today we'd like to switch gears from dead composers back to hunky baritones and introduce you to Italian Gianluca Margheri.
Gianluca Margheri was born in Florence, where he also studied at the Coservatorio Cherubini. He made his professional debut in 2004 at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa in Traviata, followed by Demetrius in Briten's "Midsummer Night's Dream." In 2009 he won the first prize with at the international Opera Competition Toti dal Monte in Treviso. He has performed in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte. He can also be found on the recording of Handel's "Deidamia" and on the DVD of Respighi's "La bella dormente nel bosco."
Here is Gianluca Marrgheri singing Franz Schubert's "Traditor deluso" in 2008:
For the next two weeks we will be accepting submissions for our first Barihunks charity calendar, which will benefit young artist programs. Send High Res photos and a brief bio to Barihunks@gmail.com
We haven't featured one of our most popular singers in awhile, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, so we thought the release of his new CD would be a great excuse. Here are two features, one is an audio interview with Brooke Green from ABC Classic FM. Click HERE to listen.
Teddy Bare
The other is a video about the the CD, "Serious Songs." The recording features Johannes Brahms' "Serious Songs" with an updated orchestration by Detlev Glanert, Schubert's "Erlkonig," excerpts from the Brahms Requiem, Samuel Barber's "Dover Beach" and four Schubert songs.
Our love affair with Chris Herbert is no secret and we've made it clear that we admire him for both his singing and his commitment to the community. He is one of the most multi-faceted and interesting people in the world of opera. He is on tour with New York Polyphony singing music that is centuries old while also performing contemporary works like Barber's "Dover Beach," Dallapiccola's "Il Prigioniero," Sid in Britten's "Albert Herring" and Connie in Gordon's "The Grapes of Wrath." He holds a degrees in both music and Middle Eastern Studies and has written extensively on foreign affairs and has worked closely with "Sing for Hope," which we've covered extensively. To top it all of, he recently married his partner at his aunt's country estate, who happens to be Martha Stewart.
New York Polyphony
We can't figure out if he's a true renaissance man or just giving the guy in the Dos Equis beer ads a run for the title of the "Most Interesting Man in the World."
Of course, we were intrigued in January when we heard that Herbert would be singing Schubert's "Winterreise" with the Luminario Ballet. Although we tried to get someone to attend the event, we missed the performance. Fortunately, the complete performance has shown up on YouTube and we're posting it for your enjoyment. Once again he delivers a performance of incredible depth and beauty of tone. We hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.
Not all of the songs of Winterreise were included in the performance, but here is the synopsis of those that Herbert performs.
1. Gute Nacht (Good Night)
By moonlight, in winter, the poet leaves the house as he came to it, a stranger. The daughter has allowed their love to grow, and the mother has encouraged the pair to think of marriage: but the daughter's love has wandered to some new sweetheart. So he quietly and secretly steals away while they are sleeping, writing 'Good night' on her door, and leaving the path of his footsteps in the snow.
3. Gefror'ne Tränen (Frozen Tears)
Frozen tears fall from his cheeks as he walks away, but the breast from which they arise is so burning hot with feelings that they should melt the winter ice completely.
4. Erstarrung (Numbness)
He looks in vain for her footprints in the snow, where they formerly walked together arm in arm among the flowers and green grass. He wants to kiss the ground and weep on it, until he can dissolve the ice and see where they trod. But the flowers are all dead, and he can take no remembrance of her away from there. His heart is lifeless with her image frozen within; but if it thaws, her beautiful image fades.
5. Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)
He comes to the linden tree, with its pale flowers and heart-shaped leaves. that stands at the gate. In the shade of this tree he has dreamt many beautiful dreams, and in the bark he has carved words of love. It was his favourite place. Now he passes it with his eyes shut, even though it is deepest night, but the branches rustle to him, 'Come here old comrade, find your rest here'. A gust of wind blows his hat off, and many hours afterwards he remembers the tree, and it seems to say 'You should have found your rest here.' It is a tacit invitation to suicide. (In Die Schone Mullerin by the same author the rejected lover actually drowns himself and finds rest in the friendly brook where he dies.)
6. Wasserflut (Torrent)
He weeps copiously and his tears fall in the snow. When the Spring comes the snow will melt and flow into the river, and will carry his tears to the house of his beloved.
7. Auf dem Flusse (On the Stream)
The river, usually busy and bubbling, is locked in frozen darkness and lies drearily spread out under the ice. He will write her name, and the date of their first meeting, in the ice with a sharp stone. The river is a likeness of his heart: it beats and swells under the hard frozen surface.
10. Rast (Rest)
He reaches a charcoal-burner's hut and, worn out by his long trek through the snowstorm with a heavy backpack, he lies down to rest. In the quiet his cuts and bruises sting sorely.
11. Frühlingstraum (Dream of Springtime)
He dreams he is wandering through meadows full of flowers and bird-song in May: he heard the cock's crow and opened his eyes, but it was a raven calling in the cheerless darkness. Who could draw the flowers of ice he can see on the windows? He dreams again, of love, and a maiden's kiss, and the joy and bliss of love, but again the crowing wakes him and he sits up alone. He tries to sleep again: when will the leaves at the window be green - when will she hold him in her arms again?
12. Einsamkeit (Loneliness/Solitude)
He wanders along the busy road ungreeted. Why is the sky so calm and the world so bright? Even in the tempest he was not so lonely as this.
13. Die Post (The Post)
His heart leaps up as the post-horn sounds: they are not bringing him a letter, but it has come from the town, and he will ask if there is news of the beloved.
14. Der greise Kopf (The Grey Head)
The frost in his hair made him think he was going grey, but now it has thawed and his hair is still black. He has heard that some people go grey overnight with sorrow, but though he has felt that sorrow, it has not happened to him.
15. Die Krähe (The Crow)
A crow has followed him all along the way from the town. Is it waiting for him to die, so that it can eat him? It won't be long, let it keep him company to the end.
16. Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope)
He wanders among the trees and fixes his gaze on one leaf, which seems to hold his fate. It is a token: if it should fall from the branch, his hope will fall. His heart sinks, and his soul weeps the loss of everything.
17. Im Dorfe (In the Village)
People are asleep in the village and the dogs are barking. They dream of many things and have their rest. Let the dogs drive him away so that he does not rest with them - he is finished with all dreaming.
19. Täuschung (Deception)
A light on the dark and icy road at night, might be a warm place to stay, or the deception of a beautiful face.
20. Der Wegweiser (The Signpost)
Straying restlessly away from the roads, he still seeks rest. There is always a signpost in front of him, pointing to the road from which no wanderer returns. Death?
21. Das Wirtshaus (The Inn)
The 'wayside inn' is a lonely graveyard where he hopes to find rest at last. The wreaths are the tavern sign, inviting him in. But no - all the rooms are taken, and he must carry on, as he tells his faithful walking staff.
22. Mut (Courage)
As the wind blows snow in his face, he sings loudly to silence his thoughts of sorrow, so that he cannot hear or feel them. With his trusty staff and cheerful song he'll just keep going on.
23. Die Nebensonnen (The Phantom Suns)
He used to see three suns, but two of them have turned away to shine upon another, and now he sees only one, and he wishes that would pass away and leave him to the darkness.
24. Der Leiermann (The Hurdy Gurdy Man)
At the end of the village he finds the old barefoot hurdy-gurdy man, winding away his tunes, but no one has given him a penny, or listens, and even the dogs growl at him. But he just carries on playing, and the poet thinks he will cast in his lot with him.
We were convinced from early on that Philippe Sly would win the Metropolitan Opera Council Audition. This video of him singing Schubert's amazing song "Der Erlkönig" shows why. He has interpretive abilities far beyond his years and an amazing voice to boot.
Lee Poulis as Heathcliff, carrying the bones of his beloved Catherine (Photo Tom Wallace Star-Tribune)
The Minnesota Opera is presenting Academy Award-winning composer Bernard Herrmann's opera Wuthering Heights, which is based on Emily Brontë's gothic romance novel. The opera opens on Saturday, April 16 and runs through April 23. The production stars Lee Poulis, who we last saw in this cute little outfit from Bonn, where he was starring in The Elixir of Love.
Lee Poulis in a happier role
This production of Wuthering Heights celebrates the centennial of the composer's birth and is the first major revival of this forgotten masterpiece since it was written in Minneapolis in 1951. Click HERE to read Graydon Royce's article about the opera from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Poulis & Blumberg in Wuthering Heights
The production also happens to be a barihunk lovers delight, as it features two other regulars from this site. Ben Wager, who has been honing his skills in Germany, returns to sing the role of Hindley Earnshaw. Jesse Blumberg, a longtime favorite on this site, plays the neighbor Mr. Lockwood.
New York-based Jesse Blumberg
Fans of Blumberg who can't make the Minnesota performance can see him in New York as part of Bargemusic, a floating concert hall in Brooklyn. Blumberg will be performing Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin on Thursday, April 28 followed by Winterreise on Saturday, April 30. Call (718) 624-2083 for reservations. He will be accompanied by the great Martin Katz. If you're in the New York area this is a performance that you won't want to miss!
We can't think of a better way to celebrate Franz Schubert's birthday than with two of his masterpieces sung by the gifted British barihunk Andrew Ashwin.
Ashwin's career has been primarily in Europe where he has made his mark as an insightful recitalist, while also singing everything from Mozart to Britten, Janacek and Gilbert & Sullivan.
