Giorgio Caoduro making role debut as Rigoletto

Giorgio Caoduro and Emma Matthews

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Opera Australia with the entire music world focused on the Tamar Iveri scandal. Hopefully, that episode is in the dustbin of history. So we figured it's time for some good news out of the company and that would be the role debut of Rigoletto with barihunk Giorgio Caoduro at the Joan Sutherland Theatre.

It's not his first time performing the opera, as he appeared in the movie version of the opera, but as Marullo opposite Placido Domingo's Rigoletto. Performances kick off tonight and Caoduro will perform the role nine times between today and July 19th, when he turns the role over to fellow barihunk José Carbó, who performs the role from July 23-August 24 (Warwick Fyfe performs one night, as well).

The cast also includes two other barihunks, Sam Dundas as Ceprano and Luke Gabbedy as Marullo. Gilda will be taken on by house favorite Emma Matthews, who recently updated her Facebook page to show artist support for the LGBT community after the Tamar Iveri episode. A classy act if there ever was one.

Tickets for all performances are available online.

Sam Dundas

After his run as Rigoletto, Caoduro returns to his native Italy to portray Sulpice in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo in the famed Franco Zeffirelli production. Performances run from September 17-24.

NEWS FLASH: José Carbó wins Helpmann Award

José Carbó in Die Tote Stadt at Opera Australia

We just learned that barihunk José Carbó has won a prestigious Helpmann Award as "Best Male Performer in a Supporting Role in an Opera" for his performance in Korngold's Die Tote Stadt at Opera Australia. The award is the Australian equivalent of Broadway's Tony Awards and London's Laurence Olivier Awards. They recognize distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in live performances in Australia, including musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, cabaret, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.

Also winning in the category of "Best Male Performer in Opera" was baritone John Wegman for his performance in Salome at Opera Australia.

Also nominated were Italian barihunk Giorgio Caoduro for his performance in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Australia and Dmytro Popov for his performance in Carmen on Sydney Harbour with Opera Australia.

Click HERE for a complete list of winners.

Byron Watson nominated for Helpmann Award

Byron Watson

Sydney-based barihunk Byron Watson, who is new to this site, has been nominated for a Helpmann Award for his performance in composer Gordon Kerry and librettist Louis Nowra’s chamber opera Midnight Son at the Victorian Opera. The award is the Australian equivalent of Broadway's Tony Awards and London's Laurence Olivier Awards. They recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in live performances in Australia, including musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, cabaret, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.

Byron Watson sings Ralph Vaughan-Williams' "Bright is the ring of words":

Watson was nominated as Best Male Performer in an Opera. Also nominated is Italian barihunk Giorgio Caoduro for his performance in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Australia, Dmytro Popov for his performance in Carmen on Sydney Harbour with Opera Australia and John Wegner for his performance in Salome at Opera Australia. Barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes won a Helpmann Award in 2004 for Best Male Operatic Performer for Dead Man Walking at the State Opera of South Australia. Other famous Helpmann Award winners include Kylie Minogue, Cate Blanchett and Tim Minchin. The Helpmann Awards will be on July 29 at the Sydney Opera House.

Byron Watson sings Duparc's "Le manoir de rosemonde":

Watson dreamed of a career in music at age 17, when he auditioned for the Schools Spectacular. He completed an Honours Music degree at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), and the Opera School of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), both on full international scholarship.

Other roles in 2013 have included Chou En-lai in Nixon in China for Victorian Opera, the French premiere of Sweeney Todd at Le Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Stubb in Moby Dick and Moralès in Carmen for the State Opera of South Australia.

Barihunks Galore available for viewing at Arte Live Web

Giorgio Caoduro

Director Olivier Py's sexy production of Bizet's Carmen is currently available in its entirety at Arte Live Web. The production stars Giorgio Caoduro as Escamillo and it's not to be missed!

If Carmen's not your cup of tea or if one barihunk isn't sufficient to whet your appetite, then check out Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with Paolo Szot as Count Almaviva and Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro. (The production also features the amazing Cherubino of Kate Lindsey).

Paolo Szot & Kyle Ketelsen

Both operas will be available for free for about the next six month. For your convenience, we've posted them both on Barihunks for your viewing pleasure.

In an unrelated matter, we're taking submissions for our 2nd Annual Barihunks Charity Calendar. Send pictures (with appropriate permissions) to Barihunks@gmail.com.

Early Verdi with Giorgio Caoduro (and some upcoming Attila performances)

Giorgio Caoduro (with Ortrud) and Stefan Kocan

We're huge fans of early Verdi operas at Barihunks, but we don't get nearly enough opportunities to post about them. Recently there have been a number of companies performing Attila, which often features multiple barihunks in the cast. Fortunately, the trend seems to be continuing in 2012.

In May, barihunk Ildar Abdrazakov will take on the title role in Rome in a production by Pier Luigi Pizzi and conducted by Riccardo Muti. Barihunk Luca Dall’Amico will perform the role of Leone. The San Francisco Opera performs it this summer with one of the greatest Attila's ever, Samuel Ramey, in the smaller role of Leone. The great baritone duet will be sung by Ferruccio Furlanetto and Quinn Kelsey, who portray Attila and Ezio respectively. In September, the opera opens in Santiago with barihunk Stefan Kocan in the title role. 

One of the operas that rarely gets performed is La battaglia di Legnano, which has amazing moments of inspiration, Verdian patriotic fervor, a love triangle and some great baritone music (even though the best known piece is the tenor aria "La pia materna mano"). Verdi, in fact, was a baritone and loved writing great roles in that range.

We were thrilled when a reader sent us a video of barihunk Giorgio Caoduro singing the great baritone aria and cabaletta "Se al nuovo di pugnando...Ah scellerate alme d'inferno"" from a recent performance of La battaglia di Legnano at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.



Caoduro can next be seen at the Opéra de Lyon where he is donning his matadors outfit for Escamillo. He can next be seen in the United States in March 2013 at the Washington National Opera singing Lescaut opposite the Manon Lescaut of Patricia Racette. 

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Italian Barihunk Barber at La Fenice

Mirco Palazzi

Teatro La Fenice in Venice is performing Rossini's comic masterpiece "Il barbiere di Siviglia" with a cast full of Italian barihunks. La Fenice is rotating casts and almost all of the low voice roles are filled by barihunks, including those that we don't generally associate with sexy singers, like Don Basilio and Bartolo. Figaro is being sung by Giorgio Caoduro, who has appeared frequently on this site, and Christian Senn will perform in the alternate cast. Don Basilio will be shared by Mirco Palazzi and Luca Dall'Amico, while Omar Montanari will be one of the Bartolos.

Luca Dall'Amico and Giorgio Caoduro

Tickets can be purchased on the La Fenice website, where you can also find additional cast and performance information. We also recommend that you visit Giorgio Caoduro's website, where you can find some wonderful sound clips, including the Barber's famous "Largo al factotum." Here is Mirco Palazzi singing Don Basilio's aria "La calunnia":



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Giorgio Caoduro Triumphs in Opera Australia Debut; Barihunks Abound in Barber

Giorgio Caoduro at Opera Australia

Italian barihunk Giorgio Caoduro, who we last saw on this site shaking his booty, has just made a triumphant Australian debut in the Barber of Seville at Opera Australia. Caoduro performs again on Monday night and then turns of the role of the Barber to fellow barihunk Jose Carbo. You can find complete cast and performance information on the Opera Australia website.

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote the following:

In the title role, Giorgio Caoduro as Figaro established himself as a suave operator, a dapper factotum whose vocal skills match the enterprise of his character in the ability to adapt to any situation with flexibility and charm.

 Caoduro will continue singing his famous "Largo al factotum" in Talouse at the Théâtre du Capitole, alternating the role with yet another barihunk, Vittorio Prato. Performances run from March 18-27.

Jud Arthur

In Talouse and in Sydney, Caoduro will have a barihunk performing the role of Don Basilio. Performing in both casts at Opera Australia is former professional rugby player turned opera singer Jud Arthur. We've been told by our sources that the hunky bass has a promising future in opera. In Toulouse the role will be performed by the stunningly handsome Giovanni Furlanetto.

Vittorio Prato & Giovanni Furlanetto

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Giovanni Furlanetto Sings Rossini

[Photo from www.giovannifurlanetto.com]

Here is a magnificent rendition of the trio "Ti parli d'amore" from Rossini's "Otello" with barihunk Giovanni Fulanetto as Elmiro, tenor John Osborne as Otello and Olga Peretyatko as Desdemona. The performance was at the Opéra de Lausanne in February 2010.

[Furlanetto as Selim; Photo courtesy of Leipzig Opera]

Opera lovers who enjoy great acting should not miss any opportunity to see Giovanni Furlanetto, who has quickly established himself as a great actor, as well as a commanding vocal presence. Upcoming performances include Selim in "Il turco in Italia" in Leipzig, Don Basilio in "Il barbiere di Siviglia" in Toulouse, and Raimondo in "Lucia di Lammermoor" in Trieste. As an added enticement, the cast of Barber in Toulouse also features fellow barihunks Giorgio Caoduro as Figaro and Vittorio Prato as Fiorello.



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Barihunk Caoduro to Replace Raimondi in L.A.; More Hunks on the Way

Good news for Barihunks fans on the West Coast. It was just announced that barihunk Giorgio Caoduro will replace the legendary Ruggero Raimondi in the Los Angeles Opera production of L'Elisir d'Amore. The adorable Caoduro will take on the role of Dr. Dulcamara.

L.A. Opera favorite and barihunk Nathan Gunn will play the role of Belcore. By the way, Gunn will be singing the Barber of Seville at the LA Opera in November and December of this year with Joyce di Donato and hunkentenor Juan Diego Florez. Gunn will be alternating the title role with fellow barihunk Lucas Meachem, whose cast also includes barihunk prospect Ryan McKinny as Don Basilio. [If we have one criticism of the otherwise wonderful LA Opera, it's that they have a penchant for casting barihunks in the unsexiest roles imaginable!].

RYAN MCKINNY



We love the legendary 67-year-old bass-baritone Ruggero Raimondi, but we think that Caoduro is a casting improvement. He's an amazing comic actor who is just hitting his stride as a major operatic talent. The role of Dr. Dulcamara is perfectly suited to his talents. If you can get to L.A., this should be a "can't miss" performance.

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Giorgio Caoduro as Riccardo in I Puritani

Let's face it, an opera titled The Puritans is unlikely to provide much barihunk fodder. I doubt that even Calixto Bieito could sex up this opera (http://barihunks.blogspot.com/search?q=armide). However, we've learned that Giorgio Caoduro has a way of making any role look pretty hot. Check out his booty shaking performance that we posted from the usually unsexy Il signor Bruschino by Rossini at: http://barihunks.blogspot.com/search?q=caoduro.

InstantEncore had this description of his performance of Puritani from Athens in April of this year:

Italian Barihunk Giorgio Caoduro, sang an impressive Riccardo, with his round, sonorous baritone, looked totally at ease on stage and received a storm of applause after his high A sostenuta-like-there's-no-tomorrow at "Suoni la tromba".

You can watch a clip of "Suoni la tromba" below, which unfortunately isn't the best quality.

We're glad that they dubbed him a barihunk in their review, so that he can join some of our other favorites whose reviews seldom fail mention our favorite moniker. Singers like Nathan Gunn, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Erwin Schrott. Welcome to the barihunks club Giorgio!

Caoduro's upcoming performance include Count Almaviva in Nozze and Rodrigo in Don Carlo at Bologna, and Figaro in Barber at Toulouse.

For all of you tenor fans, you can hear Bryan Hymel sing the fiendishly difficult aria
"A te, o cara" from this production with a full chest Db at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0UUg3oH4k. Eglise Gutiérrez was the Elvira in this production.

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Giorgio Caoduro Shakes His Booty to Rossini

Italian barihunk Giorgio Caoduro sings Gaudenzio's aria "Nel teatro del gran mondo" from Il Signor Bruschino by Rossini. Make sure to watch him shake, shake, shake his booty around the 5:00 mark of the video.

He is next scheduled to shake his booty in Athens as Riccardo in I Puritani followed by his Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro in Bologna.

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