Stunningly beautiful Gianluca Margheri in Alceste

Gianluca Margheri as the High Priest of Apollo

Italian barihunk Gianluca Margheri just opened in the dual roles of the High Priest of Apollo and Apollo at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Gluck's Alceste. He has three remaining performances, which run through March 30th. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Christoph Willibald Gluck, who was largely self-taught as a composer, became known as one of opera's most historically signifigant reformers. His three "reform operas" were Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste and Paride ed Elena, which eliminated many of the standard practices of the day, which Gluck felt impeded the drama.

''When I undertook to write the music for Alceste,'' Gluck wrote, ''I resolved to divest it entirely of all those abuses, introduced into it either by the mistaken vanity of singers or by the too great complaisance of composers, which have so long disfigured Italian opera and made of the most splendid and most beautiful of spectacles the most ridiculous and wearisome. I have striven to restrict music to its true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations of the story, without interrupting the action or stifling it with useless superfluity of ornaments ...Simplicity, truth and naturalness are the great principles of beauty in all artistic manifestations.''

Gianluca Margheri as Apollo

Alceste exists in two principal versions: the Italian original written for Vienna in 1767 and the French revision prepared for the Paris performances of 1776. The Teatro del Maggio Musicale is using the Italian version.

In Greek legend Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, was the wife of Athnetus, King of Pherae in Thessaly. She was the only person willing to die in place of her husband, but was brought back from the Underworld by Hercules. Gluck's opera is based on the play by Euripides, with Alcestis saved by the god Apollo. 

Gianluca Margheri backstage as Apollo

The story appears in varied forms, from Chaucer to Rilke and T. S. Eliot. Among the operatic versions of the legend are the tragedie en musique by Lully and Quinault, Alceste, ou Le triomphe d'Alcide (Alcestis, or The Triumph of Hercules) and the treatment of the myth by Wieland with the composer Anton Schweitzer, staged in Weimar in 1773. Alcestis herself is generally taken as the type of female virtue and conjugal love.

Margheri can next be heard as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in June and July. 

Introducing Canadian Bass-barihunk Tomislav Lavoie

Tomislav Lavoie

With all of our excitement about seeing Stéphane Degout ‏ in Gluck's Alceste at the Garnier, we almost overlooked Canadian bass-barihunk Tomislav Lavoie in the cast. He's caught our eye in the past as Leporello in Don Giovanni and Wagner in Faust, so he's long overdue to being introduced to our readers.

Tomislav Lavoie sings Wagner in Faust:

Lavoie studied at the Conservatoire de Musique in Montréal as a violinist before being hired by several famous orchestras among which the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. He was called on to replace a singer as Masetto in Don Giovanni and the rest is history. He went on to study voice at  Montréal University and during his first year was asked to sing Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. He was then invited to tour with Jeunesses musicales du Canada.

His performance as Apollo and two other roles in Alceste marks his debut at the Paris Opera. He now heads off to the Wexford Festival to perform Girot in Hérold's Le Pré aux Clercs. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Barihunks confounding Susanna offstage in Vienna Marriage

Degout and Esposito

Two of our favorite singers in the world, Alex Esposito and Stéphane Degout, are appearing together in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro from April 11-22 at the Theater and der Wien. Degout is singing the Count, while Esposito takes on Figaro.

The two have been having fun on Facebook posting pictures of themselves "napping" at rehearsals. We're not quite sure how Susanna feels about her beloved Figaro ending up in bed with the Count, but it certainly adds an interesting (offstage) twist to the story.

Alex Esposito and Stéphane Degout

When the two barihunks wrap up their onstage and offstage fun in Vienna they will head their separate ways. Esposito will stick to Mozart taking on his signature role of Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House in London from June 12-25. Degout will head to the Paris Opera to sing Apollo in Gluck's Alceste (and Team Barihunks will be in the audience). That performance runs from June 16-July 15,

Introducing Calabrian barihunk Vincenzo Nizzardo

Vincenzo Nizzardo

We just discovered Vincenzo Nizzardo, who will be singing Apollo in Pier Luigi Pizzi's production of Gluck's Alceste at the Teatro la Fenice from March 20-28.  Tickets and additional information are available online.

The Calabrian barihunk was was born in the town of Locri in 1987. He began studying music at the age of six and enrolled at the Conservatoire Cilea of Reggio Calabria, where he graduated with a degree in singing. 

Vincenzo Nizzardo singing music from Cinema Paradiso:

 

He has performed Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Teatro F. Cilea of Reggio Calabria, The Marriage of Figaro  in Paola,  Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Teatro Rendano of Cosenza and at the Teatro Valle Rome, and Hermann/Schlemil in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffman in Como, Brescia, Jesi and Pavia. 

Upcoming performances include Billy Budd at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra in Bordeaux and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in Rouen.