Introducing British Barihunk Dan Shelvey

Daniel Alfred Shelvey

Liverpool native Dan Shelvey was nominated by a reader on Facebook to be in our "Barihunks in Bed" calendar and we couldn't agree more. He is currently studying opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) where he is supported by the GSMD, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Musicians Benevolent.  Before attending the GSMD, Shelvey graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a first-class degree.

He is winner of the Richard Van Allan prize 2015, the Robin Kay 2013 Memorial Prize for Opera and the 2012 Frederick Cox Award for Singing, and was awarded second place in the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize for Singers 2013.

Soprano Renée Fleming leads a masterclass with Daniel Shelvey:

A 2014 Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist, Dan has performed Flora’s Servant in Verdi's La traviata, covered Morales in Bizet's Carmen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and will perform the role of the Marchese d’Obigny in their 2017 production of La traviata.  Other roles include Junius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia  at the GSMD, Ulisse in Monteverdi's  Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, Boris in Shostakovich's Paradise Moscow at the Royal Northern College of Music, and Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for Silk Opera.

Shelvey has sung as a soloist in many of the UK’s leading concert venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Colston Hall and the Bridgewater Hall.  Recent solo concert highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Hallé and at the Royal Festival Hall for the BBC, an Oxford Lieder Festival recital, and a recital for the Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist recital series at Brighton Pavilion.

Björn Bürger's Figaro is a box office hit at Glyndebourne; Watch live

Björn Bürger as Figaro

The big hit of the Glyndebourne season is barihunk Björn Bürger's Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville, which runs through July 17th with limited availability. The cast also includes Taylor Stayton as Almaviva and Danielle de Niese as Rosina. You can check for tickets HERE.

This appears to be one of those career defining moments for a young singer, as crowds and critics have responded enthusiastically. 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." Richard Fairman in the Financial Times wrote, "What fun there is comes from a well-chosen cast. At the top of the class is Björn Bürger’s ace Figaro, sung with brilliance, precision and a nonstop cheery grin, as if it is all no effort at all."

If you can't catch it live, you have two chances to watch in remotely. If you're in the UK, you can see it in a theatre in a live broadcast on Tuesday, June 21 at 6:30 PM. You can find screening near you by clicking HERE.

If you live elsewhere, the performance will be streamed live online on the same day HERE.

Next up at Glyndebourne is Mozart's Marriage of Figaro featuring the barihunk duo of Davide Luciano as Figaro and Gyula Orendt as Count Almaviva. It runs from July 3 to August 24.

UPDATED: Barihunk trio in Glyndebourne's Carmen

Paulo Szot, Christophe Gay and Gavan Ring (l-r)

CORRECTION - JUNE 24, 2015: We were informed that we were sent a cast list with the wrong Escamillo, as David Soar is singing the role and not Paulo Szot. We apologize for any inconvenience. David Soar was born in Nottinghamshire and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. Highlights in his 2014/15 season include Pistola in a new production of Falstaff at the Saito Kinen Festival and a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Colline La bohème.

David Soar

ORIGINAL POST: The Glyndebourne Festival will feature a barihunk trio in David McVicar's production of Bizet's Carmen with Paulo Szot as Escamillo, Christophe Gay as Le Dancaire and Gavan Ring as Moralés. The opera will run from June 28-July11 and the cast also includes Stéphanie D'Oustrac as Carmen, Pavel Cernoch as Don Jose and Lucy Crowe as Micaela. 

Tony Award-winning baritone Paulo Szot remains one of the most popular singers in the world of opera. Later this year, he'll reprise the role of Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera alongside Toby Spence, Susan Graham and Lucy Crowe.  Other recent appearances at the Met have included the Captain in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer and Kovalyov in Shostakovich's The Nose.

We introduced Gavan Ring to readers in October 2014 after having been impressed by his performance in the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. After Carmen, Ring heads to the Edinburgh International Festival to perform Bill Bobstay in HMS Pinafore and then to Opera North for Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Next year, he'll be back at Opera North for Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.

Christophe Gay, who is new to this site, graduated from the Nancy Conservatoire National in Singing and Chamber Music. He made his debut at the Nancy Opera House in Dallapiccolla's Il Prigioniero followed by Re Cefalo in the world premiere of Detlev Glanert's Enigma at the Montepulciano Festival. In September, Gay will sing Monsieur de Brétigny in Massenet's Manon at the Opéra de Marseille, followed by Bobinet in Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne.

Watch Elliot Madore in Ravel double-bill

You can watch Glyndebourne's 2012 production of L'Heure Espagnole and L'Enfant et les sortilèges starring barihunk Elliot Madore until June 28th. The company will be reviving their production of Ravel's only two operas for thieir 2015 season premiering on Saturday August 8. Étienne Dupuis will sing Elliot Madore's roles and it will also star Danielle de Niese.

Ravel’s two one-act operas will reunites director Laurent Pelly and conductor Kazushi Ono, who made their Glyndebourne debuts in 2008 with Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.

Canadian barihunk Elliot Madore made his U.K. and Glyndebourne debut as Ramiro in L’heure espagnole and as The Cat/Grandfather Clock in L’enfant et les sortilèges'. 

The video can be accessed HERE. 

Introducing British bass-barihunk Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton, who will be competing in the semi-finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards competition on April 22nd, is new to this site. The British bass-barihunk is currently a member of the Opera School at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was awarded the Tom Hammond Opera Prize.  He is an alumnus of St John’s College Cambridgea and Heidelberg Universität, where he pursued his studies in German.

Tristan Hambleton as a bass-baritone and a treble

Hambleton enjoyed considerable success as a treble soloist performing with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Les Arts Florissant in France and at the BBC Proms, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and with various orchestras in many of the major London venues.

In recent years he has established a career as a recitalist and concert singer appearing with orchestras such as The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Hallé, Devon Baroque, Camerata Viva Tübingen and The London Mozart Players.

On the opera stage he has appeared as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Hampstead Garden Opera, Re di Scozia in Handel’s Ariodante for Royal Academy Opera, Cadmus in Handel's Semele for Jackdaw’s, Bottom in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edinburgh Fringe for the award-winning Shadwell Opera.

Tristan Hambleton

In Wagner’s bicentenary year. Hambleton was asked by Sir Mark Elder to sing the role of Herman Ortel in the Halle's concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bridgewater Hall and has since been invited back to sing the bass solos in the Mozart Requiem with the orchestra.

On May 10th, he'll be performing Mozart's Mass in C minor, K427 with the Mayfield Festival Choir. This summer, Tristan will be joining the chorus at the Glyndebourne Opera for their festival season.

You can listen to him sing Tchaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart HERE

Introducing Italian Barihunk® Mattia Olivieri

Mattia Olivieri: Don Giovanni (left), rehearsing Belcore (right)

Italian barihunk Mattia Olivieri will be starring as Nardo in Mozart's La finta giardiniera at Glyndebourne from October 5-23. The production then goes on tour to Woking, Canterbury, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Dublin & Stoke-on-Trent.

Mozart wrote  La finta giardiniera when he was just 18 years old for the Salvatortheater in Munich. Mozart based the opera on Goldoni's play Pamela nubile and it was only his second comic opera. The story follows seven characters in search of love, involving disguise, and recognition of both identities and emotions - trying to discover what is real and what is finta (fake). You can listen to an earlier performance of the opera on BBC 3 starring Gyula Orendt as Nardo and the amazing tenor Joel Prieto as Count Belfiore. It will be available until October 22.

Mattia Olivieri as Ping at the Arena di Verona:

30-year-old Mattia Olivieri was born in Sassuolo, Italy and studied at the G.B. Martini Music Conservatory in Bologna and at the G.B. Pergolesi Music Conservatory in Fermo. He made his operatic debut in 2008 as the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Fiorello in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Tuscan Lyric Festival. He also toured Italy as Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte as part of a nationwide opera education project.

In 2012, he sang Dulcamara in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore at the Sarzana Opera Festival and Don Prudenzio in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims with the Rossini Academy in Pesaro. This year he's sung the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni in Palermo and Ping in Puccini's Turandot at the Arena di Verona.

After the tour of La finta giardiniera, he sings more Mozart as he takes on Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte in Nice. In August 2015, he makes his debut at La Scala in Milan as Schaunard in Puccini's La boheme followed by Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore.

Glyndebourne's La finta Giardiniera broadcast on BBC Radio 3

Gyula Orendt

BBC 3 radio will broadcast Mozart's La finta Giardiniera on their initial Opera on 3 offering on Monday, September 22 at 7:15 PM GMT/2:15 PM EST. The performance is from this summer's Glyndebourne Festival and includes barihunk Gyula Orendt as Nardo and hunkentenor Joel Prieto as Count Belfiore with the Age of Enlightenment Orchestra conducted by Robin Ticciati.

Written when he was only eighteen, Mozart comic opera La finta Giardiniera on Goldoni's is based on the play Pamela nubile. The story follows seven characters in search of love, involving disguise, and recognition of both identities and emotions - trying to discover what is real and what is 'finta'.

Gyula Orendt sings Gounod's "Queen of Love":

Martin Handley presents, and during the interval discusses the opera with Mozart specialist Professor Cliff Eisen. You can tune in HERE.

Gyula Orendt, who is of Hungarian-Romanian  descent, studied singing at the Transilvania Music University in Brasov, Romania, and completed his studies at the Academy of Music Franz Liszt in Budapest, where he was also trained as a singing teacher. He won at the Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona the Mozart Prize and the prize for oratorio/lieder.


Since 2013, he has been a member of the Berlin State Opera, where his roles since have included Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Papageno, Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cesare Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca and Tempo/Consiglio in Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo. He made his Royal Opera debut in 2012 singing the Gamekeeper in Dvorak's Rusalka. He returns to London this season to sing the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Roundhouse.

Watch the Glyndebourne Don Giovanni online

Gerald Finley and Luca Pisaroni at Glyndebourne

You will be able to watch the acclaimed 2010 production of Mozart's Don Giovanni from Glyndebourne online. It features three of the greatest low voices around today, Gerald Finley in the title role, Luca Pisaroni as Masetto and Guido Loconsolo as Masetto. Also not to be missed in this production is the Don Ottavio of William Burden and the Donna Anna of Kate Royal.

The video will go live HERE at 3pm London time (10 AM EST/7 AM PST) on July 6 and remain online until Sunday, July 13.

Critic Rupert Christiansen, writing about Gerald Finley as Don Giovanni and Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, wrote: "Suavely ruthless, Finley was both steely monster and molten charmer, singing with a firmness, clarity and stylistic elegance that I can’t easily imagine surpassed. Pisaroni made a delightfully goofy but treacherous Leporello, both his master’s alter ego and his rival." 

Trio of Barihunks in new Glyndebourne Don Giovanni

Elliot Mador, Brandon Cedel and Edwin Crossley-Mercer

If you followed any of the press around Tara Eraught's treatment by British reviewers concerning her appearance as the Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne, you can rest assured that no such criticism will be hurled at director Jonathan Kent’s updated production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. The company has assembled an ensemble of great singers who also look like they were cast for a Baz Luhrmann blockbuster Hollywood film.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Elliot Madore (photo: Robert Workman)

In the title role is the rising Canadian star barihunk Elliot Madore, who is joined by Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Leporello and Brandon Cedel as Masetto. Madore returns to Glyndebourne after his successful 2012 Festival debut in Ravel's L’heure espagnole. Madore joins a distinguished roster of Don's that dates back to the legendary performances of John Brownlee in the 1930s and includes Giuseppe Valdengo, Kim Borg, Enest Blanc, Ruggero Raimondi, Benjamin Luxon, Brent Ellis, Sir Thomas Allen, Richard Stilwell, Olaf Bar and Gerald Finley.

The current cast also includes the sensational young British tenor Ben Johnson as Don Ottavio,  Canadian soprano Layla Claire reprising her 2012 appearance as Donna Anna, Italian soprano Serena Farnocchia as Donna Elvira, Lenka Máčiková as Zerlina and Andrés Orozco-Estrada making his Glyndebourne debut conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lenka Máčiková, Elliot Madore and Brandon Cedel

If you can't make the performance, you can watch their 2010 production featuring Gerald Finley as Don Giovanni, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Guido Loconsolo as Masetto on July 6th. Later today, you can watch the aforementioned production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier live from Glyndebourne, starring Kate Royal, Teodora Gheorghiu and Tara Erraught, and conducted by Robin Ticciati. The broadcast begins on Sunday June 8 at 4.30pm GST/11:30am EST/8:30am PST. Click HERE to watch.

Introducing British Barihunk Toby Girling

Toby Girling in Zatopek! (left) and Winterreise (right)

Some singers just seem to inspire directors to get them into various states of undress and British barihunk seems to be one of them. We originally saw the picture of him from Zatopek! (above left) when we were posting about his castmate Peter Brathwaite and then the picture of him on the right from a Bluebeard's Castle/Winterreise double bill showed up in our messages. Girling is the sole vocal performer in Schubert's Winterreise with the Vlaamse Opera, which will run in Antwerp through May 10th. Tickets are available online.

Toby Girling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus in the Michael Grandage production of Britten's Billy Budd, in which he also sang the role of Arthur Jones and covered the role of Donald. Regular readers may recall that Glyndebourne's Billy Budd also featured barihunks Jacques Imbrailo and Duncan Rock. 

Toby Girling sings Der Lindenbaum from Schubert's 'Die Winterreise:

He has sung at a number of major festivals other than Glyndebourne. These include a 2011 performance of Ben in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti at the Wexford Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Verbier Festival, and Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Iford Festival. He also performed in both Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Fiorello in Rossini's the Barber of Seville to great acclaim with the English Touring Company.

He is currenlty a Studio Artist at Oper Frankfurt, where he performed as the Flemish Deputy in a revival of Verdi's Don Carlo.  Other appearances with the company include Ein Steuermann in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Manuel in de Falla's La Vida Breve and Mann in Sallinen's Kullervo.

Duncan Rock as Tarquinius on BBC3

Allan Clayton (Male Chorus), Duncan Rock (Tarquinius), Claudia Huckle (Lucretia), Kate Valentine (Female Chorus)

In our "Best of 2013" feature earlier this month we named Duncan Rock's performance in Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" at the Glyndebourne Festival as one of the best live performances of the year.  Critic Edward Bhesania in The Stage wrote, "Duncan Rock is a bold, rich-toned and physically beefy Tarquinius." We couldn't have agreed more, as he delivered a perfect combination of great singing and barihunk sexiness.

Duncan Rock as Tarquinius

A broadcast of the performance is now available on BBC3 radio by clicking HERE. We hope that a video will be available someday.

A stunning Duncan Rock as Tarquinius at Glyndebourne

Duncan Rock in The Rape of Lucretia (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

We've been following the amazing career of barihunk Duncan Rock and watched with great delight how quickly he's developed a devoted following amongst opera goers. We love his willingness to push his artistic boundaries, appearing in everything from Billy Budd at Glynebourne to an updated, gender bending Don Giovanni: The Opera at London's famous nightclub Heaven.

We received more mail about him after he appeared in last year's Barihunks calendar, than any other singer. He has quickly become the perfect example of what opera companies are often looking for today: Great voice, great appearance and great acting. In the pantheon of young baritone talent, he has more people talking than almost any other singer.

Duncan Rock in The Rape of Lucretia (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

He's currently turning heads and receiving rave reviews for his portrayal as an often shirtless Tarquinius in Benjmain Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne. In this production, he is being directed by the great Irish actress and theatre and opera director Fiona Shaw, who is undoubtedly pushing him to even higher artistic standards. Tim Ashley, of the Guardian commented, "Rock undercuts Tarquinius's raffish allure with unnerving intimations of psychotic violence."

The Rape of Lucretia was first performed at Glyndebourne in 1946. It tells the story of Lucretia, who is raped by the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus, ruler of Rome. Unable to live with the shame, Lucretia  commits suicide. The action of the opera is commented on throughout by a Male and Female Chorus who occupy another dimension, at times narrating the story and at times voicing the thoughts of the different characters.

Duncan Rock in The Rape of Lucretia (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

There are three remaining performances at Glyndebourne on October 22, 25 and November 28, as well as a tour to Woking, Norwich, Canterbury and Plymouth. A recording of this production will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on December 28th.

For tickets, call 01273 815000 or visit the Glyndebourne website.

Baritone Robert Poulton killed in car crash

R.I.P. - Robert Poulton

(The Independent) Robert Poulton, a baritone with Glyndebourne opera, was tragically killed in a car accident in Sussex late last night (October 30).


He had been due on stage tonight at the Theatre Royal, Norwich in Dvorak's Rusalka as part of the company's 2012 tour.

But as a mark of respect to his family and colleagues the performance has been cancelled.
Glyndebourne published a statement on its website confirming the news and describing Poulton as "a very valued part of the Glyndebourne family" and expressing deep regret and sadness at his death.
David Pickard, General Director said: "The news of Robert’s death is devastating for his family – and for all of us at Glyndebourne who have so valued him over many years."

"It is testament to Robert’s generous character and amazing musicianship that he had such a distinguished operatic career, not just at Glyndebourne but also at many of the leading international houses. Our thoughts at this time are with Robert’s family, to whom we extend our deepest sympathy.”

Born in Brighton, he began his career in the Glyndebourne chorus after studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He made his debut in Curlew River for BBC and spent much of his early career at Glyndebourne‚ winning the John Christie Award and the Esso/GTO Award.

He was a regular guest with the English National Opera and recently starred in an ENO and Opera Holland Park production of La Traviata, in Aida at the Royal Albert Hall and in Tosca with the Scottish Opera.

His agent Athole Still Opera released a statement which read: "Robert will be greatly missed by his friends, family and the entire opera community. He was an exceptional artist, but more than that, truly a wonderful person and a joy to work with every day; we were honored to represent him. His immense contribution to the opera world will not be

[Original link: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/news/opera-cancelled-after-baritone-robert-poulton-killed-in-car-crash-8269698.html]

Elliot Madore makes U.K. debut at Glyndebourne

Elliot Madore (Photo: Kristin Hoebermann)

Out in the Sussex countryside away from the commotion of the Summer Olympics, the Glyndebourne festival is about to present it's sixth and final production of the season. On August 4th, the company will open the Ravel double-bill of L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges. Ravel’s two one-act operas will reunite director Laurent Pelly and conductor Kazushi Ono, who made their Glyndebourne debuts in 2008 with Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.

Canadian barihunk Elliot Madore will make his U.K. and Glyndebourne debut as Ramiro in L’heure espagnole and as The Cat/Grandfather Clock in L’enfant et les sortilèges'. There are nine performances running through August 25th and the opera will be screened in theatres throughout the U.K. on Sunday, August 19th for those who didn't get their tuxedos pressed in time.

 The 1987 production from Glyndebourne with barihunk Francois LeRoux:

The former Lindemann Young Artist participant has also joined the ensemble of Opernhaus Zürich for the 2012-13 season. The company has cast him in a new production of Peter Eötvös’s 'Three Sisters', and revivals of 'Pagliacci' (Silvio), 'Un ballo in maschera' (Silvano), and 'La scala di seta' (Germano).

Readers of this site will recall that Madore created a sensation when he stepped in for Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He also appeared as Lysander at The Met in their Baroque pastiche The Enchanged Island.

Other operas that are still running at Glyndebourne include La bohème, Le nozze di Figaro and Purcell's The Fairy Queen. Visit their website for tickets and additional performance information.

Imbrailo back as Billy Budd (as Britten and Melville intended)

Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd

Jacques Imbrailo, who recently starred in a somewhat controversial production of Billy Budd at Glyndebourne, is tackling the title role in a different production. Imbrailo will perform in the heralded Richard Jones production that we previously saw Peter Mattei perform at Frankfurt.

Imbrailo created a bit of a tempest before the Glyndebourne run with some comments he made in the Sunday Times that suggested to some that he was trying to take the gay element out of the opera. Here is an excerpt;

Imbrailo features on a website called barihunks.blogspot.com, whose breathless preview of Billy Budd is: “Let’s hope the production is shirtless.”

“They’re going to be disappointed,” says Imbrailo. “That’s a lazy way to characterise; Billy swinging round pipes. He doesn’t have to be a gym bunny.” Never mind Billy’s biceps, Imbrailo would rather emphasise his goodness.

Barihunks was besieged with emails and comments not just from readers, but from people involved with the production who felt that "stuffy" Glyndebourne was trying to rewrite the story to make Claggart troubled with Billy's "goodness" and removing the gay attraction. Of course, the current production is in the Netherlands where they celebrate rather than run from gay themes in opera. This production's Claggart, Clive Bayley, makes it clear in the preview video that Claggart is clearly gay and attracted to Billy, but decides to destroy what he loves.

Jacques Imbrailo: Not afraid to disappoint Barihunks readers?

Assuming he needed to redeem himself, Imbrailo has clearly done it in this production. One Dutch reviewer described Imbrailo and "vigorous" and "charismatic" with just the right baritone sound. He clearly didn't shy away from portraying a sexy Billy Budd and he appears to have redeemed himself with those "disappointed" Barihunks readers he previously referenced.




The Netherlands Opera has added a Gay Date Night on March 25th for the current of the opera. Details can and ticket information are available on their website. We hope that Glyndebourne does the smae thing when they mount Billy Budd again.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Enjoy Luca Pisaroni for Christmas from Anywhere

Luca Pisaroni and Kate Royal in Don Giovanni

Can you imagine a better way to spend the holiday than to have Luca Pisaroni singing in your ear?

Fans of the Italian barihunk can listen to his Leporello opposite the Don Giovanni of Gerald Finley on Christmas Eve. The broadcast will be on the BBC Two on Christmas Eve at 2.45 pm GMT.  If you're busy with family or church, the broadcast will be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer afterwards for a limited period of time.

In addition to Pisaroni and Finley, the cast includes Kate Royal as Donna Elvira and Anna Samuil as Donna Anna.

You can contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com. Keep sending us those Messiah listings. 

Duncan Rock's Video Diary of Billy Budd

If our email is any indication, then Duncan Rock not only has a lot of fans who find him quite hot, but a lot of colleagues who really love working with him. We started hearing about the hunky singer last year and ran our first post in January when he released his Elgar recording. There are a couple of themes in every email, mainly that he's fun, a great colleague, and "check out that body and those arms."

He is also a gifted singer and you can hear him sing Finzi and Mussorgsky at InstantEncore.

We also received a ton of email about the Billy Budd at Glyndebourne, which generated intense passions. One of the choristers was nice enough to alert us to Duncan Rock's video diary of the production. We've had some issues getting video margins to work, so you can watch it HERE if you have problems.





++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Contact us at barihunks@gmail.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

WSJ Bemoans Billy Budd Minus Sexual Tension

It looks like the American press wasn't quite as forgiving as the British press when it came to Michael Grandage's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne. Both the director and the Billy Budd - Jacques Ibrailo - talked openly before opening night about their desire to focus more on Billy's goodness than the sexual tension in the libretto. Howls erupted from some within the opera community, but the British press still gave the production polite if not favorable reviews. However, Paul Levy in the Wall Street Journal was pretty forthright in his criticism.

Mr. Grandage seems to have eliminated the homosexual theme from the piece. As Billy, who is so good-looking that he is nicknamed "Beauty," Jacques Imbrailo radiates goodness and innocence. Most productions rely on the dramatic tension created by the feelings both Captain Vere and the Master-at-Arms, Claggart, have for the handsome able seaman, Billy, who has been press-ganged from his passing merchant ship, Rights o' Man. Neither John Mark Ainsley's Vere nor Phillip Ens's Claggart seems to have any sexual desire for Billy. Though it feels deliberate, this could, of course, simply be a failing in their performances.

In any case, it exposes a real weakness in the work's first half, in which Billy, unjustly accused by Claggart of inciting mutiny, stammeringly fails to defend himself, and in frustration strikes him dead with a single blow. The only witness is the unfailingly just Captain Vere. As he wrote to literary critic Lionel Trilling, Forster was more interested in Vere's lapse from goodness than in Claggart's "natural depravity." The novelist thought he'd written Claggart's monologue along the lines of Iago's in Verdi's "Otello," but in the absence of the sexual chemistry that usually conceals the poverty of the text, Claggart's Act I aria is just a statement of an inexplicable hatred for Billy. Forster's words don't even support a Coleridgean analysis of Iago and Claggart's characters as pure, unmotivated evil.

Read the entire review HERE.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Contact us at barihunks@gmail.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Imbrailo's Billy Budd Well Received

The reviews are in for Jacques Imbrailo's much anticipated Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and it appears to have been a critical success. One of the criticisms before opening night was that the director and Imbrailo might take out some of the eroticism that both Hermnan Melville wrote into the original story and composer Benjamin Britten wrote into the opera. Despite the overall glowing reviews, The Guardian touched on the issue in their review:

The story-telling is pellucid, the characterisation focused down to the last rating. All I could have wished for was a little more imaginative playing-out of the repressed erotic tension – the essential queerness – between Billy, Claggart and Vere.

The Independent wrote:

Jacques Imbrailo’s slight but refreshingly modest Budd likewise had to dig deep – and did - to surmount the limitations of his bantam-weight voice and ultimately achieve real pathos through the strength of his conviction.

The entire review is HERE.



The Times of London wrote:

Jacques Imbrailo’s Billy, his fateful stammer intensified to epileptic proportions, has exactly the right mixture of puppyish naivety and physical prowess (his right hook would not disgrace Lennox Lewis), though in his superbly sung final soliloquy he tellingly hints that, beneath the jolly-Jack-Tar bravado, a terrified boy is trying desperately to hold it together.

The entire review is HERE.

The Guardian wrote:

Jacques Imbrailo's Billy is a total joy – slight, lithe and wonderfully guileless, singing his farewell to life with immense dignity and pathos.

Finally, The Stage wrote:

Jacques Imbrailo makes an important career step with his assumption of Billy. In imposing voice, he has the difficult task of presenting a character of natural goodness and entirely succeeds.

Imbrailo now heads to the Royal Opera House for performances of Le Nozze di Figaro and as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale. He will be alternating nights as Count Almaviva with fellow barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien in Nozze. He will reprise the role of Billy Budd at the Netherlands Opera in March 2011. Early reports are that this Billy Budd will be the more radical interpretation that starred Peter Mattei in Frankfurt.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Contact us at barihunks@gmail.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two Anticipated Openings in the U.K and U.S.

[Photo courtesy of Ft. Worth Opera]

Early reports from Ft. Worth Opera point to a huge success for their Don Giovanni, led by Michael Todd Simpson. Not only is he joined by the sexy barihunk Tom Corbeil as his sidekick Leporello, but we hear that the singing is going to be incredible (and isn't that what opera is all about?). Of course, we don't mind when there is a litte extra beefcake on stage, as well, and from the looks of things Michael Todd Simpson is looking good.

Don Giovanni opens Saturday, May 22 and repeats on May 30 and June 4. Visit the Ft. Worth Opera website for additional information.

[Photo by Alastair Muir]


Jacques Imbrailo finally makes his long anticipated appearance at Glyndebourne in Billy Budd today. We'll have plenty of more coverage, but we wanted to share with you the first photo, which accompanied an article in The Independent about a long-running feued between composer Bemjamin Britten and Glyndebourne.

The new production at Glyndebourne will run through June 27th. Click HERE for performance and ticket information. The website also contains musical excerpts and a fascinating podcast about the production and opera.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Contact us at barihunks@gmail.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++