French barihunks in Vichy's Magic Flute

Nicholas Courjal (left) and Benoît Arnould (right)

Opera de Vichy will be presenting Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on September 19 and 21 with Nicholas Courjal as Sarastro and Benoît Arnould as Papageno. The cast also includes the charming Tamino of Shawn Mathey, the thrilling coloratura soprano Burcu Uyar as the Queen of the Night, Camille Poul as Papagena and Raffaela Milanesi as Pamina. The Orchestre d’Auvergne will be conducted by Roberto Fores-Veses.

After this run, the French bass-barihunk Nicholas Courjal will appear in Rossini's Moise et Pharaon at Opera de Marseilles from November 8-16. In 2015, fans of  Courjal will get to see him outside of France, as he appears in Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilèges on February 12 at Festival Hall in London and then at the Royal Opera House from June 17-29 in Rossini's Guillaume Tell.

Benoît Arnould sings Fauré's Libera me domine:

Benoît Arnould, who is new to this site, graduated from the Conservatory in Metz and also received a Licence in Musicology from Sorbonne University.  In a short time, he has become recognized for his interpretations of baroque music and Mozart. He has performed Charpentier’s Médee,  Ascalaphe in Lully’s Proserpine, Christ in Bach’s Passions, Mozart’s Masses, Anténor in Rameau’s Dardanus and Requiem, and Lucifer in Handel's La Resurrezione. He has also recorded Les Grands Motets by Desmarest, Lully’s Proserpine and Missa Assumpta Est Maria de Charpentier, Cavalli’s Ormindo, Jesu Christi by Schütz, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri  and Weckman’s Cantatas.

Barihunks in free broadcast of William Tell

Goran Jurić (left) and Günther Groissböck (right)

The Bavarian State Opera continues its popular free live streaming of opera this Saturday, June 28th at 6 PM CET/Noon EST/9 AM PST with their new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (William Tell). The broadcast will be available at STAATSOPER.TV.

The broadcast features two barihunks,  Günther Groissböck as the villain Gesler and Goran Jurić as Walter Furst. Groissböck has been extremely popular on our site, especially the pictures of him in the "Brokeback Onegin," as it's been dubbed by opera bloggers. He can next be seen at the Salzburg Festival as Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Zubin Mehta.

31-year-old Croatian bass-barihunk Goran Jurić has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble since the 2011-12 season. At the Bavarian State Opera he has performed Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Il Re in Verdi's Aida, Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Banco in Verdi's Macbeth, Il Frate in Verdi's Don Carlos and Timur in Puccini's Turandot. He also performs regularly with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

Bevy of Barihunks in Broadcasts from Bavaria

Michael Nagy and Günther Groissböck

The Bavarian State Opera is continuing the popular live streaming of their performances which they debuted last year. This year's selection features some of our favorite barihunks in their free broadcasts which are available at STAATSOPER.TV.

Previous broadcasts have included Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Verdi's La forza del destino and Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.

Tareq Nazmi

On May 31st at 7 PM CET./1 PM EST they will present Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten with Michael Nagy as Stolzius and Tareq Nazmi as Obrist.

30-year-old Bass-Barihunk Tareq Nazmi, who is new to this site, was born in Kuwait and grew up in Munich. He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Edith Wiens and Christian Gerhaher. He is a first prize of both the Walter and Charlotte Hamel Foundation prize and the National Song Contest.

Since the 2012-23 season, Tareq Nazmi has been a permanent member of the Bavarian State Opera where he has performed Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the Speaker in Mozart's Magic Flute, Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen and Publio in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.

Goran Jurić

On June 28th at 6 PM CET./Noon EST they will present a new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (William Tell) with Günther Groissböck as Gesler. Groissböck has been extremely popular on our site, especially the pictures of him in the "Brokeback Onegin," as it's been dubbed by opera bloggers. The cast also includes Goran Jurić as Walter Furst.

31-year-old Croatian bass-barihunk Goran Jurić is also new to the site. He has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble since the 2011-12 season. He received his Master's degree in Opera Studies at the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb, where is completing his second Master's degree in Phonetics and Italian Language and Literature.

At the Bavarian State Opera he has performed Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Il Re in Verdi's Aida, Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Banco in Verdi's Macbeth, Il Frate in Verdi's Don Carlos and Timur in Puccini's Turandot. He also performs regularly with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

On July 27th at 6 PM CET./Noon EST the company will present Claudio Monteverdi L'Orfeo with the amazing Christian Gerhaher and the stunningly talented Anna Bonitatibus.