Barihunk switcheroo for Handel's Orlando

John Chest

Barihunk John Chest, who recently wowed audiences at the San Francisco Opera as Billy Budd, will step back a few centuries as he takes over as Zoroastro for Luca Pisaroni in Il Pomo d’Oro’s tour of Handel’s Orlando.

The four city tour opens on January 9th at the Teatro Ristori in Verona, before moving on to Paris (13th), Essen (19th) and Madrid (26th). The all-star cast also features Max Emanuel Cencic in the title role, Kathryn Lewek as Angelica, Francesca Ascioti as Medoro, and Nuria Rial as Dorinda. The tour is set to be recorded for a later CD release.

Other upcoming performances for the singer include Papageno in Mozart's Die Zäuberflöte at the Teatro Santiago de Chile from April 16-20 and an all-Mozart concert with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the baton of conductor Raphaël Pichon on May 23.

Reader Submission: Patrick Egersborg

Patrick Egersborg (on right in Handel's Orlando)

We've had a sudden uptick in Reader Submissions from Scandinavia while we've been covering the Queen Sonja Vocal Competition in Oslo (which wraps up on August 21st). The latest is Norwegian bass-barihunk Patrick Egersborg, who graduated with a masters degree from the National Opera Academy in Oslo. He has also studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler" in Berlin and in London on a scholarship. He is also was awarded a scholarship from Opera Grange Park to further his studies.

While at the Opera Academy, he sang in the full production of Cavalli's L’Ormindo, as well as excerpts from numerous operas. Last year he performed Don Alfonso' in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and in 2013 he sang The Operator in the world premiere of Mæland's Ad Undas at The Norwegian National Opera.

In 2010,  Egersborg sang the role of Spurio and The Executioner at the Grimeborn Festival in the first complete showcase of Jools Scott's jazz-opera Vice, which also played at the Soho Theatre. In 2012, he sang the role of Zoroastro in the Norwegian premiere of the Handel's Orlando at Åmot Operagard. In 2013, he sang Dottore Spinnelloccio/Notaro and Talpa in Puccini's Il Trittico at a Master Class at the Norwegian National Opera under the baton of Magnus Loddgard and last  year he appeared as Sam in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti at the Oslo Opera Festival.

He also sings regularly for the Oslo Opera Festival and has appeared in concert at Universitetets aula, the Romerike Symphony Orchestra and at the summer concerts on the balcony at the Norwegian National Opera. You can hear him singing Mozart's Se vuol ballare from Le nozze di Figaro HERE.

Upcoming performances include an appearance with OperaSalong in Ringsakeroperaen in September and Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen in November at the Ringsakeroperaen. He will also be appearing in our 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, which is due out on October 1st.

Hadleigh Adams in New York's latest indie opera success Orlando

Hadleigh Adams in Orlando (and at rehearsal)

It seems like every season, one of New York's innovative smaller companies produces a show that sets the international opera world on fire. Last season it was Gregory Spears' Paul's Case that Beth Morrison produced and starred barihunk Keith Phares.

This season, the buzz is surrounding R.B. Schlather's innovative opera/art installation of Handel's Alcina at the Whitebox Art Center starring barihunk Hadleigh Adams. The opera, which wrapped up tonight, also included soprano Kiera Duffy and the countertenor Drew Minter in the cast. Last season Schlater scored a huge success with another Handel opera, when he produced Alcina in the same
space.

Hadleigh Adams in Orlando

The innovative director has opened up these rehearsals to the public and live streamed the rehearsals. The rehearsals have become NY mini-social scenes, even attracting Yoko Ono, Justin Vivian Bond and rapper Big Dipper.

Word is that is only the second part of a trilogy, so there will be another chance to catch his latest work next season. 

Andrew Potter takes Handel to the Wild Wild West

Andrew Potter as the "mystic traveler" Zoroastro

The Boulder Opera Company, which sits at the foot of the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Colorado, has updated Handel's Orlando to the American Wild West.

In their re-imagining of the story the deputy Sheriff Orlando is desperately in love with Angelica, who is in turn in love with a cowboy, Medoro. In this hopeless situation, Orlando is driven to madness from which only the mystic traveler Zoroastro can save him. Zoroastro is being sung by bass-barihunk Andrew Potter, who we introduced to readers (with a shirtless selfie) last September when he was singing in Mozart's The Magic Flute with Opera NEO.

Performances are on April 4 and 5 and tickets are available online.

Tom Corbeil live from Australia this Sunday

Tom Corbeil, music director Erin Helyard, soprano Anna Davidson, countertenor Daniel Bubeck and director Chas Rader-Shieber waiting at the airport

You can listen to barihunk Tom Corbeil sing Zoroastro in Handel's Orlando from the Hobart Baroque Festival in Australia this Sunday, April 20th at 7 PM AEST (Australian time)/2 AM PST/5 AM EST. The broadcast is on ABC Classic FM.

This is the same production by director Chas Rader-Shieber and designer David Zinn that premiered at Glimmerglass Festival and was later shown at Lincoln Centre in New York. This opera features one of Handel's most famous mad scenes sung here by the gifted countertenor Randall Scotting. The  text of the opera is derived from Ludovico Ariosto’s sixteenth century epic poem, Orlando Furioso.

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo sings Zoroastro's "Lascia amor":

The plot is the usual Baroque entanglement of love both requited and unrequited. Orlando, a great hero in Charlemagne's army, has been undone by love. Angelica, the Queen of Cathay and his former lover, now loves the African prince Medoro. Medoro, who once promised love to the shepherdess Dorinda, now requites Angelica's love. In other words, we have two spurned lovers – Dorinda, whose reaction is seriocomic, and Orlando, whose reaction is to fall into madness. Dorinda is clever enough to fend for herself, but the magician Zoroastro must put Orlando back together again. This he successfully does, and Orlando is restored to his former military glory at the end of the opera.