Showing posts with label harry greenleaf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harry greenleaf. Show all posts

Friday, July 14, 2017

World's largest gathering of barihunks at Glimmerglass?

Jarrett Ott, Michael Hewitt, Jarrett Porter and Brent Michael Smith (left) and Justin Austin (right)
Once again, director Francesca Zambello has deservedly landed on our site. Longtime readers know that most opera lovers credit her with beginning the barihunk craze and coining the phrase after having Nathan Gunn appear shirtless in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride. Now she may have created the largest single gathering of barihunks ever assembled at the Glimmerglass Festival, where she is the Artistic & General Director, as well as the stage director for Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Donizetti's The Siege of Calais and Ben Moore's Robin Hood.

Norman Garrett in Glimmerglass' Porgy and Bess
There are at least a dozen barihunks who we know of in the various casts and probably a handful more that we've not been made aware of yet. Most of them have appeared on this site in the past. The Glimmerglass artists include:
  • Norman Garrett as Crown in Porgy and Bess 
  • Brent Michael Smith as the cop in Porgy and Bess; Ariodates in Handel's Xerxes; and the Commentator in Derrick Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg.
  • Zach Owen as the English Spy in The Siege of Calais and the detective in Porgy and Bess.
  • Jarrett Ott as Curly in Oklahoma! 
  • Michael Hewitt as Jud Fry in Oklahoma! and Edoardo III in The Siege of Calais
  • Harry Greenleaf as Cord Elam in Oklahoma!
  • Jarrett Porter as Sam in Oklahoma!
  • Justin Austin as Jake in Porgy and Bess
  • Calvin Griffin as the Undertaker in Porgy and Bess and Elviro in Xerxes
  • Conor McDonald as Skidmore in Oklahoma!
  • Eric Shane covering roles in Oklahoma! and Porgy and Bess
The festival opened July 7th and runs through August 22. Additional cast information and tickets are available online.

POST UPDATE: We heard from some of the singers at Glimmerglass that we may have missed a few singers, including Makoto Winkler, Nicholas Davi, Carl DuPont and Adrian Timpau. We also made some casting updates to the list above.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Barihunk trio in Michigan Opera's Carmen, including calendar model Brent Michael Smith

Harry Greenleaf and Luis Alejandro Orozco
The Michigan Opera has assembled a stunning barihunk trio for their upcoming Carmen, that includes Luis Alejandro Orozco making his role debut as Escamillo, Barihunks calendar model Brent Michael Smith as Zuniga and Harry Greenleaf as Morales. The cast also includes Ginger Costa-Jackson and Sandrea Eddy as Carmen, Marcelo Puente and Alok Kumar as Don Josè and Cecilia Violetta Lopez as Micaela.

The opera will be performed on October 15, 19, 22 and 23. Tickets are available online.

Other engagements for baritone Luis Alejandro Orozco this season include the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni at Bar Harbor Music Festival, Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia in his house début with Florentine Opera in May 2017, and a reprisal of his signature role, El Payador, in María de Buenos Aires with the Atlanta Opera.

Brent Michael Smith, Jérôme Varnier & Brad Baron
Bass-barihunk Brent Smith is featured in the month of April in our "2017 Barihunks in Bed" calendar which is on sale now. As a Young Artist at the Michigan Opera, he has sung Colline in Puccini's La bohème, the Second S.S. Officer in Weinberg's The Passenger, the Doctor in Verdi's Macbeth and The Speaker in Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Last year he was an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, where his performance as Billy Jackrabbit in Puccini's La fanciulla del West received critical acclaim by Opera News as a “standout.”

Baritone Harry Greenleaf was a Studio Aritist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company in 2012 and 2013, where he sang the role of Baron Douphol in Verdi's La traviata and Monsieur Barbu in Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias. He made his debut with Michigan Opera Theatre in 2016, singing the role of Top in Copland's The Tender Land, as well as Jake Wallace in La fanciulla del West, and Le Bret in Dr. David DiChiera’s Cyrano.


Support independent publishing: Buy this calendar on Lulu. 

Friday, July 17, 2015

Sexy La Fanciulla del West in Des Moines

From left to right: Harry Greenleaf, Andrew Potter, Alex Soare, Geoffrey Penar (seated) Joshua Jeremiah, Christopher Job, Tyler Alessi, Zach Owen, Cesar Mendez Silvagnoli (seated), Trevor Martin and Jonathan Harris
One of our favorite opera companies is the Des Moines Metro, which always delivers great repertory, high musical standards, amazing young singers and a liberal helping of barihunks. This season was no exception, as their production of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) including some of the hottest talent in opera (both vocally and physically).

Barihunks photographer Michael Yeshion
Fortunately, one of our Barihunks calendar photographers, Michael Yeshion, was working at the company as the fight director. He managed to snap some pix of the guys in costume and shirtless. He's promised us some more pictures, which we're looking forward to receiving. He also shot some pictures for this year's calendar.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Bevy of Barihunks at Wolf Trap's summer festival

Norman Garrett (left), Michael Adams (center) and Harry Greenleaf (right)
Now in it's 43rd year, the Wolf Trap Filene Young Artist program has featured some of the greatest singers in opera while in the nascent part of their careers. This year, they are bringing back one of their most esteemed alums, Eric Owens, as their first Wolf Trap Opera Artist in Residence. Owens will have a lot of low voice company, as numerous singers who have been featured on Barihunks are performing during their summer festival. Owens will perform in Aria Jukebox with some young aritsts on July 13th. Accompanied by Kim Pensinger Witman, audience members will have an opportunity to select the songs and arias.

Jeongcheol Cha
The first opera will be Handel's Giulio Cesare featuring Jeongcheol Cha as Achilla. He is new to this site (except for a brief mention). The Korean native has been featured in two important opera premieres, in the role of Wu Tianshi in the American premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen! in November 2011 and as Prince Gabriel III in the world premiere of David T. Little’s Vonkensport. He is a graduate of Seoul National University, Bard College Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. In the 2013-2014 season, Jeongcheol was heard at the Metropolitan Opera as Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and as second Watchman in Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Performances of Giulio Cesare are on June 27, June 29 and July 1st.  Other cast members include John Holiday as Cesare, Alex Rosen as Curio, Renée Rapier as Cornelia, Ying Fang as Cleopatra and Carolyn Sproule as Sesto.

On June 28th, Ryan Speedo Green will perform Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Choral Arts Society of Washington under the baton of Bramwell Tovey. Other soloists include soprano Tracy Cox, mezzo Virginie Verrez and tenor Robert Watson. Green was recently featured on our site when his Live in HD performance was canceled by the Met.

Tobias Greenhalgh
On July 19th and 20th, the amazing Steven Blier will join barihunk and part-time Super Hero Tobias Greenhalgh and four other young artist in a "Houseful of Songs," where the audience will be taken through a house and have selected pieces of music performed in each room.

On July 27, accompanist Jeremy Frank will join a sextet of Studio Artists, including baritone Alex Rosen and baritone Harry Greenleaf. The will perform pieces by Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Tailleferre.

Baritone Harry Greenleaf, a native of Wixom, Michigan, is a graduate of Michigan State University where he appeared in several productions, including Mozart's La finta giardiniera (Nardo), Gilbert & Sullivan's the Pirates of Penzance (The Pirate King), Sondheim's A Little Night Music (Carl-Magnus), and Mozart's the Magic Flute (Papageno). In 2013, Greenleaf appeared as Baron Douphol in Wolf Trap Opera's production of Verdi's La traviata at the Filene Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. Harry will begin his Master's degree in voice at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music this fall. Outside of singing, Harry enjoys reading, running outside, and playing racquetball.

From August 8-16, Wolf Trap will feature a French double-bill of Milhaud's Le pauvre matelot and Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias. Regular readers of this site know that we often feature Les mamelles de Tirésias and its barihunk role of Le Mari, which will be performed by Tobias Greenhalgh in this production. The cast also includes Harry Greenleaf as Monsieur Barbu and Michael Adams, who has been featured on this site, as Presto. The title role will be performed by soprano Mireille Asselin. Norman Garrett and Ryan Speedo Green, who have been regulars on our site, are both featured in Le pauvre matelot.

Tickets for all performances are available online or by calling 1.877.WOLFTRAP.