Tristan Hambleton to open Opéra de Lille season in Purcell rarity

Tristan Hambleton (from artist's website)

British barihunk Tristan Hambleton will open the Opéra de Lille season in Henry Purcell's rarely performed The Indian Queen. He'll be joined by Anna Dennis, Hugo Hymas, Gareth John, Rowan Pierce and Nick Pritchard under the baton of baroque specialist Emmanuelle Haïm. Tickets are available online.  

Mark Stone sings "I Attempt from Love's Sickness: from The Indian Queen:

The Indian Queen is a largely unfinished semi-opera, which was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, in 1695. The opera is based on John Dryden's 1664 play of the same name. Purcell was commissioned to adapt the play into an opera in 1694, but died the following year having only completed the Prologue and Acts II and III. His brother Daniel completed a masque for Act V.

Despite containing some of Purcell's most beautiful music, the opera is seldomly performed compared to Dido and Aeneas,  King Arthur or The Fairy-Queen, mainly because the piece has been deemed incomplete. The piece was performed in 2016 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève with barihunk Jarrett Ott.

Fabio Lesuisse sings in Dido & Aeneas (and models for ad)

Barihunk Fabio Lesuisse and mezzo Rina Hirayama (Photo: Theater Aachen)

Germany's Theater Aachen near the Belgian border managed to get our attention with their gorgeous poster for Purcell's Dido & Aeneas. The shirtless model happens to be Belgian barihunk Fabio Lesuisse, who is making his role debut as Aeneas in the opera. The work will premiere on June 23, with additional shows on June 29 and July 5. The company is partnering with the School for Music and Dance in Cologne for this production. (Frustratingly, the Theater Aachen website does not list cast members for the show, but you can find them at the School for Music and Dance in Cologne website). Tickets are available online.

Purcell's Dido & Aeneas is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido & Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works.

Belgian barihunk Fabio Lesuisse is a graduate of the Cologne University of Music and First Prize winner at the 2015 Bach Competition in Barcelona, Spain.

He is currently a guest artist at the Theater Aachen in Germany, where this season he has also performed Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Junior in Bernstein's A Quiet Place.

He has performed the title role in T.J. Hermann's Hamlet at the Theater Dortmund, as well as numerous roles at Oper Bonn, including Morales in Bizet's Carmen, Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes, Marco in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Ramiro in Ravel's L'heure Espagnole.

Reader Submission: French Bass-Barihunk Nicolas Brooymans

Nicolas Brooymans

Our latest reader submission in French Bass-Barihunk Nicolas Brooymans.

Brooymans began singing at an early age as a member of the Chœur d'enfants de l’Opéra de Paris (Children's Choir of the Paris Opera). He went on to study at the Conservatoire du 18ème à Paris and the Masseur-Kinésithérapeute, graduating in 2007.

Since 2013, he has been performing with the Ensemble Correspondances, with a focus on music of the 17th century. Upcoming performances with the group include a program of Charpentier and Purcell in Vienna, Charpentier's Te Deum in Versailles, and concerts in Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Versailles and Metz, France.

Nicolas Brooymans sings Purcell's "Wondrous Banks":

On the operatic stage, Brooymans has performed Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Masetto and the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Pluton in Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers.

He appears on the recording of La Descente D'Orphée on Harmonia Mundi with the Ensemble Correspondances under the baton of Sébastien Daucé. 

Tobias Greenhalgh in sexy King Arthur in Gärtnerplatz

Tobias Greenhalgh in King Arthur

Tobias Greenhalgh is making his debut at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz with a quartet of roles, including the Cold Genius and Aeolus, in Henry Purcell's King Arthur directed by Torsten Fischer. The director often has the barihunk shirtless, as are most of the male dancers, who are critical to the stage action, which Fischer says is one-third opera, one-third dance and one-third theater. Performances run almost daily through December 18th and tickets and cast information is available online.

King Arthur at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz

King Arthur was first performed in London's Dorset Garden Theatre in 1691. Playwright John Dryden and composer Henry Purcell successfully combined musical theatre, drama, dance and stage magic and set new standards in the culture of British musical theatre. Originally, Dryden had written the text of the drama back in 1684 for the 25th anniversary of the Restoration of the English monarchy under Charles II, but he then had to revise the work completely after the King's death in 1685 and the subsequent squabbles which led to the rise of Catholicism in England.

Tobias Greenhalgh in King Arthur

In the opera, a ferocious war is being waged between England and Saxony, as well as a battle of the hearts. The legendary King Arthur joins battle with the Saxon King Oswald to save his kingdom from heathen rule. But there is more than just political and religious conflict between the two princely enemies – both are in love with and desire the same woman: Princess Emmeline of Cornwall. The sighted heart of the blind princess burns for Arthur, but in the wild confusion of the war, driven by earthly military forces and loose spiritual beings from the infernal realms between life and death, the characters need to survive more than just a physical trial of strength.

Greenhalgh returns to his native America in February, to sing Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

If you like Barihunks, you'll love our 2017 "Barihunks in Bed" calendar. 

Only 3 weeks left to buy your own copy!

Malte Roesner & Marco Vassalli from the Barihunks in Bed calendar

Watch Henk Neven in complete Dido & Aeneas

Henk Neven & Vivica Geneaux in Dido & Aeneas at Rouen

You can watch an entire performance of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas from Opéra de Rouen Haute-Normandie with an all-star cast featuring barihunk Henk Neven as Aeneas, Vivica Genaux as Dido, Ana Quintans as Belinda and Marc Mauillon as the magician. The entire production was magically staged, directed and choreographed by the team of Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek. You won't want want to miss the opportunity to watch this!

Dido & Aeneas de Purcell à l'Opéra de Rouen Haute Normandie

If you want to see the performance live, it will be reprised at Versailles with two performances daily on June 14 and 15. You can book online. From May 23-25, Versailles is also presenting the barihunk-laden performance of Lully's Persée that we recently featured starring Olivier Laquerre, Vasil Garanliev, Stephen Hegedus and Curtis Sullivan.