Barihunk Ildebrando d’Arcangelo to appear on San Francisco Giants' homefield

Ildebrando d’Arcangelo and AT&T Park

Ildebrando d’Arcangelo will appear on the Jumbotron as Don Giovanni at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. The live telecast is part of the San Francisco Opera's successful Opera at the Ballpark series.

Up to 30,000 are expected to attend the June 30th live broadcast from the War Memorial Opera House. Audience members can picnic on the field while watching the opera or watch from the stands. The event is free, but attendees will have to register online.

Ildebrando d’Arcangelo sings Deh vieni alla finestra from Don Giovanni:

The Opera in the Ballpark experience is one of the many ways the San Francisco Opera has used to broaden the reach of opera. Ildebrando d’Arcangelo, will be joined in the cast by Erin Wall, Ana María Martinez, Stanislas de Barbeyrac and Marco Vinco. The opera will be conducted by Marc Minkowski in his San Francisco Opera debut and will be directed Jacopo Spirei in his San Francisco debut.

The San Francisco Opera summer season will also include Puccini’s La Bohème and Verdi’s Rigoletto with Quinn Kelsey in the title role.

Barihunk duo in Nice Côte d’Azur's Barber of Seville

Richard Rittelmann (left) and Mattia Olivieri (right)

Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur's production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia will feature the barihunk duo of Mattia Olivieri as Figaro and Richard Rittelmann as Fiorello. Also in the cast is Rossini specialist Daniele Zanfardino as Almaviva, Georgian mezzo Ketevan Kemoklidze as Rosina and Marco Vinco as Basilio. Performances will run from February 24-March 1 and tickets are available online.

Rittelmann who was part of our Barihunks Charity Calendar shoot in France this year, has also launched a new website (which includes a picture of him in his Barihunk t-shirt!). Upcoming performances include the Fauré Requiem in six French cities between March 16-29, Johann Strauss' Der Zigeunerbaron in Turin, Berlioz's Les Troyens in concert with Honorary Barihunk Joyce Di Donato and tenor Bryan Hymel (which will be recorded by Warner Classics) and Puccini's La bohème with San Francisco's Golden Gate Opera in May.

Upcoming performances include Marcello in Puccini's La bohème in São Paulo and Ping in Puccini's Turandot at the Bregenz Festival this summer.

San Francisco Opera Delivers Another Great "Don Giovanni"

Ryan Kuster: What was Zerlina thinking?

There has been so much attention paid to the Met's "Don Giovanni" with the last minute cancellation and then probable return of Mariusz Kwiecien, that the opera world has almost forgotten about the Mozart classic opening on the Left Coast.

Regular readers of this site will know that Mariusz Kwiecien's performance of Don Giovanni at the San Francisco Opera was one of the inspirations for this website. In a world of competitive Don Giovanni's, including Teddy Tahu Rhodes' return to the role at Opera Australia, it's nice to see that the San Francisco Opera continues to deliver solid, well-cast performances of the opera.  To top it off, the performances are being led by their extremely popular music director Nicola Luisotti.

Lucas Meachem

The San Francisco Opera's "Don Giovanni" opened on Saturday night with a trio of men that would be the envy of any opera company: The vocally thrilling Lucas Meachem as the Don, Marco Vinco in his U.S. debut at Leporello and future superstar and certified barihunk Ryan Kuster as Masetto. In a bit of fantasy casting, the amazingly talented Kate Lindsey is Zerlina.

Ryan Kuster is a first-year Adler Fellow, recent graduate of the 2010 Merola Opera Program and a former participant in Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts. He is performing a number of roles at the San Francisco Opera this season, including a Mandarin (Turandot), Astolfo (Lucrezia Borgia), Masetto (Don Giovanni), and Escamillo (Carmen).



Performances run through November 10th and tickets and additional cast information are available at the San Francisco Opera website.

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