What? Duncan Rock's U.S. debut part of "A Season of Unforgettable Leading Ladies"

Duncan Rock

A season that was dubbed "A Season of Unforgettable Leading Ladies" by the Boston Lyric Opera, ironically included one of the most anticipated US debuts of a male singer - in an opera named for a male singer. Fans of Aussie barihunk Duncan Rock have been watching his meteoric rise across the pond since 2012 when he generated international buzz appearing in the gender bending "Don Giovanni: The Opera" at London's Heaven. Those clamoring for his US debut were thrilled when the BLO announced a year ago that they were casting him as Don Giovanni. However, there were a few chuckles in the industry when the beefcake singer was lumped together in a marketing campaign with three leading ladies.

We have requested rehearsal photos from the company, but while we're waiting we have the above photos which were recently taken in New York and Boston.

U.K. fans have been enjoying The Rock at Glynebourne and English National Opera in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Billy Budd, Puccini's La boheme, Bizet's Carmen and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea. He also appeared as Billy Bigelow in Carousel at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Marcello in Leed's Rigoletto, Empleado inglés in Britten's Death in Venice in Madrid and Marullo in Rigoletto at the Royal Opera in London. In January, he sang Don Giovanni with the HET Sinfonieorkest in The Netherlands in an intimate production that placed the audience on the stage and around the orchestra.

Performances at the BLO will run from May 1-10, 2015 and tickets are on sale at the BLO website. The remainder of the cast includes the always entertaining Kevin Burdette as Leporello, David Cushing as Masetto, Jennifer Johnson Cano as Donna Elvira, Meredith Hanson as Donna Anna, Steven Humes as the Commendatore, John Bellemer as Don Ottavio and Chelsea Basler as Zerlina.


We recently shared a little bit of trivia about Duncan Rock, which was that he started his musical career playing the bagpipes. The HET Sinfonieorkest added that he played basketball and the bass. Let's see what we learn about him during his U.S. run.

Properly introducing Brian Mextorf; Competing in Met SE Regional Finals

Brian Mextorf

We briefly introduced Brian Mextorf back in September 2013, when he was workshopping composer Clint Borzoni's Antinuous and Hadrian with Operamission in New York City. He recently was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (North Carolina District), so we thought this was a good time to properly reintroduce him to readers.

Mextrof hails from Williamsport, Pennsylvania and studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M.) and the Westminster Choir College (M.M.). This season he'll be an Emerging Artist with Virginia Opera for the 2014-15 season. In 2012, he was a member of the Gerdine Young Artist with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis where he performed three roles in the North American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland.

A favorite of Operamission, in addition to Borzoni's work, he has appeared as Lesbo in their production of Handel’s Agrippina and Edward Ficklin’s Flash of Recognition. He sang Judas in the Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin in a cast that included fellow barihunks Luca Pisaroni and Andrew Foster-Williams.

Christian Zaremba and Alexander Elliott to compete in Met Semi-Finals

He will also be making his debut at Opera Saratoga as Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas. His Dido will be Jennifer Johnson Cano and the performance will be led by the brilliant conductor Nicole Paiement. Performances run from July 6-21 and tickets are available online.

Mextorft will compete in the Metropolitan Opera's Southeast Regional Finals on February 15, 2015. We'll be watching those closely, as a number of other singers who have appeared on this site will be competing in the regionals, including Vasil Garvanliev, Robert Balonek, Ricardo Rivera, Cairan Ryan, Alexander Elliott, Colin Ramsey, Steven Eddy, Christian Zaremba, Andrew Lovato and Chris Carr.       

Also competing are a number of singers who we've not featured yet, but will profile this week. They include Jonathan Harris, Phillip Gay, Andrew Bogard, Zachary Read, Brian Vu, Ben Taylor, Nathan Milholin, Christopher Besch and Christian Pursell.    

Brandon Cedel discusses barihunks on WQXR

Brandon Cedel in a lovely tee shirt

Barihunk Brandon Cedel, whose career is on the steady ascent, joined some operatic royalty on WQXR's show with Naomi Lewin. The AVA graduate and winner of the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions joined legendary soprano Renata Scotto, superstar tenor Michael Fabiano and fellow Richard Tucker Grant award winner Jennifer Johnson Cano for a discussion and selection of music.

Watch the video HERE. At 16:30 you can hear him discuss being in the 2012 Barihunks Charity Calendar.

He'll be performing at the Metropolitan Opera in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk opening on November 10 and Verdi's Don Carlos next March.  In the Summer of 2015, he heads to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis where he will be performing in Handel's rarely produced Richard the Lionhearted. Fans on the West Coast can catch him with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas on January 9 and 10.