Chicago Tribune Coverage of Barihunk Nozze

[John Relyea & Nathan Gunn]

We provided some advance coverage for Ravinia's current festival, including the recent cast changes to Le Nozze di Figaro. Ravinia is always a wonderful place to enjoy great music with family and friends and this year is no exception.

We were pleased to see that the Chicago Tribune's respected music critic John von Rhein not only enjoyed the performance where John Relyea replaced Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, but he referred to two of the singers as "barihunks" in his review:

I was even more taken with Oropesa, the bright-voiced, very musical singer who played the chambermaid Susanna. Her sharpwitted and beautifully sung portrayal was a smooth fit with John Relyea's amused and amusing manservant, Figaro. A big man with a deep, sonorous bass-baritone, he was a pillar of vocal and dramatic strength in a role completely different from the sardonic devil he played in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" last season at Lyric. One would never have guessed he was a late replacement for the indisposed Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.

The show's other "barihunk," Illinois baritone Nathan Gunn, brought manly elegance to Almaviva's music, playing the wayward aristocrat as a handsome seducer who realizes his days of aristocratic privilege in the bedroom are numbered.

We don't have any video or photos yet from Ravinia, but here is a selection from YouTube of Nathan Gunn singing from the Barber of Seville with tenor John Osborn. Gunn remains one of the most viewed barihunks on our site and appears to have what amounts to a cult following.



The Ravinia Festival runs through September 7th and you can still see Annie Get Your Gun, Kiri te Kanawa, Nelly Furtado, Counting Crows, the Beach Boy and Train.

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Dream Cast in Chicago Led by Mariusz Kwiecien

[Photos Dan Rest / Lyric Opera of Chicago]


We've been focusing a lot on Mozart's "Don Giovanni" lately, but the Lyric Opera of Chicago has assembled a dream cast for their "Le Nozze de Figaro," led by the "Hot Pole" Mariusz Kwiecien's Count. Other performers include barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro, Danielle de Niese as Susanna, Anne Schwanewilms as the Countess and Joyce DiDonato as Cherubino.

Even with a great cast like this one, Kwiecien always seems to dominate the stage with great acting and his amazing voice. He is indisputably one of the most compelling performers in opera today.

The Chicago Classical Review wrote:

More than most productions, this Lyric cast is dominated by Mariusz Kwiecien as the volatile, philandering Count. One can go a long time before hearing the tortuous Vedro, mentr’io sospiro delivered with this kind of technical ease and forceful malevolence. With his aristocratic bearing and saturnine presence, the Polish baritone owns this role like no other singer today, and his refined, commanding vocalism brought out the Count’s bluster as well as a surprising, touching vulnerability at the opera’s coda.

[Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro & Danielle de Niese as Susanna]


John von Rhein, the classical music critic for the Chicago Tribune, managed to include Kyle Ketelsen's barihunk status in his insightful review:

The "downstairs" servant couple, Kyle Ketelsen in the title role and Danielle de Niese as the maid Susanna, were finely balanced with their aristocratic counterparts, Mariusz Kwiecien as Count Almaviva and Anne Schwanewilms as the Countess.

Ketelsen, playing a good guy this time following his devilish turn as Mephistopheles in Gounod's "Faust" earlier in the season, brought a firm yet flexible bass-baritone to Figaro's two arias, "Se vuol ballare" and "Aprite un po' quegli occhi," in which the Count's manservant railed against the perfidy of women.

Since the comic drama turns on the extended battle of wits between Figaro and the Count — who has mounted an assault on the virtue of Figaro's intended, Susanna — the American "barihunk's" ability to create a virile, likable hero in both voice and manner, while keeping the recitatives crackling, was very much to the point.

[Kwiecien's virile Count]


The Tribune also mentioned that Kwiecien brought down the house on opening night, an occurance that is becoming pretty common with this gifted performer and singer.

Kwiecien made a formidable predator through his baritonal command as well as the vain, aristocratic hauteur he brought to the philandering Count Almaviva. Figaro had all he could do to stay one step ahead of this libidinous bully. "Vedro, mentr'io sospiro," the third-act aria in which the Count vows to punish both servants, brought down the house Sunday.

Performances run through March 27th and you can get more information by contacting the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

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