Jose Rubio Performing "Cosi" at Revamped Tacoma Opera

Jose Rubio

We have a particular affection for the regional opera companies. They not only bring opera to people who may never have the opportunity to attend the Met or the San Francisco Opera, but they often produce some of the most innovative and exciting opera. Most singers who go on to great careers hone their craft at these companies and many will tell you that some of their best work was at a regional opera.

The Tacoma Opera sits in the shadow of the Seattle Opera with its internationally acclaimed performances of The Ring. Like all arts organizations they've faced their challenges, but they've revamped their company and are rolling out three fan favorites this season, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Verdi's La traviata and Peter Brooks' adaptation of the Bizet classic, La tragédie de Carmen.

Jose Rubio sings the Silvo-Nedda duet with Megan Hart:

The Tacoma Opera is partnering with the Tacoma Symphony for two of the operas and giving more members of the Young Artists program an opportunity to perform onstage with better known artists. Noel Koran, who took over the company in January, will also direct two of the operas. He's also cast fan favorite Jose Rubio as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, which should add some luster to the season. Rubio is a graduate of the Portland Opera Studio, which was one of last year's beneficiaries of the Barihunk Charity Calendar.

The Tacoma Young Artists will perform a fully staged version of La Tragédie de Carmen.

The season opens on November 2nd with Cosi fan tutte. Visit their website for additional performance information or to purchase tickets.

Announcing our First Beneficiary for our Barihunks Charity Calendar: The Portland Opera Studio

Portland Opera homepage

We’re pleased to announce that the Portland Opera Studio is our first recipient of a donation from our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar. We’ll announce the second recipient later this week. The final donation will depend on how many calendars we sell, which you can purchase HERE.

When we looked at the requests that we received, we were most moved by the requests from some of the smaller artist training programs. They work on shoestring budgets and still manage to develop some of the best young artists around today. Often they have to work more on commitment than cash, yet still deliver great results. The Portland Opera Studio has helped develop four singers who have appeared on this site: Jonathan Lasch, Jonathan Kimple, Jose Rubio and Nicholas Nelson. Portland Studio Artists also participated in a vocal masterclass with Daniel Mobbs, who performed the role of Figaro in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” with the Portland Opera in November.

Portland Opera Studio participant Nicholas Nelson

Graduates of the Studio Artist program have performed worldwide, including roles with the New York City Opera and with young artist programs at Houston Grand Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. Nicholas Nelson will be appearing as the Commissioner in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" opening on February 3rd and a number of small roles in Philip Glass' "Galileo Galilei" opening on March 30th.

In 2005, the Portland Opera established the Portland Opera Studio program, designed to train the next generation of opera singers by providing a "bridge" from the conservatory world to the professional stage.

Selected at auditions around the country, young singers fresh from some of the nation's finest vocal conservatories and music academies join the company for a rigorous nine-month training program during which they are featured in their own production. Their training also includes voice, language and movement lessons and supporting roles in Company mainstage productions. Studio Artists also give an intimate recital of Art Song at the Portland Art Museum, exploring the close relationship between composer, singer and accompianist.

Jose Rubio, Jonathan Kimple & Jonathan Lasch

The Studio Artists yearly production has become a highly-anticipated event in Portland, delighting audiences with rarely heard works and beautiful young voices. Previous productions include Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (2005), Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses (2006), Britten's Albert Herring (2008), Cavalli's La Calisto (2009), Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti and Monteverdi's Il Ballo delle ingrate and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (2010) and a Ravel double-bill of L'heure Espagnole and L'enfant et les Sortilèges (2011).

No matter where you live, we encourage you to buy a calendar to support this program, as you are likely to encounter one of their graduates at an opera house near you soon. You can also give an additional holiday donation directly to the Portland Opera Studio by contacting Hannah Gildea their Individual Giving Manager, at (503) 417-0601 or email her at hgildea@portlandopera.org.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Click HERE to buy your calendar.

Emerging Barihunk Jose Rubio Featured in Hometown Paper

We recently featured emerging barihunk Jose Rubio on our site. His hometown newspaper in Vancover, Washington, The Columbian, wrote a feature on Rubio and mentioned his appearance on the site.

Read the entire article HERE. Here's the highlight:


The 5-foot-10, 170-pounder also is part of a new generation of opera singers, [coach Robert] Ainsley said, redefining the look of the profession, casting off the stigma of "big, fat, old warbley people."

Rubio recently was listed on a fan Web site, barihunks.blogspot.com, that focuses on this nation's "bari-hunks." The singer, who ran varsity cross country in high school, features yoga classes, bike riding and other physical fitness training in his weekly routine, which includes numerous classes in languages, history, movement, acting, dancing and stage fighting. He rarely sings for more than an hour a day, and often not at full volume to save his voice for the performances.

The 26-year-old hunk is singing in Portland Opera's "La Boheme" through October 3rd. You can get ticket information HERE. By the way, Portland's "La Boheme" also features one of this site's most popular barihunks, Michael Todd Simpson.

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Two Bohemian Barihunks in Portland

[Back row: Gus Andreassen (Colline), Michael Todd Simpson (Marcello) Front row: Arturo Chacon-Cruz (Rodolfo), Kelly Kaduce (Mimì), Alyson Cambridge (Musetta), Jose Rubio (Schaunard) Photo by Julia Sheridan]

The Portland Opera's "La Boheme" is opening on September 25 and features two barihunks. Michael Todd Simpson, who is a regular on this site, will be singing Marcello. Simpson has proven that he can make any role hot and lit our fire with a recent performance of Escamillo in Carmen.

We're admittedly not familiar with Jose Rubio, but he looks like a certifiable Barihunks candidate from this photo. Let us know what you think.

By the way, if you haven't heard Kelly Kaduce sing yet, she's worth the trip alone. Even at her young age, she's sung riveting performances of both Salome and Madama Butterfly. If we were in her shoes, we'd run off with Marcello in this production.

Tickets and performance information can be found HERE.

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