Introducing Michael Honeyman in Opera Australia's sexy King Roger

Michael Honeyman and dancers in King Roger at Opera Australia

Opera Australia isn't exactly known for their sexy performances, so we were thrilled to see their stunning performance of Karol Szymanowski's King Roger starring Michael Honeyman in the title role and tenor Saimir Pirgu as the Shephard. Pirgu has sung the role with the most famous King Roger of all time, Mariusz Kwiecien. This is a co-production with the Royal Opera House directed by Kasper Holten.

The opera is about struggle between conservatism and sensuality, between Christian orthodoxy and pagan abandon, portrayed onstage by the church and the sexually tempting shepherd.

Honeyman worked in banking at the Commonwealth Bank before joining the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir and eventually deciding on taking formal training as a singer. He began his vocal training at the Australian National University, graduating with First Class Honours and was immediately accepted on scholarship to 2 years full-time practical performance training at the Australian Opera Studio, Perth. He has performed Amonasro in Verdi's Aida, for which he received a nomination for a Green Room Award for Best Male in a Supporting Role, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Ford in Verdi's Falstaff, Di Luna in Verdi's Il Trovatore and a New Year’s Eve Gala for Opera Australia. He has also worked with West Australian Opera and State Opera of South Australia.

Szymanowski is best known for his wonderful piano music, which includes the famous Étude, Opus 4, No. 3, his four symphonies, two violin concertos, the ballets Harnasie and Mandragora, two string quartets, a sonata for violin and piano, his famous Stabat Mater and a number of orchestral songs.

The production opened tonight at the Joan Sutherland Theatre in the Sydney Opera House where it will run through February 15, when it moves to Melbourne, where it will run from May 19 – 27,.

Mariusz Kwiecien's Król Roger to be broadcast

Mariusz Kwiecien (photo on left by Bill Cooper, photo on right Minjas Zugik)

Karol Szymanowski’s Król Roger  recently opened at the Royal Opera House and became the first Polish language opera performed at Covent Garden. The opera itself, which first premiered in 1926, has been a bit of rarity in in England, with only a modest production of the work having been performed at Sader's Wells over 40 years ago. The current production, directed by Kasper Holton, has additional performances from May 6-19.

The opera is about struggle between conservatism and sensuality, between Christian orthodoxy and pagan abandon, portrayed onstage by the church and the sexually tempting shepherd. Starring in his signature role of the King is über-barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien. The all-star cast also includes Saimir Pirgu as the Shepherd, Georgia Jarman as Roxana, Kim Begley as Edrisi and Alan Ewing as the Archbishop.

If you can't make it to this performance of Król Roger, it can be viewed from Saturday, May 16th on the Royal Opera House website or on YouTube. It will also be available on the newly launched Opera Europa Digital Platform that will showcase live streams and a range of behind-the-scenes footage from fifteen opera houses across Europe.

Introducing German barihunk Kay Stiefermann

Kay Stiefermann (center as King Roger)

We ran across Kay Stiefermann when looking at picture's for the upcoming production of Karol Szymanowski's King Roger at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. The current production features Mikolaj Zalasinski, who we featured nude in the early days of our site. Stiefermann takes on the role for the company on May 9th.

The German born Stiefermann, who turns 43 on March 19th, sutdied at the  Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with the great bass Kurt Moll. His repertoire includes many of the greatest Mozart roles including Don Giovanni, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso and Count Almaviva. Other roles include the title character in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Danilo in Lehar's The Merry Widow, Eisenstein in Struass' Die Fledermaus and Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème. 

In recent years, German he's focused on more German roles, including the title role in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, Amfortas in Parsifal, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Simone in Korngold's Eine florentinische Tragödie, Gyges in Zemlinsky's König Kandaules, Johanaan in Strauss' Salome, Mandryka in Arabella and Don Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio. Later this year he takes on Klingsor in Parsifal at the Teatro Colón with fellow barihunk Ryan McKinny as Amfortas.

He has performed at many of the world's greatest opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera,  Komische Oper,  Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Teatro Regio Torino, Vienna Volksoper, Opéra National du Rhin, and the Nederlandse Opera.

Both Szymanowski Operas Being Performed in July

Mariusz Kwiecien

There is a lot of excitement about Mariusz Kwiecien bringing his world-remowned performance of Karol Szymanowski's title character King Roger to the Santa Fe Opera. There are five performance beginning tonight and running through August 14. Visit their website for additional information.

We've covered Kwiecien's sexy portrayal of the king extensively on the site, including the complete video of the opera and some sexy shirtless pictures of the "Hot Pole" from the Paris Opera production. You can also listen to Mariusz Kwiecien's recent radio interview where he talks about his love for Santa Fe and performing King Roger.

We're huge fans of Szymanowski and are thrilled that the Santa Fe Opera is exposing his music and stagecraft to American audiences. Although King Roger is the best known opera, his rarely performed Hagith is certainly worth experiencing.

Mariusz Kwiecien as King Roger at the Paris Opera

Szymanowski is best known for his wonderful piano music, which includes the famous Étude, Opus 4, No. 3, his four symphonies, two violin concertos, the ballets Harnasie and Mandragora two string quartets, a sonata for violin and piano, his famous Stabat Mater and a number of orchestral songs.

Hagith, which has been compared to Richard Strauss' Salome, is based on the Old Testament story of King David. Priests tell the aged king that the love of the young girl Hagith will bring him a new lease of life. But Hagith and the young king, the aged king's son, love each other, and Hagith refuses to make a sacrifice on behalf of the aged king. The aged king eventually dies, and Hagith is stoned to death.

The opera is receiving a rare performance outside of Poland this month as the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires is presenting four performances between July 22-28 in a double bill with Schoenberg's Erwartung. You can watch the Opera Wrocławska production in its entirety with Viktor Gorelikov below.

Opera Wrocławska's performance of Hagith:

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com