Marco Vassalli's US debut featured on KDFC radio

A shot from Marco Vassalli's recent California photo shoot

KDFC, San Francisco's premiere classical music station, did a great feature on Marco Vassalli's US debut this weekend with Musica Marin in San Francisco, which you can listen to HERE. They attended a rehearsal of the world premiere of the new Clint Borzoni songs for String Quartet & Baritone that the German-Italian singer is performing in a salon-like in the former home of Ansel Adams near the Golden Gate Bridge. Vassalli chose Hermann Hesse's Stufen and Hilde Domin's Margere Kost, making these the first German language texts set by the composer.

Vassalli will also be performing lieder by Schubert and Richard Strauss, Italian songs by Tosti and Samuel Barber's Dover Beach, which is also scored for string quartet and baritone. He'll be joined in the lieder/song sets by Ronny Michael Goldberg, an accompanist and coach with the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellow Program.

There are a limited number of tickets remaining on the Musica Marin website.

Marco Vassalli rehearsing Clint Borzoni's Stufen with Musica Marin

Borzoni, one of the most talented of many gifted American composers on the scene, recently completed his fourth opera, When Adonis Calls, based on the poetry of Gavin Dillard and arranged by John de los Santos. The opera was presented at Fort Worth Opera’s 2015 Frontiers Showcase. He is currently working on his fifth opera, The Copper Queen, also with librettist John de los Santos for Arizona Opera’s program, Arizona Spark.

Vassalli just wrapped up a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Candide at the Staatsoper Hannover. He grew up on Lake Constance and began his studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, where he studied with the famed soprano Edda Moser.

Upcoming broadcasts from the San Francisco Opera

Ildar Abdrazakov & Greer Grimsley

Mark your calendars, as the San Francisco Opera is broadcasting two performances featuring two of our favorite barihunks.

On Jan. 5, they will broadcast Boito's Mefistofele with Ildar Abdrazakov, Patricia Racette, and Ramón Vargas. On Feb. 2, you can hear Wagner's Flying Dutchman with Greer Grimsley, Lise Lindstrom, Ian Storey, Kristinn Sigmundsson and conducted by Patrick Summers. Tune in to KDFC.comhttp://www.kdfc.com, which is available online.

Later broadcast include Bellini's Norma on March 2 in a 1982 performance featuring Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and Ezio Flagello.

Last season's performance of Verdi's Falstaff with Bryn Terfel on April 6th, followed by Lucas Meachem in Rossini's Barber of Seville on May 4th alongside the Rosina of Isabel Leonard.

On June 1st, they will feature the incredible Leonie Rysanek from a 1976 performance of Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Karl Böhm.

It's exactly two weeks until Christmas, have you bought the best stocking stuffer ever? Order your 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar today. You won't regret it!

Dreamy Casting: Barihunks on the air

Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Don Giovanni

Thanks to a heads up from an alert reader, we've learned that Edwin Crossley-Mercer just performed his first Don Giovanni in Dijon, France. He was joined by fellow barihunk Damien Pass as Masetto. If you missed the performance, you're in luck, as it's temporarily available on Medici.tv. Click HERE to watch the entire performance.

Medici.tv has a number of current releases featuring barihunks, including Purcell's Dido and Æneas with Lucas Meachem, Gounod's Romeo and Juliet with François Le Roux, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with Stéphane Degout and Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise featuring both Henk Neven and Rod Gilfry.

Guido Loconsolo

On April 4th, Italian barihunk Guido Loconsolo makes his Met debut as the scheming Egyptian general Achilla in Handel's Giulio Cesare. He'll be part of a dream cast that includes David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Alice Coote and the amazing Christophe Dumaux as Tolomeo.

You can watch the April 27th matinee as part of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series which will be transmitted live around the world.

Guido Loconsolo previously sang the role of Achilla at Glyndebourne. Earlier this season, he sang the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne, Publio in a new production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in Freiburg and Essen, Germany.

Simon Keenlyside

Fans of Simon Keenlyside will get plenty of chances to hear the ageless barihunk online. On April 6th, Radio France will broadcast his performance of Berg's Wozzeck from the Vienna, Staatsoper under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. On April 25, BBC 3 will rebroadcast his Macbeth opposite the riveting Lady Macbeth of Liudmyla Monastyrska from the Royal Opera House. This is a performance that is not to be missed! BBC 3 has also announced that they will be broadcasting Keenlyside's Eugene Onegin from the Royal Opera House. The date and time has not been announced, but we believe that it will be June 1st.

Morgan Smith

On Sunday, April 7th at 8:00 PM/PST San Francisco's KDFC will broadcast Jake Heggie's latest masterpiece Moby-Dick. The opera stars barihunk Morgan Smith along with Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne, Matthew O'Neill and Robert Orth. The performance is a rebroadcast from last season.