Barihunk trio to star in Berkshire Festival's Don Giovanni

André Courville, Erik Anstine and Brian James Myer

The Berkshire Opera Festival has announced its 2020 season, which includes Mozart's Don Giovanni starring the barihunk trio of André Courville in the title role, Erik Anstine as Leoporello and Brian James Myer as Masetto. They will be joined by Laura Wilde as Donna Anna, Joshua Blue as Don Ottavio, Joanna Latini as Donna Elvira, John Cheek as the Commendatore and Natalia Santaliz as Zerlina.

The new production will be directed by co-founder Jonathan Loy and conducted by artistic director Brian Garman. The production will include scenic designs by Stephen Dobay, costumes by Charles Caine, and lighting Alex Jainchill.

The production will open on August 22 with additional performances on the 25th and 28th at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Erik Anstine can next be seen as Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Opera Omaha on February 7 and 9. André Courville can be heard as Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Kentucky Opera from February 14-16. Brian James Myer will be Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Knoxville Opera from February 14-29.

Barihunk duo in Kentucky Opera's "A Woman in Morocco"

Joseph Flaxman and Brent Michael Smith

Two barihunks participating in the Kentucky Opera's Studio Artist Program will be featured in Daron Hagen's socially poignant opera A Woman in Morocco. Joseph Flaxman sings the dissolute English expat Teddy Forsythe and Brent Michael Smith sings the American businessman Harry Hopkins.

The opera, which is based on the play by Barbara Grecki, confronts the issues of human trafficking and sexual violence and its effect on all of us. Set in a small run-down hotel in Morocco in the mid-1950s, the opera tells the story of a young, wide-eyed writer, Lizzy, whose involvement with Ahmed, a worker at the hotel, sets in motion a series of events which ripple out and impact all the characters in the opera.

On May 6th, you can listen to the composer, the artists and General Director David Roth discuss the opera on WUOL-FM at 11:30 AM CST. The opera will premiere Tuesday, May 12 in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Festival of Faiths

Flaxman's 2014-2015 season includes, Bello in La Fanciulla del West at the Munich Philharmonic and the Kentucky Opera, his Wagnerian debut as Donner in Das Rheingold with the Hartford Wagner Festival, Germont in La Traviata with Bronx Opera, and “all male roles” in Smashed! at the NY Fringe Festival with Opera on Tap. 

Brent Michael Smith was at the Central City Opera last year where he performed Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. His other roles with the Kentucky Opera include the Marquis and Doctor in Verdi's La Traviata and Larkens in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. This summer he'll perform Billy Jackrabbit in La Fanciulla del West Des Moines Metro Opera.

Barihunk Feast in Kentucky Opera's "Girl of the Golden West"

Franco Pomponi in Hamlet (left) and Joseph Flaxman in Cosi (right)

Forget about the "Girl" of the Golden West, "them thar hills" are filled with some hot guys! Puccini isn't exactly known for his great barihunk roles, although we do see the occasionally hot Scarpia, which makes us wonder if Tosca isn't choosing the wrong guy (who doesn't like a Bad Boy once in awhile?).

The one exception is his opera La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West), which features ten roles for baritone, bass-baritone or bass. Since they're all ambitious young miners, it's the perfect opera for some barihunk casting and the Kentucky Opera doesn't disappoint. Franco Pomponi is cast as Jack Rance, the main baritone role, and Joe Flaxman sings the appropriately named Handsome (a.k.a Bello). Both singers have appeared on this site. Add to that Michael Preacely as Sonora, Zach Owen as Ashby, Jeffrey Gates as Happy and Brent Michael Smith as Jim Larkens and you have a feast of low voices.

Brent Michael Smith (photos by Courtney Charles)

We're not quite sure how Brent Michael Smith has escape the eyes of our barihunk scouts, but we're more that pleased to add him to the bass-barihunk family. 

Smith is a recent graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and a Studio Artist at the Kentucky Opera. He was an Apprentice Artist at the Central City Opera this year where he sang Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and covered Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. In 2012, Smith  took the top prize at both the Grand Rapids Opera Competition and the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition: Great Lakes Region. In addition to Jim Larkens, he will perform the roles of the Marquis/Doctor in Verdi's La Traviata and Harry Hopkins in Daron Hagen’s A Woman in Morocco.

Flaxman is also a Studio Artist with the Kentucky Opera this season. He will perform Teddy Forsythe in A Woman in Morocco and the Baron in La Traviata.

You can read an interview with Zach Owen HERE.

Performances of La fanciulla del West are on November 14 and 16. For additional cast information and tickets, visit their website.

If you want to enjoy 19 more barihunks, make sure to buy our new 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar. It's available by clicking on the LULU button below and every penny goes to support young artists.

"Hey, S--T--E--L--L--A ! ! !...A Streetcar runs through Kentucky"

Wes Mason (photo: Michael Cinquino)

Kentucky is playing a major role in the two upcoming performances of André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. We realized the popularity of the piece when we posted pictures of the LA Opera's production featuring Ryan McKinny as Stanley Kowalski and Renee Fleming as Blanche DuBois. Of course, the shirtless pictures of Ryan McKinny probably helped drive the spike in views that we saw to the site.

Wes Mason (Photos: DonSoo Choi and Doug Wonder)

The first Blue Grass State connection is obvious, as the Kentucky Opera has announced two performances of the popular American opera on February 13 and 15 of next year. Stanley will be played by one of the most compelling young artists to hit the scene in recent years, Wes Mason. Mason, who is familiar to readers of this site (yes, that's him in the sidebar modeling for our official photographer), can command a stage like few others in the business. People are still talking about his tour de force performance as Reinaldo Arenas in the 2010 world premiere of Jorge Martín’s Before Night Falls with the Fort Worth Opera.

This will be his debut in the role and we suspect that he'll give past Stanley's a run for their money in the beefcake department. In addition to before night falls, we've seen the pulchritudinous singer show some skin in Handels' Giulio Cesare at the Roanoke Opera and Bizet's La Tragédie de Carmen at the Syracuse Opera.

We'll have more news about the Kentucky Opera's upcoming season, which also includes Beethoven's Fidelio, Daron Hagen's Postcard from Morocco and Puccini's La fanciulla del West. Visit their website for additional information.

Thomas Gunther in Dead Man Walking

The other connection to Kentucky is Thomas Gunther, who studied at the University of Kentucky and lives in Lexington. He's no stranger to barihunk roles, having performed Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, Le mari in Poulenc's Le Mamelles de Tirésias and Joseph DeRocher in Heggie's Dead Man Walking.

Gunther is part of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, where the original work was premiered on September 19, 1998 with Renée Fleming and barihunk Rod Gilfry as Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. Remarkably, this is the first revival of the opera in San Francisco since its premiere.

The Merola production will use a version for reduced orchestra prepared by Peter Grunberg and conducted by Mark Morash. The staging will be by director José Maria Condemi. The opera will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 10, and 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 12.

Franco Pomponi in open-air Don Giovanni

Franco Pomponi and the Herod Atticus Theatre

Franco Pomponi, who recently created a rush in sales for opera glasses, when he appeared nude in Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet at La Monnaie in Brussels, is now taking on the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni in Greece.  The performances will be in the open-air Herod Atticus Theatre as part of the Athens Fesitval. The opera is being staged by the Greek National Opera.

The production is directed by Yannis Houvardas, an acclaimed Greek director and until recently director of the Greek National Theatre. Pomponi will alternate the role with Greek baritone Dionyssis Sourbis. Pomponi performs on June 11 and 13. Tickets are available online.

Pomponi is back in the United States on Novemeber 14 and 16 with the Kentucky Opera as Jack Rance in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West.

Sexy Don Giovanni/Leporello combo at Kentucky Opera

Fitness Buff and Barihunk Donovan Singletary

Mozart's Don Giovanni is a key ingredient in the delectable dessert we call Barihunks. It has dominated our pages more than any other opera and for good reason. The story of a sexy, irresistible, sexual predator and his love starved sidekick just seems to invite the casting of some of the hottest singers in the business.

The Kentucky Opera has stuck to that noble tradition by casting AVA graduate Ben Wager as Don Giovanni and former Lindemann Young Artist Program favorite and Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals winner Donovan Singletary as Leporello. Singletary, an avid fitness buff, is living proof that you can take care of your body and your voice simultaneously. The Florida native has won numerous vocal competitions in addition to the Med Auditions, including the 2011 Vienna Prize by the George London Foundation, 2011 Vienna Prize by the George London Foundation Award, First Prize in the 2010 George London Foundation Competition and First Prize in the Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actors Competition.

Donovan Singletary sings "Deh!...ti ferma..ti placa" from Rosini's Semiramide:

Ben Wager was a 2009 graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Enrico in Anna Bolena and the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, In 2009, he joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he sang  Zuniga in Carmen, Angelotti in Tosca and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. In 2011, he portrayed General Audebert in the world premiere of Kevin Putz' Silent Night at Minnesota Opera, which we covered extensively.

Ben Wager

The Kentucky Opera will have two performances of the Mozart classic on February 15 and 17. A couple of other young singers of note in the cast whose careers we've been watching are tenor Taylor Stayton as Don Ottavio and soprano Jan Cornelius as Donna Anna. Tickets are available online.

Michael Mayes Featured

Michael Mayes: Bourbon, Horses and French Opera

We love American barihunk Michael Mayes and have always maintained that he's one of the most entertaining people in opera. His Texapolitan Opera podcast is a must for any fan of opera and it can always be accessed at the link to the right. You can also follow his musings at mazerthehazer on Twitter.

The Elvis Presley fanatic is in Louisville performing Escamillo in Bizet's "Carmen." He was recently featured in an interview by Selana Fry from Louisville. com where he talked about a number of things including this site. [For the record, the interviewer makes it sound like he has some direct involvement with this site, which he does not. Barihunks and Texapolitan Opera are enthusiastically supportive of each other's site]. You can read the entire interview HERE, but here is what he had to say about Barihunks:

The Barihunks blog is another project you're involved with. The tagline is pretty straightforward: "The Sexiest Baritone Hunks from Opera." I here there's a pin-up calendar in the works.

The guys over there are doing a great service to us. Anytime we can get someone talking about opera, regardless of the context, is an accomplishment worthy of praise.
Will you be shooting your Barihunks calendar photo in Louisville? Most importantly, will horses and/or bourbon figure into the composition?

I am doing the shoot here, though the location is to be determined. Horses might be involved, and bourbon will definitely be a factor, whether prominently featured, or administered as a fortification against my own inhibitions about public displays of partial nudity.

Mayes' Escamillo opens at the Kentucky Opera on Friday, September 23 at 8PM, with additional performances on Sunday, September 25 at 2PM and Friday, September 30 at 8PM. Tickets have been selling fast, but are still available online  or by calling 502.584.7777.

Click HERE for the Texapolitan Opera podcast

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Emerging Barihunk Gabriel Preisser

Gabriel Preisser as a modern day Don Giovanni

Here are two videos of the emerging barihunk Gabriel Preisser, who is new to the site. The 26-year-old singer is currently at the Kentucky Opera singing Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and Figaro in the “Barber of Seville.” He then travels further south to the Pensacola Opera where he will be one of their studio artists. He is slated to sing John Brook in Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” and the Mandarin in Puccini’s “Turandot.” As an added bonus to Barihunks fans, one of our favorite singers, Matt Trevino, will be performing Timur. [Look to your right!]



This video is from Daron Hagen's “Broken Pieces,” his New York Stories trilogy. Gabriel Preisser is joined by soprano Andrea Shokery and pianist Lisa Hasson. The production is part of the Composer Workshop program, a collaboration with Kentucky Opera, the University of Louisville School of Music and the Academy of Music at St. Francis in the Fields.



Here is Gabriel Preisser as Riccardo in Bellini's I Puritani Act II Finale duet with Daniel Richardson as Giorgio.

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