Jake Heggie's masterpiece, Dead Man Walking, has quickly entered the standard repertory since its San Francisco premiere in 2000. Amazingly, this was Heggie's first opera and it has become a star vehicle for baritones and especially barihunks. The role not only requires a ripped physique, but one of the arias is sung while doing pushups. John Packard was the original Joseph De Rocher, the convicted killer who is the center of the opera.
The Australian premiere was in 2002 at the State Opera of South Australia with Teddy Tahu Rhodes, which was nominated for six Helpmann Awards, winning for "Best Set Design" and "Best Male in an Operatic Performance." The Canadian premiere occurred on January 2006 at the Calgary Opera with Daniel Okulitch. The European premiere was given in May 2006 at the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany with Mel Ulrich.
John Arnold as Joseph De Rocher
Our site has been filled with a veritable Who's Who of barihunks singing Joseph De Rocher, including veritable Who's Who of barihunks including Michael Mayes, Philip Cutlip, Etienne Dupuis, Jordan Shanahan, Thomas Gunther, John Arnold, Marcus DeLoach.
David Adam Moore in Dead Man Walking
David Adam Moore in Dead Man Walking
Next up is David Adam Moore who opened up in the show tonight at the Des Moines Metro Opera. The cast also includes one of our most inspirational stories, Kasey Yeargain, as one of the prison guards. You may remember Yeargain for his Bari-Chunk to Bari-Hunk transformation. Speaking of BariChunks, Kyle Albertson the creator of our brilliant and entertaining sister site is also in the cast as the prison warden George Benton.
There are four remaining performances on July 6, 8, 11 and 19. Tickets are available online.
Central City Opera ad for Dead Man Walking
Michael Mayes as Joseph De Rocher
One of the definitive performers in the role of Joseph De Rocher is Michael Mayes, whose intense and riveting performance has to be experienced live. It is a performance that few will ever forget. He opens in the role on July 5 at the Central City Opera outside of Denver, Colorado. There will be eight performances through July 25. Tickets are available online.
If you can't catch these performances head East to see John Arnold. He sang the role in Boston to great acclaim and will reprise the role with the Dayton Opera in Ohio on February 27 and March 1 next year. Tickets are available online.
There are few things that we enjoy more than our "Reader Submission" feature. Over the years, we've been introduced to some of the most amazing talent and absolute eye candy from across the globe. We've had submissions come from as far away as Belarus and Indonesia, from boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, ex-lovers, men and women ranging from teenagers to people who reminisce about having seen Gina Cigna (look her up!) and even a number of proud moms. Gotta love those proud moms!
Our latest reader submissions are Nate Jones and Kyle Albertson.
Nate Jones is a 25-year-old lyric baritone who is a third-year student at Duke Divinity School. He's graduating in May with a Masters Degree. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Duke in 2009 and has been studying voice primarily with Elizabeth Linnartz.
Below are two videos from Nate Jones' Graduate Recital from 3/24/12 at Duke University
In 2009, he won the Schloss-Mirabell competition in Salzburg, where he
performed a concert of Schumann and Mozart in the Mozart Festival, while
also playing Figaro. He also has won the National Association for the
Teaching of Singing (NATS) competition at the state and regional levels.
He won a full scholarship to the American Singers Opera Project, where
he played Don Alfonso in "Cosi fan Tutte," and studied voice with
Sherrill Milnes' ex-wife, Nancy Stokes-Milnes.
Jones originally planned on going into doctoral work in theology/philosophy but has recently decided to go into opera full-time and plans on auditioning for some young artist programs.
Jones has been active with Long Leaf Opera in North Carolina, most recently singing Clay in Chandler Carter's "Strange Fruit" and Valentine in Joel Feigin's "The Twelfth Night." He also played the title role in "Sweeney Todd" at Duke.
Kyle Anderson
When we recently posted about the winners at the Gerda Lissner International Singing Competition we sure heard about the prize winners who we omitted (including one of our longtime favorites Dan Kempson). One singer who is new to us and who took a second place cash award is Kyle Albertson.
Albertson is a former participant in the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program. He has gone on to sing Leporello in Don Giovanni, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Henry Kissinger in Nixon in China. Blitch in Susannah, Mephistopheles in Faust, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, and the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffman.
Current and upcoming engagements include covering the roles of Bretigny in Manon, Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro, Masetto in Don Giovanni, and the Jailer in Dialogues des carmélites at the Metropolitan Opera.
