Pictures have finally shown up of barihunk Craig Irvin, who has been singing shirtless in the Utah Opera production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, which has its final performance today. Now we hope that some audio shows up, so that we can hear his thrilling voice sing Zurga's "L'orage s'est calmé."
If you missed him Utah, you can catch him from February 21-March 1 with the Lyric Opera Kansas City where he reprises his portrayal of Lieutenant Hortsmayer in Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night. Irvin practically own the role, having sung it at the Cincinnati Opera, Fort Worth Opera Festival and at the world premiere with the Minnesota Opera. In Kansas City, he'll be reunited with fellow barihunk Liam Bonner, who reprises his performance of Lieutenant Audebert from the initial production.
Craig Irvin and soprano Andrea Carroll
On March 14, Utah Opera will stage their next complete opera with another barihunk, when David Adam Moore takes on Guglielmo on Mozart's Così fan tutte. Performances will run from March 14-22.
In March, Craig Irvin moves into lighter fare, as he sings the Pirate King in the Pensacola Opera production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. Tickets are available online.
Barihunk Liam Bonner is having a busy week, starting with a performance of the National Anthem at tonight's L.A. Clippers-Orlando Magic basketball game.
On December 6th, he will perform at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bonner will perform the role of Richard Nixon in the Act 1 finale and banquet scene of John Adam's Nixon in China. The opera had its Los Angeles premiere at The Music Center on the stage of The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1990. Bonner will be joined by Gordon Hawkins as Chou En-lai, Richard Paul Fink as Henry Kissinger and So Young Park as Pat Nixon.
The performance will feature the L.A. Opera Orchestra conducted by Los Angeles Master Chorale Artistic Director/LA Opera Resident Conductor Grant Gershon, and a chorus of 48 singers from the Los Angeles Master Chorale and LA Opera.
Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham will perform an aria as part of a special
tribute to the LA Opera with a video tribute from LA Opera Eli and
Edythe Broad General Director, Plácido Domingo. The star-studded
90-minute show will honor The Music Center and highlight the
accomplishments of the past 50 years.
You can order your 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar by clicking on the LULU button below. Enjoy 19 of the hottest men in opera.
The Fire Island Opera Company is presenting the East Coast Premiere of Kurt Weill's first opera, The Protagonist.The piece stars a few singers familiar to this site, Liam Bonner, who sings the role of the Young Man; Matthew Morris, a former barihunks calendar model who sings one of the Schauspielers; and, Jeremy Galyon, who sings the innkeeper. Someone to keep an eye on in the production is model and singer-songwriter Guto Bittencourt, who is also one of the Schauspielers.
The remainder of the cast includes tenor Samuel Levine in the title role, Maeve Höglund as the sister, tenor John Easterlin, as the Chief of Staff, as well as Jeremy Hirsch, Katrina Yaukey and Megan
Marino as the remaining Schauspielers.
Liam Bonner
The opera is bases on a lurid subject drawn from a play by Georg Kaiser an is an example of the sensationalistic,
psychologically oriented operas popular during the Weimar Republic. The story is about a theatrical troupe run by the Protagonist, an actor who is
overly protective of his Sister. Unable to distinguish between illusion
and reality, he kills her after she tells him she has a fiancé; at the
close, he calls the murder his greatest theatrical performance.
The Pines Pavilion on Fire Island has been transformed into a wild, dream world by Marfa-based installation artist, Charles Mary Kubricht, and project runway finalist and former Mark Morris dancer, choreographer/costume designer, Bradon McDonald. The evening will culminate in a Kurt Weill inspired Haus music dance party! [Hey, it's Fire Island].
The Sunday matinee production is preceded by a performance of Un Amour de Proust on The Pavilion's Lower Deck and followed by an Opera Pool Party on the Pool Deck!
Performances are on August 23 and 24 and tickets are available online.
The barihunk-laden production of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night from the Minnesota Opera will be broadcast nationally on PBS on Friday, December 13 at 9pm ET (check local listings). The opera was the first commission of Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative, a landmark program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works.
The Minnesota Opera presented the world premiere of Silent Night in November 2011 with a cast that included barihunks Craig Irvin as Lieutenant Horstmayer, Gabriel Preisser as Lieutenant Gordon, Mike Nyby as William Dale, Liam Bonner as Lieutenant Audebert, Troy Cook as Father Palmer, Joseph Beutel as the British Major, Ben Wager as the General and Andrew Wilkowske as Ponchel.
Silent Night is conducted by Minnesota Opera’s Music Director Michael Christie and staged by Academy Award-winning director Eric Simonson.The opera was recently honored with a regional Emmy nomination.
Quartet from Silent Night:
Silent Night was co-produced with Opera Philadelphia, who presented the work in
February of this year. It now travels to the Fort Worth Opera Festival
on May 4 and 10 with barihunks Dan Kempson, Craig Irvin and Morgan
Smith.
The opera is based on the screenplay Joyeux Noël
by Christian Carion and recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one
of the bloodiest wars in human history. On WWI’s western front,
Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and
negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they share
Christmas and bury their dead.
David Adam Moore in Chicago's Streetcar Named Desire
As opera companies announce their upcoming seasons, it appears that the West Coast might be the best destination to catch a few barihunks. When even Rigoletto is cast with a barihunk, one can expect a tidal wave of male pulchritude on opera stages up and down the coast from Seattle to San Diego.
We've already marked our calendars to see the seethingly sexy David Adam Moore in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the San Diego Opera. The American baritone, fresh off his debut in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Lyric Opera of Chicago will be singing the role of Silvio. This is one production where we certainly can't blame Nedda for having an affair with Silvio.
San Diego Opera will feature other operas with major baritone roles, including the great Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role of Massenet's Don Quichotte. Malcolm McKenzie and the hilarious John Del Carlo will team up in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. Aris Argiris will join tenor superstar Piotr Beczala in Verdi's Un ballo in Maschera, which is sure to be a hot ticket.
Dmitri Hvorstovsky & Ildar Abdrazakov (Dario Acosta Photography)
Dmitri Hvorostovsky will also return to the West Coast with recitals in Los Angeles on May 22, 2014 and San Francisco on May 25, 2014. The "Siberian Hunky" will perform romances on poems by Alexander Pushkin from Glinka, Borodin, Rachmaninov and Glier. The recently buffed up Ildar Abdrazakov is featured prominently on the San Francisco Opera's beautiful 2013-14 marketing materials. He'll be kicking off the new season in the title role of Boito's Mephistopheles in an all-star cast that included Patricia Racette and Ramon Vargas. Performances run from September 6-October 2, 2013. Opera buffs will remember that the "Age of the Barihunks" unofficially kicked off with Samuel Ramey in the same opera in San Francisco in 1994. Other prominent barihunks appearing with the San Francisco Opera are Nathan Gunn in Jerome Kern's Show Boat, Green Grimsley in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman and Audun Iversen making his local debut in Rossini's Barber of Seville.
Michael Todd Simpson shows off his baritone claw
Up north in Seattle, where they are three months away from Greer Grimsley heading the cast as Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle, they've announced a season with a bevy of barihunks. Michael Todd Simpson, a notoriously sexy Escamillo, will be taking on a very different role when he portrays John Sorel in Menotti's The Consul. Also in that production will be barihunks Steven LaBrie and Joseph Lattanzi.
Steven LaBrie (left) and Donovan Singletary (right) heating up Seattle
The aforementioned Rigoletto will be in Seattle, as Marco Vratogna portrays the title character. We've seen him in this role and it's a performance that is not to be missed. Also in the cast is fitness guru Donovan Singletary as Count Monterone. Other operas are Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment and Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. The Seattle Opera will also be hosting two special events next year. On August 7th the International Wagner Competition will take place and two nights later a concert celebrating the company's 50th anniversary and the tenure of outgoing general director Speight Jenkins. Features performers include Stephanie Blythe, Greer Grimsley, John Relyea and William Burden.
Paul LaRosa (left) and Liam Bonner (right)
We don't feature the Los Angeles Opera as much as other companies because they cast fewer barihunks than most companies. They are almost making up for it in one performance of Britten's Billy Budd, which features Liam Bonner in the title role, Greer Grimsley as John Claggart, Paul LaRosa as the First Mate, Jonathan Michie as Donald and Samuel Ramey as Dansker. Of course, our biggest frustration with L.A. Opera has been their bad habit of casting tenors in baritone roles. They're doing it again this year, as tenor Plácido Domingo takes on one of the great baritone roles, Athanael in Massenet's Thaïs. Other operas include Glass' Einstein on the Beach, Donizett's Lucia di Lammermoor, Mozart's Magic Flute, Verdi's Falstaff and Bizet's Carmen (with a yet-to-be-announced Escamillo).
Barihunk Doug Carpenter, who created quite a sensation in our 2012 calendar with his "cupcakes" photo, has won the prestigious 2013 Lotte Lenya Competition. He was the only baritone in the finals, so his victory is especially sweet to us. He walks away with $15,000 in prize money to further his career.
Contestants were required to prepare four selections: an aria from the
opera or operetta repertoire; two songs from the American musical
theater repertoire (one from the pre-1968 "Golden Age" and one from 1968
or later); and a theatrical selection by Kurt Weill.
Doug Carpenter sporting his Barihunk tee (and some impressive guns!)
Held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and celebrating its
15th anniversary this year, the Lotte Lenya Competition is an
international theater singing contest that recognizes talented young
singer-actors, ages 19-32, who are dramatically and musically convincing
in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs and
arias within a dramatic context.
Soprano Patricia Racette, British opera and musical theater conductor James
Holmes, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President and
American Theater Wing Vice-Chairman Theodore S. Chapin served as
judges.
Doug Carpenter: Career is taking off
Next week, Carpenter will be doing a reading backed by Sony Music called Beautiful. He can next be seen at Pennsylvania Shakespeare doing Oklahoma from June 12-30, and then Life Could be a Dream at New York Musical Theater Festival.
Previous winners of the Lotte Lenya competition will be familiar to our readers, including barihunks Lucas Meachem, Liam Bonner and Jonathan Michie, as well as tenor Noah Stewart (who appeared in our year end feature as a tenor who we adore!).
Gabriel Preisser returns to his native Florida to perform Bach's Coffee Cantata with the Orlando Philharmonic Symphony on December 10th. He'll be joined by soprano Ruthie Nelson under the baton of Christopher Wlikins. Tickets are available online.
This foray into baroque repertoire is a switch for Preisser, who has recently made a name for himself performing newer works. He recently
created the role of Lt. Gordon in the world premiere of Kevin Putz’s
Pulitzer Prize winning Silent Night with the Minnesota Opera. Preisser will
reprise this role with the Opera Company of Philadelphia in February 2013, where he'll be reunited with fellow barihunk Liam Bonner who is singing the role of Lieutenant Audebert.
Liam Bonner sings Lieutenant Audebert's aria "J'ai perdu ta photo" from Silent Night:
Other upcoming engagements include Yamadori with the Orlando Philharmonic, baritone
soloist in the Carmina Burana with the Atlanta Ballet, and El Gallo in the
Fantasticks with Skylark Opera.
Support other emerging artist by purchasing your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar TODAY. All proceeds go to benefit young artist programs and young artists:
The last time we posted about Liam Bonner, he was part of what we called
the "barihunk laden" cast of Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera "Silent Night"
at the Minnesota Opera. Bonner scored a critical success as Lieutenant
Audebert in that world premiere performance. Prior to that, we featured
him singing the beautiful song "Lost in the Stars" in our tribute to Kurt Weill. If you missed Silent Night, you're in luck, as Bonner will reprise his role with the Opera Company of Philadelphia in February 2013.
Bonner has broken out of the barihunk pack of Silent Night
and will be singing the lead role of Henri de Valois in Emmanuel Chabrier’s neglected
opera The King in Spite of Himself (Le roi malgré lui) at Bard SummerScape in Annandale-on-Hudson,
N.Y. Bonner returns to SummerScape after his successful 2010 performance in the American
premiere of Kurt Weill’s Royal Palace.
Nicolas Rivenq sings "Cher pays" from Le Roi malgré lui from Lyons:
SummerScape is performing the first staged revival of the
original 1887 version of the opera. The production will receive a contemporary
treatment from director Thaddeus Strassberger. The opera will be performed on July
27 and 29, and August 1, 3 and 5 with the American Symphony Orchestra under the
baton of Leon Botstein. The company will also perform Saint-Saëns’s grand opera
Henry VIII. Visit their website for additional performance information.
The King in Spite of Himself is a comedy about the hapless 16th-century
French noble who has been chosen by the Poles to be their king, despite various
factions who are plotting against him. Henri is repelled by the weather, the
food, and the fashion, and pines for his milieu in Anjou. Farce ensues when he
tries to eschew the crown, but fate is sometimes easier to reluctantly accept
than to escape.
The opera contains vocal fireworks, an exuberant chorus, lively dances and a clever orchestral score. For those of you who have seen Aida, La Boheme or Carmen once too often, this is a great chance to see an opera that was greatly admired by Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, but has fallen from the standard repertory.
Liam Bonner & Quirijn de Lang
For those readers on the other side of the Pond, you can see Bonner as Henri de Valois in October at the Wexford Festival Opera. That performance also features popular barihunk Quirijn de Lang in the role of Laski. Visit their website for additional information.
Last November, we posted about Kevin Puts' new opera "Silent Night," which was being premiered at the Minnesota Opera. We were all atwitter, because not only did it seem like an amazing new American opera, but it featured a cast with more sexy men than a college water polo team. The cast included Gabriel Preisser, Liam Bonner, Mike Nyby, Andrew Wilkowske and Ben Wager and was named as our "Best Barihunk Feast of 2011" in our year-end wrap up.
Apparently, some other pretty impressive musical minds agreed that the opera was worthy of recognition, as the Pulitzer Prize for "Distinguished Musical Composition by an
American" was awarded to composer Kevin Puts for "Silent Night." The opera was commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis
on November 12, 2011, a company that we have long praised for its heartfelt commitment to premiering new works, especially those by American composers. We would like to add ourselves to the chorus of congratulatory messages from the music world.
The opera. with a libretto by Mark Campbell, recounts the true story of a
spontaneous cease-fire among Scottish, French and Germans during World
War I, displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the
heart. The story was based on the 2005 film "Joyeux Noël."
Composer Kevin Puts
Also nominated as finalists in this category were Tod Machover
for "Death and the Powers," premiered by the Boston Modern Opera
Project in Massachusetts on March 18, 2011
and Andrew Norman for “The Companion Guide to Rome,” premiered
on November 13, 2011 in Salt Lake City.
Doug Carpenter as he appeared in the Barihunks calendar
Three barihunks, including two of our calendar models, are among the twelve finalists in the 2012 Lotte Lenya Competition. Douglas Carpenter, Justin Hopkins and Nicky Wuchinger have all advanced in the competition. The participants will compete for prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500 in the finals, which will be held on April 21, 2012, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Three-time Tony Award nominee and Broadway diva Rebecca Luker will serve as a judge along with Encores! music director Rob Berman and Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President Theodore S. Chapin. Held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the Lotte Lenya Competition is an international theater singing contest that recognizes talented young singer-actors, ages 19-30, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs within a dramatic context.
Justin Hokins as he appeared in the Barihunks calendar
The competition has attracted numerous barihunks, many of whom have gone on to win the competition. Barihunk winners include Lucas Meachem, Liam Bonner, Zachary James, Cooper Grodin and Justin Lee Miller.
Liam Bonner performs Weill at a recent concert at the Gershwin Hotel:
Other 2012 finalists include mezzos Megan Marino, Cecelia Tickton and Christine Amon; sopranos Briana Elyse Hunter, Mollie Vogt-Welch, Natalie Ballenger and Maria Failla; tenors Matthew Grills and Jacob Keith Watson. The competition will culminate in an evening concert featuring all of the finalists, followed by the announcement of the winners. Both the daytime finals and evening concert are free and open to the public, and will take place in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. The Kurt Weill Foundation will award special prizes in addition to the top prizes, and has already presented an Emerging Talent Award to tenor Robert Ariza and the Grace Keagy Award for Outstanding Vocal Promise to mezzo Kate Tombaugh.
The son of a cantor, Kurt Weill was born in Dessau into a family that took in operatic performances as a main form of entertainment. When Weill was in his teens the director of the Dessau Hoftheater, Albert Bing, encouraged him in the study of music. Weill briefly studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck and was already working professionally as a conductor when he attended composer Ferruccio Busoni's master classes in Berlin. Delighted to see the positive responses of an audience to his first collaboration with playwright Georg Kaiser, Der Protagonist (1926), he thereafter resolved to work toward accessibility in his music. In 1926 Weill married actress Lotte Lenya, whose reedy, quavering singing voice he called "the one I hear in my head when I am writing my songs."
Kevin Burdette sings 'Let Things Be Like They Always Was' from Street Scene:
In 1927 Weill began his collaboration with leftist playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht; their first joint venture, Mahagonny-Songspiel (1927), launched the number "Alabama Song," which, to their surprise, became a minor pop hit in Europe. The next show, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Three-Penny Opera, 1928), was a monstrous success, in particular the song "Moritat" ("Mack the Knife").
Louis Armstrong plays and sings Mack the Knife:
Nonetheless, strain in their association was already being felt, and after the completion of their magnificent "school opera" Der Jasager (1930), the two parted company. Brecht and Weill were brought together once more in Paris to create Die Sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) in 1934. In the meantime, Weill collaborated with Caspar Neher on the opera Die Bürgschaft (1931) and Georg Kaiser again on Der Silbersee (1933), works that garnered the hostile attention of the then-emerging Nazi party.
Liam Bonner sings "Lost in the Stars"
With the rise to power of Hitler, Weill and Lenya were forced to dissolve their union and flee Continental Europe. Weill found his way to New York in 1935; rejoining Lenya, Weill became a citizen and devoted himself to American democracy with a vengeance, preferring his name pronounced like "wile" rather than "vile." After a series of frustrating flops, Weill hit his stride with playwright Maxwell Anderson, producing his first hit, Knickerbocker Holiday (1938).
Frank Sinatra sings "September Song"
In the dozen years left to him, Weill's stature on Broadway grew with a series of hit shows, including Lady in the Dark (1941), One Touch of Venus (1943), Love Life (1948), and Lost in the Stars (1949). Weill had ambitions to create what he regarded as "the first American folk opera"; the closest of his American works to reach that goal is Street Scene (1946), a sort of "urban folk opera" based on a play by Elmer Rice with lyrics by Langston Hughes.
Jorell Williams sings 'I Got a Marble and a Star' from Street Scene
On April 3, 1950, Weill unexpectedly suffered a massive coronary and died in Lenya's arms. Weill's estate was valued at less than 1,000 dollars, and Lenya realized that his contribution to musical theater was likewise undervalued. She commissioned composer Marc Blitzstein to adapt an English-language version of Die Dreigroschenoper; it opened off-Broadway in 1954 and ran for three years, touching off a Weill revival that continues to this day.
A number of his works were scored for baritone including (partial):
- 1923 : Stundenbuch, Lieder cycle for baritone and orchestra, text: Rainer Maria Rilke
- 1928 : Das Berliner Requiem, cantata for tenor, baritone, male chorus (or three male voices) and wind orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht)
-1928 : The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper), Macheath (tenor or baritone), Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, Tiger Brown and numerous smaller roles.
- 1929 : Der Lindberghflug, cantata for tenor, baritone and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra (text: Bertolt Brecht, first version with music by Paul Hindemith and Weill, second version, also 1929, with music exclusively by Weill)
- 1930 : Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Dreieinigkeitsmoses (Trinity Moses), Sparbüchsen Billy (Bank Account Billy) and Alaska Wolf Joe.
- 1947 : Street Scene, Frank Maurrant, George Jones and numerous smaller roles.
David Bowie sings "Moon of Alabama"
Ian Greenlaw sings 'Oh Captain! My Captain!' from Walt Whitman Songs
Songs frequently performed by baritones include (partial):
- Lost In The Stars, F Major, composed by Maxwell Anderson, Kurt Weill, from 'Lost In The Stars'.
- Mack The Knife, C Major, composed by Marc Blitzstein, Kurt Weill, from 'The Threepenny Opera'.
- September Song, C Major, composed by Maxwell Anderson, Kurt Weill, from 'Knickerbocker Holiday'.
- This Is The Life, Eb Major, composed by Maxwell Anderson, Kurt Weill, from 'Love Life'.
- Thousands Of Miles, C Major, composed by Maxwell Anderson, Kurt Weill, from 'Lost In The Stars'.
Gabriel Preisser, Liam Bonner, Mike Nyby, Andrew Wilkowske & Ben Wager
The Minnesota Opera is one of the gems in the landscape of American opera houses. It doesn't always get the national notoriety that it deserves, but within music circles it is known for consistently strong vocal performances and their religious commitment to young artists and living composers.
The Minnesota Opera has premiered Oliver Knussen's "Where the Wild Things Are," Libby Larsen's "Frankenstein," Ricky Ian Gordon's "The Grapes of Wrath," and Bernard Herrmann's sole opera "Wuthering Heights." They've also presented the American premieres of Jonathan Dove's Pinocchio, Poul Ruders' "The Handmaid's Tale," Dominick Argento's "Postcard from Morocco," Rossini's "Armida," Laurent Petitgirard's "The Elephant Man," and Reinhard Keiser's "The Fortunes of King Croesus."
The latest premiere from the Minnesota Opera New Works Initiative is Kevin Puts' "Silent Night," which is based on the screenplay for Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion. The opera recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history. On World War I’s western front, weapons are laid down when the Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they come together to share Christmas and bury their dead. Tenor William Burden, who has a place in barihunk history for starring shirtless opposite of Nathan Gunn in the production that gave rise to the term, stars as the soldier whose voice inspired peace among adversaries – if only for a day.
Canadian Mike Nyby plays Scottish soldier William Dale
The opera contains more sexy men than a World Cup soccer championship. There are four barihunks who have appeared on this site before, including Mike Nyby, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager and Liam Bonner. The world premiere was on Saturday, November 12 and there are additional performances on November 15, 17, 19 and 20, 2011. Visit the Minnesota Opera website for additional performance and ticket information.
Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com
Don't forget that you can support young artists like those performing at the Minnesota Opera by purchasing our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar. All proceeds go to benefit young artists. The calendar features the hottest singers from six countries. Click HERE to purchase your own calendar or make it the perfect holiday gift.
Barihunk Ian Greenlaw has teamed up with soprano Marcy Richardson and the gifted coach and accompanist Jennifer Peterson to produce two nights of Kurt Weill cabaret music. The concerts will take place at the Gershwin Hotel on the next two Fridays, February 11 and 18. Over twenty singers will be performing, including barihunks Liam Bonner and Ross Benoliel.
Liam Bonner
Ross Bonoliel will perform "Unforgettable" and Liam Bonner will sing "Lost in the Stars." For a complete list of artists and songs visit operamission.org.
For those of you outside of the New York area, you'll be able to enjoy the live stream here:
Greenlaw recently made his La Scala debut as the protagonist in Lorin Maazel’s opera 1984. In the 2010-2011 season he participated in New York City Opera’s production of Intermezzo and performed with Opera Columbus in the Kurt Weill Revue ‘Berlin to Broadway.’ He will sing Handel’s Messiah with the Bach Society of Saint Louis on March 13th and will perform Ricky Ian Gordon’s new one-man opera Green Sneakers with the Adelphi String Quartert in the premiere season of Urban Arias in Washington, D.C. Performances will run from April 1-10.
We recently reported on Liam Bonner taking on the role of Zurga in The Pearl Fishers at the New Orleans Opera. We've followed this young singer from success to success, so it was no surprise to us when we read that he stole the show in the exotic Bizet opera.
We did love a comment on our last post that Bonner was clad in "winter clothing" in a role that usually tantalizes with a little skin. I guess folks in the Big Easy will need to head over to Mardi Gras to see some skin.
Here is what the New Orleans Times-Picayune had to say:
The most impressive voice of the night belonged to Zurga, the leader of the tribe, played with flair and majesty by baritone Liam Bonner. This was a classic performance filled with power and lyrical beauty.
You can read the entire review HERE and view more pictures.
The New Orleans Opera production of The Pearl Fishers opens tonight at 8 PM with an additional performance on Sunday, January 30th at 2:30 PM. Barihunk Liam Bonner will sing the role of Zurga opposite hunkentenor William Burden. Visit their website for additional performance information.
Burden's portrayal of Nadir opposite barihunk Nathan Gunn was one of the early success stories on this site. The YouTube video below has over 55,000 hits, which is extraordinary for an opera clip. Our post still generates lots of traffic three years later.
William Burden & Nathan Gunn
We're not sure if the New Orleans production will have the same amount of skin as the famed Philadelphia performance, but we'll be keeping an eye out for photos.
The Baltimore Sun features barihunk Liam Bonner prominently in their article about Thomas'Hamlet at the Washington National Opera. The opera opens on Wednesday, May 19th and runs through June 4th.
The Sun wrote:
Liam Bonner, the vibrant young baritone who will alternate in the title role with Michael Chioldi (both are substitutes for the originally announced Carlos Alvarez), is another admirer of the piece. "I'm not sure why it got lost over the years," Bonner says. "I know a lot of people who are wary of it. But I love it. It's a very challenging work and complex on many levels."
The Metropolitan Opera is about to roll out the sexiest Carmen cast ever, regardless of what night you show up. For Hunkentenor fans Don José will rotate between the ruggedly handsome Brandon Jovanovich, Germany's greatest export Jonas Kaufmann and the recently divorced Roberto Alagna. But check out the low voices:
Escamillo will rotate between Mariusz "The Hot Pole" Kwiecien and "Teddy Bare" Tahu Rhodes. [Top photo of Teddy Tahu Rhodes; Bottom photo of Mariusz Kwiecien]
But the eagle eye in charge of casting at the Met cast barihunks in the smaller roles, as well.
Liam Bonner will be one of the two baritones singing Moralès. Make sure to read the wonderful Opera News feature on him.
But the Met even cast barihunks as Zuniga, rotating ex-jock Keith Miller and Los Angeles Opera's house hunk Richard Bernstein.
Just to make sure that the boys don't get ALL of the attention, one of the Carmen's is the stunningly beautiful Elina Garanca.
On an unrelated note:
Since Matthew Worth's agent doesn't seem to think it's important to post his schedule online, we found his next performance courtesy of a reader. He will be performing the "Glorious Sounds of Christmas" with the Philadelphia Orchestra on December 17, 18 & 19.
