Ernesto Petti to sing Lord Enrico Ashton in Basel

Ernesto Petti (Photos courtesy of singer and Theater Basel)

Italian barihunk Ernesto Petti will take on the role of Lord Enrico Ashton at the Theater Basel beginning on October 19th. The staging will be led by the noted French director, actor and writer Olivier Py. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Make sure to follow him on Facebook. 

Petti answered a few questions about the performance for Theater Basel:

🎵 What is the best part of the stage setting/best part of costume/best prop?

Petti: In my personal opinion the most beautiful scene is the beginning of the opera: The director re-enacts a famous painting from the late 19th century that depicts a medical examination of a woman, who is ill with hysteria, by Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot in front of a medical audience. And I’d like to compliment the costume department for the wonderful costumes. 

🎵 Why shouldn’t one miss this show?

Petti: This show is absolutely not to be missed. The reading of each character is quite profound and the initial point of the director’s interpretation is very interesting: He compares Lucia’s madness to Augustine’s hysteria - one of Charcot’s famous hysteria patients. The staging perfectly follows the magnificent musical interpretation of the conductor. 

That’s why this will be a great show and the audience will love it! 

🎵 What do you do in your free time?

Petti: During my free time I love walking around the city, visiting open spaces like parks or rivers and I also like to do workouts in the gym. Until a few days ago I loved to relax by swimming in the Rhine!

Barihunk duo alternating Raimondo at Opera San José

Colin Ramsey (left) and Kian Freitas (right)

Bass-barihunk Colin Ramsey, who has been featured regularly on this site, will relinquish the final performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera San José to Kian Freitas, who is new to this site. Ramsey will perform the role on September 18 and 23, while Freitas will perform on closing night, September 25. The cast also includes Sylvia Lee as Lucia and Kirk Dougherty as Edgardo. Additional information and tickets are available online.

Other roles Freitas has performed include Ferrando in Il Trovatore with Opera Forza, Angelotti in Tosca at the Martha Cardona Opera Theater, Schaunard in La bohème, both Figaro and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen at NY Opera Exchange, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, as well as Raimondo with the NY Opera Exchange. He created the role of Stefano in the world premiere of La Tempesta, an operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest presented in Italy.

He is also covering the role of the British Major in the West Coast premiere of Kevin Puts's Silent Night for Opera San José. On January 28th, he'll join the South Dakota Symphony as  Leporello in their semi-staged performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Freitas was a participant in the 2015-16 Venture Opera Young Artist Program.

Colin Ramsey will perform Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville with Opera San José beginning on November 12. He then sings Father Palmer in Silent Night with the company, which runs from February 11-26, 2017.

Opera San José adds two barihunks to repertory roster

Colin Ramsey (Photo by Richard Corman)

Opera San José is adding four new singers to its roster for the 2016-17 season, including barihunks Brian James Meyer and Colin Ramsey. Ramsey is familiar to our readers, having appeared numerous times, but Meyer is making his debut. The company is a resident company that keeps singers on its roster for the season like many European houses.

However, Brian James Myer is not new to Opera San José, having performed Masetto in Don Giovanni during the 2013-14 season, Angelotti in Tosca in 2015-16 season, Alessandro/Enrico in the world premiere of Where Angels Fear to Tread and the Second Priest in The Magic Flute.

Meyer made his debut with the Florida Grand Opera this season. He has also performed Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with Sarasota Opera, Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni Opera Las Vegas, Yakuside in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Albert in Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe with Chautauqua Opera. This season at Florida Grand Opera, he will be seen as Figaro in performances of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

Brian James Myer

He holds a bachelors’ degrees in music education and romance languages from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a master’s degree in vocal performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is also a composer who has published a choral octavo that was performed by Santa Barbara Music.

Bass-barihunk Colin Ramsey will be performing Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Basilio in Rossini's Barber of Seville with Opera San José. On May 22, he'll be performing the National Anthem at the USA Water Polo Olympic Trials at the University of Southern California. 

Colin Ramsey sings the Catalog Aria from Don Giovanni:

He has performed Mr. Kofner in Menotti's The Consul at both the Seattle Opera and Opera Santa Barbara. He made his debut with the Austin Lyric Opera as Il Frate in Verdi's Don Carlo, as well as his debut with Green Mountain Opera Festival as Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola. He has also performed with Austin Lyric Opera, Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Pacific Music Works, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. and Wolf Trap Opera.

Ramsey is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music where he sang Giorgio in the US Premiere of Paisiello’s Nina, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.  He recently took 3rd Prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Rocky Mountain Region.

John Taylor Ward as Aeneas with Heartbeat Opera

John Ward Taylor (left) and as Aeneas with Carla Jablonski as Dido (right)

John Taylor Ward will be appearing as Aeneas with Heartbeat Opera. The company, along with Cantata Profana, has reimagined productions of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

Lucia di Lammermoor has been condensed to 90 minutes so that it can be performed as a double-bill with Dido and Aeneas. You can see them individually or together on March 12, 16 and 20 at the Theater at St. Clement’s in New York City. You can see individual performances of Lucia on March 18 and of Dido on March 11 and 19. Tickets and additional information is available online.

John Taylor Ward sings Monteverdi with Voices of Music:

John Taylor Ward was born into a musical family in Boone, North Carolina that featured bluegrass and Broadway tunes. He is also the associate artistic director of the Lakes Area Music Festival.

Ward's Carnegie Hall debut, singing Schütz’s Fili mi Absalon, was listed among Superconductor’s best concerts of 2012, and, in the realm of vocal chamber music, he has made numerous appearances with the eight-voice ensemble Roomful of Teeth, whose debut album recently topped many 2013 album-of-the-year lists, including WNYC’s Soundcheck. As a founding member of the New Haven-based Cantata Profana, Taylor recently performed Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ 8 Songs for a Mad King.

Video of Zachary Gordin's master class

Zachary Gordin teaching at the College of the Sequoias (left) and as he appears in our calendar

We recently awarded Center Stage Opera in the Los Angeles area and barihunk Zachary Gordin our first grant from our 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar. Gordin is currently performing Count Almaviva in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with the Visalia Opera Company. Performances are running from November 8-10 and tickets are only $25 for adults and $15 for students. They can be purchased online.


Our grant was to pay for Gordin to work with young singers in master classes with Center Stage Opera. He's also getting a chance to work with young singers at the College of the Sequoias and we have some video to share with you. You can see why he's the perfect candidate for our first grant, which helps both his career and a bunch of aspiring young singers.

Gordin, who started his career as a countertenor, performed his first baritone role with Center Stage Opera in 2005 - Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.  He has maintained an artistic association with them ever since. The company will use the Barihunks grant to bring Gordin back for his third master class with young artists.

We hope to have some additional video for you then.

You can buy your 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar by clicking HERE.

A 40th Birthday Tribute to Mariusz Kwiecien

Mariusz Kwiecien (photo: Mikołaj Mikołajczyk)

Few singers are more popular on this site than Polish barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien. He was also one of the early inspirations for this site along with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Erwin Schrott. He's developed a cult following with opera fans around the world and today we're celebrating his 40th birthday. Like Simon Keenlyside and Thomas Hampson, he seems to get better with every passing year. As regular readers of this site know, we've dubbed him "The Hot Pole."

Mariusz Kwiecien (photo: Mikołaj Mikołajczyk) & in King Roger

Kwiecien has a long history with New York, beginning with his participation in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and then becoming one of the biggest box office draws at the Metropolitan Opera. During the 2011/12  Met season, he amazed everyone with his resilience when he returned to take on the demanding title role of  Don Giovanni after injuring his back in rehearsals. The performance was also broadcast live in HD worldwide. He sang Belcore in Donizetti's L’Elisir d’Amore to open the Met’s current season, which was also broadcast worldwide. 

Mariusz Kwiecien sings Onegin's aria:

Kwiecien is probably best known for his sensuous and sexually charged portrayal of Don Giovanni. In this golden age of baritones, he's considered one of the two or three best exponents of the role. He's also made his mark in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, as Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Riccardo in Bellini's I puritani, Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore, Marcello in Puccini's La bohème and the title role in Szymanowski's King Roger.

Watch Kwiecien in the complete opera King Roger:

Kwiecien can next be seen later this month in King Roger at Ópera de Bilbao.

Many of his performances have been preserved on DVD including his stunning Eugene Onegin from the Bolshoi Opera and Met broadcasts of Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore and Lucia di Lammermoor. His new recording of “Slavic Heroes” is arguably one of the best recordings of Eastern European arias on CD.

To enjoy hot singers all year, make sure to purchase our 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar. Singers like Mariusz Kwiecien honed their skills in young artist programs and all proceeds from the calendar will go to similar programs. Click on the blue button to buy NOW.

Mariusz Kwiecien Stars In Two Met HD Broadcasts

Mariusz Kwiecien as the title character of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”

Photo: Nick Heavican/Metropolitan Opera

On Wednesday night, the Metropolitan Opera launched their latest installment of the Live in HD broadcasts to hundreds of movie theaters across the United States with Donizetti's Anna Bolena.

There are five more broadcasts and two feature barihunk mega-star Mariusz Kwiecien, who will be seen in June 27th performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni and the July 18th performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The Don Giovanni is a barihunk lovers dream cast, as it also includes Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Aussie Joshua Bloom as Masetto. The Lucia performance will feature Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala as the ill-fated lovers.

Mariusz Kwiecien and Luca Pisaroni (Leporello) in the Met's Mozart's "Don Giovanni"

Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Additional broadcasts include Anna Netrebko in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann on July 11th,  hunkentenor Juan Diego Flórez in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory on June 20th and Renée Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier on July 25th.

All screenings will begin at 6:30 p.m. local time. You can click HERE to find the theater closest to you.

Fans of Kwiecien should be reminded that he'll be in Santa Fe performing Karol Szymanowski King Roger from July 21 through August 14th. Check out the Santa Fe Opera website to watch Kwiecien discuss the opera or to purchase tickets.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Opera News features Christian Van Horn

Christian Van Horn (Photo © Brian Kuhlmann 2012)

Christian Van Horn has a leading man's energetic charm and dashing good looks — virtues that were kept somewhat under wraps this past fall, when he was singing Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Crespel in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Turandot's Timur at San Francisco Opera. "When I show up for a job and go to have a wig fitting, I can always spot mine — it's the gray one, and it usually has a long, gray beard to go with it." Van Horn has a fair amount of practice playing older men: during his two full seasons as a contract artist at Bayerische Staatsoper, his seventeen roles included a run as Edita Gruberova's father in Norma, an experience he says was "kind of like singing with Angelina Jolie, because [Gruberova] is so wildly famous there. The applause after the show would last for an hour sometimes, and the crowds of people waiting for her outside the theater were unbelievable."

[Read the entire feature at the Opera News website]


F. PAUL DRISCOLL

You can subscribe to Opera News at their website. 

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Don't forget to buy Randal Turner's CD. He's currently starring in Rufus Wainwright's "Prima Donna" at 

New York City Opera

Lee Poulis as Enrico (Photo by Rod Millington/Sarasota Opera)

Sometimes the sexiest pictures don't show any skin at all. This photo of Lee Poulis as Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Sarasota is a great example of someone cutting a sexy figure in a period costume with lots of fabric.

The production opened on February 18th, but there are additional performances on February 23, 26 and March 2, 7, 9, 17 and 23. Visit the Sarasota Opera website for ticket information.

The sextet from Lucia at the Met with barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien and Anna Netrebko:

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Opening Night at Dallas Opera (and Houston, Syracuse and in one week, Knoxville)

Luca Grassi & Elena Mosuc

The Dallas Opera is kicking of its 2011-2012 “Tragic Obsessions” season tonight with Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." The evening will include red carpet arrivals and a sumptuous post-opera black tie reception.

The big news for us is the long-awaited American operatic debut of Italian barihunk Luca Grassi. We've been pleading for someone to hire this amazing performer for years, so kudos to the Dallas Opera. He's a major talent and sure to be a hit with U.S. audiences with his raw sexual appeal and rich, lusterous baritone.

Grassi won the City of Rome competition and made his debut there as Germont in La traviata. He appeared at the reopening of the Gran teatro La Fenice in Venice as Germont in "La traviata." He has been a regular guest at the Festival della Valle d’Itria where he has sung the title roles in Massenet’s "Werther" (Baritone version) and Piccini’s "Roland" as well as Saint-Bris in "Les Huguenots." Upcoming engagements include Renato in "Un ballo in maschera"; Ezio in "Attila" in St. Gallen, "La traviata" in Leipzig, Florence and Montreal; and "Carmen" in Las Palmas.



Ticket for the remaining performances are available at the Dallas Opera website. For those who can't get tickets, the Dallas Opera in partnership with AT&T Performing Arts Center will present a free, live simulcast of the evening’s performance in Sammons Park. The simulcast will include English language subtitles.

You can read an interview with Luca Grassi at the Theater Jones website.  

Opening Night Hunks: Nathan Gunn, Mark Womack & Jonathan Boehr

It's also opening night at the Houston Grand Opera and the Syracuse Opera. Houston is performing Rossini's "Barber of Seville" with fan favorite Nathan Gunn as the Barber and Kyle Ketelsen as Don Basilio. We should also mention that the Houston Culture Map wrote a nice piece on Nathan Gunn that included a lovely mention of Barihunks (although we don't think of ourselves as a bit"hilarious")

We've already reported on Jonathan Boehr being part of the Syracuse Opera's performance of Verdi's "La traviata," but it's certainly worth a reminder.

We should also mention the Knoxville Opera opening night festivities begin in one week with a "La traviata" that included Mark Womack.

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Christian Van Horn's Breakout Performance in Chicago

Christian Van Horn backstage as Raimondo

Andrew Patner of the Chicago Sun-Times has highlighted the performance of barihunk Christian Van Horn in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." It's not often that the character of Raimondo gets singled out, but anyone who has seen the towering Van Horn or heard his incredible voice, knows that he has a way of standing out in a crowd. Here is what Patner wrote:

The breakout performance here was from another Lyric alum, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, as the meddling tutor Raimondo who probably thinks that he’s truly helping Lucia. With both the restored Act 2 aria and especially later with the chilling “Dalle stanze ove Lucia,” announcing to the wedding party Lucia’s murder of the man she was forced to marry, Van Horn made good on the promise he showed during his Ryan years. [Read the entire review HERE].

There are seven performances remaining through November 5th. Visit the Lyric Opera of Chicago website for tickets and performance information.  

Here is Van Horn performing in "Romeo and Juliet" in Salzburg:



After his run of Lucia's, Van Horn heads west to the San Francisco Opera to sing Timur in the company's stunning David Hockney production of Turandot with another breakout performance, the Liu of soprano Leah Crocetto. 

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Dallas Opera Announces That Luca Grassi To (Finally) Make U.S. Debut

Luca Grassi

We've been singing the praises of Luca Grassi since the inception of this site in 2007. It's amazing to us that no American opera house has engaged this compelling singer and actor until now. The Dallas Opera in announcing their 2011-2012 is trumpeting the debut of the hunky Italian as their Lord Ashton in the company's revival of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor."

Lucia di Lammermoor will open at the beautiful Winspear Opera house on October 21st and run through November 6th. The Dallas Opera will also perform Tristan und Isolde, The Magic Flute and La Traviata. For additional cast and performance information, please visit their website. 

Grassi, who originally trained to be an engineer, can next be seen in Leipzig's "La Traviata" 

Luca Grassi in St. Gallen's "Lucia" from 2007:



By the way, we loved that the Dallas Opera gave a shout out to Barihunks in their press release announcing their new season!

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Mariusz Kwiecien's Enrico

We thought it would be fun to showcase Mariusz Kwiecien's definitive Enrico from "Lucia di Lammermoor" with two different tenors, Piotr Beczala and Giuseppe Filianoti. We'd like to know which tenor you'd prefer to hear opposite Kwiecien, so make sure to vote in our poll. You can leave comments below. (By the way, Barihunks readers voted Don Giovanni as their favorite Mozart opera by one vote over the Marriage of Figaro).

Here he is with Beczala:



Here he is with Filianoti:



Just for fun, here is the famours sextet from "Lucia di Lammermoor" taken from the Metropolitan Opera broadcast with Anna Netrebko, Giuseppe Filianoti, Mariusz Kwiecien, Ildar Abdrazakov, Colin Lee and Micaela Martens.



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Natalie Dessay Interviews Kwiecien & Abdrazakov

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Christopher Bolduc as Enrico

Christopher Bolduc must be a nice guy, as his colleagues at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts are always eager to apprise us of his latest conquests. Here is a video and photo of the young barihunk performing Enrico in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." Bolduc is definitely one of the new group of singers who look as good as they sound. This video shows his enormous potential.

As usual, Ft. Worth Opera wasted no time is scooping up yet another barihunk, as he's scheduled to sing Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore in the Texas city in the near future. He will also be performong Schaunard in La Boheme at the Palm Beach Opera. Rumor has it that he's also working on Marcello in the same opera for an unveiling in the not too distant future.

We're hoping for some more barihunk roles like Zurga or Tarquinius. Any impressarios out there casting those roles?

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Mariusz Kwiecien sings "Cruda, funesta smania"

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Hot Pole Dancing in NY

Mariusz "Hot Pole" Kwiecien is burning up the stage as Marcello at the Met dancing and singing with his friends Colline, Schaunard and Rodolfo in La Boheme. He'll continue at the Met in Lucia di Lammermoor before returning to Poland and the barihunk role that he would own were it not for Erwin Schrott: Don Giovanni.

Above is a picture of him performing Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House in London and two pictures of him enjoying New York.

Tickets for La Boheme at the Met can be purchased at http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/single/reserve.aspx?perf=10017

You can contact this site at barihunks@gmail.com

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A Barihunk Before My Very Eyes

I love the San Francisco Opera, but I'm always a little critical of them for not hiring better looking baritones. Other opera companies on the Left Coast seem to have no problem, most notably the Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, Los Angeles Opera and, of course, the Sante Fe Opera (who remain in the barihunk stratosphere unchallenged).

Gabriele Viviani is an Italian baritone making his American debut in this production. He hails from Puccini's hometown of Lucca and regularly sings Marcello in La Boheme. So far, he has no real barihunk roles under his belt, but maybe he'll come back to SF Opera as Don Giovanni or Zurga in Pearl Fishers.

I saw the final dress rehearsal of SF Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor and my friends were all commenting about how cute tenor Andrew Bidlack was. It wasn't until I saw Lucia broadcast on the JumboTron at AT&T Park that I realized our Enrico was quite the barihunk. He does look like a little like a 70s rock star with his long, blonde hair, but who cares.