Luis Alejandro Orozco reprising El Payador at Arizona Opera

Luis Alejandro Orozco as El Payador (Photo right: C. Stanley)

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco will be reprising the role of El Payador (the gaucho minstrel) in Astor Piazzolla's tango infused opera Maria de Buenos Aires at the Arizona Opera. Orozco will be joining forces with director John de los Santos, both of whom have become closely associated with this opera. Orozco has performed the lead role in Lexington, Miami, New Orleans, Fort Worth, Mill City Summer Opera and Nashville.

Performance in Phoenix will be on September 28, 29 and 30, with additional performances in Tucson on October 6 and 7. Tickets are available online.

The opera opens with Duende (the Narrator) who relates the story of Maria, a prostitute born in the slums “one day when God was drunk … with a curse in her voice.” Maria is seduced by the rhythms of the tango and soon becomes “the most sorcerous singer and lover” in Buenos Aires. However, her “fatal passion” arouses the wrath of robbers and brothel madams who shoot her to death, and bury her in an unmarked grave. In death, Maria is pulled into a dreamlike Hell where she encounters the choral circus of psychoanalysts who dissect her to the core. She makes a resurrection of sorts when the Duende summons her to return as a Shadow, give birth to a new Maria, and haunt the sordid streets of Buenos Aires which she once walked.

The opera has become popular in Germany, where is has been performed in apparently every city that starts with the letter "B": Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Biel, Bremen and coming to Bremerhaven in April 2019.

A clip of Luis Alejandro Orozco as El Payador:

Unlike most who contributed to the origins and development of the tango, Piazzolla came from a different background. He was a classically trained, refined musician and composer. Piazzolla undoubtedly made tango available to a wider audience and helped extend its boundaries, both stylistically and geographically. For that, he was equally admired and criticized, but it is almost universally recognized that Piazzolla’s style lent tango worldwide cultural legitimacy, even in what is known as the realm of “classical” music.

Luis Alejandro Orozco and Catalina Cuervo (Photo: Jeff Roffman)

Besides being an extraordinarily talented composer, he was also an exceptional bandoneon player. Piazzolla drew from classical and contemporary sources as well as from the deep roots of tango, creating a powerful synthesis that propelled it from being in some regards a thing of the past to a contemporary language, reinvigorating the style. 

Luis Alejandro Orozco was born in El Paso Texas, but raised in Juarez, Mexico for most of his life. He has performed with such companies as Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, El Paso Opera and the Seoul International Opera Festival in South Korea.

Paul La Rosa in tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires

Paul La Rosa rehearsing Maria de Buenos Aires in San Diego (Photo: Angel Mannion)

Barihunk Paul La Rosa will taking on the role of El Payador (the gaucho minstrel) in Astor Piazzolla's tango infused opera Maria de Buenos Aires. The San Diego Opera is presenting four performances of the increasingly popular piece between January 26-28, with a 7 PM and 10 PM curtain on the 27th. Tickets are available online.

The opera will be directed by John de los Santos, who has directed the piece throughout the country, and will direct it again with barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco at the Fort Worth Opera Festival from April 27 and May 5. Paul La Rosa's tango partner will be soprano Aubrey Babcock.

The opera opens with Duende (the Narrator) who relates the story of Maria, a prostitute born in the slums “one day when God was drunk … with a curse in her voice.” Maria is seduced by the rhythms of the tango and soon becomes “the most sorcerous singer and lover” in Buenos Aires. However, her “fatal passion” arouses the wrath of robbers and brothel madams who shoot her to death, and bury her in an unmarked grave. In death, Maria is pulled into a dreamlike Hell where she encounters the choral circus of psychoanalysts who dissect her to the core. She makes a resurrection of sorts when the Duende summons her to return as a Shadow, give birth to a new Maria, and haunt the sordid streets of Buenos Aires which she once walked.

Director John de los Santos talks about Maria de Buenos Aires:

Unlike most who contributed to the origins and development of the tango, Piazzolla came from a different background. He was a classically trained, refined musician and composer. Piazzolla undoubtedly made tango available to a wider audience and helped extend its boundaries, both stylistically and geographically. For that, he was equally admired and criticized, but it is almost universally recognized that Piazzolla’s style lent tango worldwide cultural legitimacy, even in what is known as the realm of “classical” music.

Besides being an extraordinarily talented composer, he was also an exceptional bandoneon player. Piazzolla drew from classical and contemporary sources as well as from the deep roots of tango, creating a powerful synthesis that propelled it from being in some regards a thing of the past to a contemporary language, reinvigorating the style.

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco makes his Nashville debut

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco, who has made El Payador in Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires his signature role, will return to the role for what he estimates to be the fifteenth time. The Mexican-American barihunk will make his company debut with the role at the Nashville Opera from November 10-12.

Despite its reputation as the Capital of Country Music, it appears that this night of Argentinian opera and dance is the hottest ticket in town, as all three performances are sold out. However, there is a wait list that you can get on.

The production will be directed by John Hoomes and will feature Argentine dancers Mariela Barufaldi and Jeremías Massera (founders of Miami's Tango Axis Argentine Tango School) along with bandoneón player Rodolfo Zanetti and soprano Cassandra Zoe Velasco as Maria.

The opera has become popular in Germany, where is has been performed in apparently every city that starts with the letter "B": Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Biel and Bremen. The opera can next be seen at the San Diego Opera with barihunk Paul La Rosa as El Payador from January 26-28 and then at the Fort Worth Opera Festival on April 27 and May 5 (performers have not been announced, but we've learned that it will be Luis Alejandro Orozco). Both productions are directed by John de los Santos.

Malte Roesner, 2018 Barihunks Calendar/Photo Book

Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Luis Alejandro Orozco in Maria de Buenos Aires in New Orleans, Fort Worth

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco, who just performed his signature role of  Payador Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires with Mill City Summer Opera, will reprise the role with the New Orleans Opera's chamber series on September 9 and 10. The special performances will also include dinner and a post-performance tango dance party. 

The production will also feature soprano Catalina Cuervo, Milton Laayza in the role of Duende-Elf and Robert Lyall conducting musicians from the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The piece, which is set in a theater-in-the-round, will be directed by Tomer Zvulun, the artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera.

Orozco will perform the piece again next Spring with the Fort Worth Opera with John de los Santos directing his unforgettable conception. Barihunk Paul La Rosa will be performing Payador with the director at San Diego Opera in January.

Luis Alejandro Orozco makes Florentine Opera debut as Barber

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco will make his Florentine Opera debut in Milwaukee as the title character in Rossini's The Barber of Seville on May 5th and 7th. He'll be joined in the cast by Taylor Stayton as Almaviva, Katrina Thurman as Berta, Peter Volpe as Basilio, Andrew Wilkowske as Bartolo and Spanish mezzo-soprano Carol Garcia making her U.S. debut as Rosina. The production will be conducted by Joseph Rescigno, who is now the longest-serving principal conductor in opera.

Tickets are available online. 

Orozco has racked up a number of other company debuts over the last two year, including with the Arizona Opera, Anchorage Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Michigan Opera Theater, Lyric Opera Baltimore, and Urban Arias. He previously sang the The Barber of Seville with Syracuse Opera.

He returns to his signature role of El Payador in Astor Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires at the Mill City Summer Opera from July 14-20. Tickets go on sale on May 8th.

Orozco Hailed in Piazolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires"

Luis Alejandro Orozco

One more reason that we love our Reader Submissions is that we end up following careers as they breakthrough with major successes. The latest example is the hunky Luis Alejandro Orozco who thrived in a production of Astor Piazolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires" by the gifted young director John De Los Santos.

The Lexington Herald-Leader wrote:

In the part of the Payador, Maria’s lover and would-be savior, Luis Alejandro Orozco wields his strong, plangent baritone voice with tender artistry and also cuts a figure of rare physical beauty. His interaction with the utility players, effectively undertaken by Andrew McKinnon, Alexis Slocum and Josh Stone, fairly bristle with dramatic truth.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/02/2500437/review-with-maria-lexington-philharmonic.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

You can read the entire review online. 

There are performance remaining today and tomorrow and tickets are available online. Orozco will next perform the role at the Florida Grand Opera on Thursday March 21th, 22nd, 23rd and 24th. He can next be seen as Le Podestat in Bizet's rarely performed opérette Le Docteur Miracle at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music on February 15th - 17th. He will also cover the role of Young Emile in the new Terence Blanchard opera featuring fellowing barihunk Aubrey Allicock, which we've posted previously.

You can hear audio samples of Luis Alejandro Orozco on his website.  

Director John De Los Santos will be joining forces with yet another barihunk when he directs the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers." If you're anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area, you want want to miss this "one night only" performance featuring Jesse Blumberg in Gordon's masterful mini-opera. Tickets are available online at the Fort Mason box office.

Luis Alejandro Orozco in Piazzolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires" in Lexington and Miami

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco will be performing Astor Piazzolla's tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires in both Lexington and Miami. We introduced him to readers last summer after a reader tip.

His first performances will be February 1-3 at the Black Box Theater in Lexington, Kentucky. The performance features the Lexington Philharmonic with mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian and narrator Enrique Andrade. We're particularly excited because John De Los Santos, our "Best Director" from our "Best of Barihunks 2011" list will be directing. De Los Santos will also be directing the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers," which we recently posted about.

Luis Alejandro Orozco sings "Deh, vieni alla finestra" from Don Giovanni:

Piazzolla’s style, now known as nuevo tango, was initially rebuffed, but later caused a resurgence of popularity in Argentinean tango and Piazzolla’s music. Using two singers and a narrator, the audience is lead through the story, as characters shift and Maria dies and her spirit confronts her life in the streets of Buenos Aires. It is an allegorical tale of Maria and her life, which is the spirit of tango, death and resurrection.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Lexington Philharmonic box office at 859-233-4226 or visiting their website.

Hot directorial talents: John De Los Santos and José Maria Condemi

Orozco will reprise his performance from March 21-24 at the Florida Grand Opera. Maria will be performed by Catalina Cuervo and the piece will be directed by José Maria Condemi, another director whose work has been impressing us. He's currently directing Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas at the Utah Opera with barihunk Nmon Ford.

Tickets for Maria de Buenos Aires are available online.

Luis Alejandro Orozco was born in El Paso Texas, but raised in Juarez, Mexico for most of his life. Orozco is currently an artist diploma candidate at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He has performed with such companies as Lake George Opera (Saratoga Opera), Des Moines Metro Opera, El Paso Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

Teatro di Capua's trailer of Maria de Buenos Aires: