Barihunks Andrew Garland and Craig Irvin in Bolcom world premiere

Craig Irvin and Andrew Garland

Minnesota Opera is presenting the world premiere of William Bolcom's Dinner at Eight as part of their New Works Initiative. The initiative was launched in 2008 with a goal of invigorating the opera repertoire with an infusion of new and contemporary works. The opera, which has a libretto by Mark Campbell is based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. It will have its world premiere on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

Dinner at Eight caught our eye as it has six baritones and basses in the cast, including two of our regularly featured barihunks, Andrew Garland and Craig Irvin. They'll be joined by baritone Stephen Powell, soprano Brenda Harris, soprano Susannh Biller, tenor Richard Troxell, mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, soprano Siena Forest, bass Benjamin Sieverding, baritone Thomas Glass II, baritone William Lee Bryan, mezzo-soprano Nadia Fayad, soprano Alexandra Razskazoff and soprano Mary Evelyn Hangley.

The opera is set in Manhattan during the Great Depression and centers on the tension between a husband coping with financial problems and his wife who is planning an elaborate dinner party for visiting British nobility.

Reader Submission: Barihunk Michael Floriano

Michael Floriano

A reader suggested Rochester, NY native Michael Floriano, who is a 2016 Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Studio Artist at the Central City Opera. He is currently singing Joe in composer John Musto and librettist Mark Campbell's "Later the Same Evening," which has one remaining performance on August 5th in the Gilman Studio. He is also appearing in a number of supporting roles in The Ballad of Baby Doe and Tosca, as well as in Central City Opera’s Short Works scenes program.

The opera "Later the Same Evening" was inspired by Edward Hopper’s classic American paintings, revealing the hope, longing and love of characters in five Hopper paintings as they step out of their frames and come to life one night in 1932 New York. Tickets are available online.

Floriano was a 1st place winner in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist’s Voice Competition, as well as a 2013 finalist in the S. Livingston Mather vocal competition in Cleveland. He is starting his Masters degree in Voice Performance at the University of Michigan in the fall after graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory. You can hear him sing "Donne Mie la fate a Tanti" from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte by clicking here.

He has recently performed Taquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Oberlin Opera Theatre, Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Oberlin in Italy and Anthony in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd with the Janiec Opera Company.