Barihunks prominent in Boston Lyric Opera's new season

Duncan Rock as Tarquinius

The Boston Lyric Opera has announced their 2018-2019, which focuses on operas about strong women, inspired by stories of women, and led by women directors. They also add a few barihunks to the mix!

The season kicks off from October 12-21 with Rossini's classic opera The Barber of Seville, directed by Rosetta Cucchi and starring barihunk Matthew Worth in the title role alongside the amazing mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Rosina. The cast is rounded out by Jesus Garcia as Almaviva and David Crawford as Basilio.

Next up is the world premiere of Tod Machover’s and Simon Robson’s Schoenberg in Hollywood, part of the company's New Works commissioning series. The opera is about the composer’s struggle to assimilate into American culture after fleeing Nazi Europe and maintaining his artistic integrity amidst the lure of celebrity.

Brandon Cedel and David Cushing

That will be followed by Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, a timely opera for the #MeToo era, as rape and issues about male sexual aggression were not discussed when the composer wrote the piece. For that reason, the opera’s sensitivity to Lucretia’s experience, and her husband’s response is both prescient and uncomfortably familiar. The opera will feature the barihunk trio of Duncan Rock as Tarquinius, Brandon Cedel as Collatinus, and David McFerrin as Junius. They'll be joined by Kelley O’Connor as Lucretia, Nancy Maultsby as Bianca and Jesse Darden and Antonia Tamer as the Male Chorus and Female Chorus. Performances run from March 11-17, 2019.

Duncan Rock sings Tarquinius' aria from The Rape of Lucretia:

The season ends with Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid’s Tale directed by Anne Bogart and with new orchestrations. The story centers around Offred, one woman out of many who were stripped of her name, identity, and personhood by a cruel and oppressive government regime. The seem also seems prescient for today's political climate.

The piece features bass-barihunk David Cushing, along with Jennifer Johnson Cano as Offred, Caroline Worra as Aunt Lydia, Maria Zifchak as Serena Joy and Matthew DiBattista as The Doctor.

Additional information about the season can be found at www.BLO.org.

Barihunk duo to reprise JFK in Canadian premiere

Daniel Okulitch and Matthew Worth

Opéra de Montréal will present the Canadian premiere of composer David T. Little and Alberta-born librettist Royce Vavrek's “JFK". The opera will star two of the world's most popular barihunks in the lead roles: Matthew Worth, who takes on JFK and Daniel Okulitch, who portrays LBJ. Worth shares both the good looks and New England charm of our 35th President, while Okulitch matches the Vice President's imposing 6' 4" frame.

The duo premiered the piece at the Fort Worth Opera Festival in April 2016 to great acclaim. They'll be joined by many of the same cast members, including mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Jackie Kennedy, soprano Talise Trevigne as the housekeeper Clara Harris and the agent of fate Clotho, tenor Sean Panikkar as the secret service agent Henry Rathbone and the agent of fate Lachesis and Cree Carrico as Rosemary Kennedy.

Musical excerpts from JFK:

JFK delves into the hours President John F. Kennedy spent in Fort Worth, Texas immediately before his assassination in Dallas. The opera explores the subconscious of this complicated couple, examining their physical and emotional pain, their joy and love, and their metamorphosis into American myth.

Opéra de Montréal co-commissioned the piece with the Fort Worth Opera and the American Lyric Theater. The opera opens on January 27, 2018 and runs through February 3, 2018. Tickets are available online.

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!

JFK opera debuts in Fort Worth with barihunk duo

Daniela Mack and Matthew Worth in JFK (Photo: Allison V. Smith NY Times)

The Fort Worth Opera, in collaboration with the American Lyric Theater, debuted JFK tonight, about the final twelve hours of President John F. Kennedy's life. The opera will star two of the world's most popular barihunks in the lead roles: Matthew Worth takes on JFK and Daniel Okulitch portrays LBJ. Worth shares both the good looks and New England charm of our 35th President, while Okulitch matches the Vice President's 6' 4" frame.

LBJ (left) and Daniel Okulitch in Brokeback Mountain

Joining them in the cast will be the amazing mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Jackie Kennedy, Talise Trevigne as hotel maid Clara Harris, hunkentenor Sean Panikkar as JFK's secret service agent and confidant Henry Rathbone, Cree Carrico as Rosemary Kennedy and Katharine Goeldner as Jackie Onassis. The opera was written by composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek, who collaborated on the critically acclaimed opera Dog Days in 2012. Additional performance will be on May 1 and 7 and tickets are available online.

 "Spin, Measure Cut" from a workshop for the opera JFK:  

The Fort Worth Opera is a fitting setting for the premiere of JFK, as it's the last place that the President slept before being gunned down in Dallas. JFK left the Hotel Texas (now the Fort Worth Hilton) on the rain-soaked morning of November 22, 1963, and spoke to thousands who had waited in the rain to hear him speak. Those remarks were to be his final public speech.

Matthew Worth to star in Southeast premiere of Soldier Songs

David Adam Moore in Soldier Songs

Matthew Worth will take on David T. Little's Soldier Songs in a new production at the Atlanta Opera, which has previously been performed by fellow barihunks David Adam Moore in New York and Christopher Burchett in Fargo. The production is part of the new Atlanta Opera Discoveries series and will be Southeast premiere of the work. The performances will run from November 11-15 and tickets are available online.

The production is being done by the art/media collective,GLMMR, with sets, costumes, video by David Adam Moore's partner Vita Tzykun and lighting by Max Bowman. The director will be Tomer Zvulun who is the first veteran to be creatively involved with the show. He was a combat medic in the Israel Defense Forces. 

Soldier Songs is an evening-length multimedia event that combines elements of theater, opera, rock-infused-concert music, and animation to explore the perceptions versus the realities of the Soldier, the exploration of loss and exploitation of innocence, and the difficulty of expressing the truth of war. The libretto was adapted from recorded interviews with veterans of five wars. 

In December, Worth will return to his native New England to perform Joyful Voices with the Hartford Symphony and Chorale. The performance includes music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, excerpts from Handel's Messiah and Fauré's Requiem in D minor, Op. 48. He'll be joined by soprano Melody Moore.

MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGER FROM 9 COUNTRIES.

Matt Worth sings Bernstein in a castle

Matt Worth and the Castello di Amorosa

Barihunk Matt Worth will be singing Sam in Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti with the Festival del Sole in California's Napa Valley on Thursday, July 17th.

This is the Festival's first full-length production of an opera and it will be performed at the majestic Castello di Amorosa, an authentically-styled 13th century Tuscan castle and winery. The castle sits on over thirty acres of estate vineyards and was built over the course of fourteen years by Dario Sattui, a fourth-generation winemaker.  The 121,000 sq ft castle boasts 8 levels, 5 towers, and 107 rooms, 95 of which are used for making or storing wine.

Samuel de Beck Spitzer sings "There are laws about men" from Trouble in Tahiti:

Leonard Bernstein was on his honeymoon in 1951 when he began composing his one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, a candid portrait of the troubled marriage of a young suburban couple. Written between his biggest Broadway successes— On the Town in 1944 and Candide and West Side Story in 1956 and 1957, respectively— Trouble in Tahiti draws upon popular songs styles to deliver an uncompromising critique of post-war American materialism. Beneath the couple's marital discord is a profound longing for love and intimacy. Their spiritual emptiness, in contrast to a veneer of happy consumerism, creates the heart of the drama and is emphasized by sudden stylistic shifts in the music.

The opera focuses in on the domestic conflict of Sam and Dinah, a young couple who, in contrast to the perfect picture of suburban life painted by the Trio, are desperately unhappy. Starting with an argument over breakfast, the piece explores a day in their life—Sam's as a successful businessman, and Dinah's as a frustrated housewife.

Bernstein dedicated the piece to his close friend Marc Blitzstein, who had led him toward music theater. Tickets for Trouble in Tahiti are available online.

Matt Worth to star in premiere of The Manchurian Candidate

Matt Worth to star in The Manchurian Candidate

Matt Worth, who is currently performing Starbuck in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick with the Washington National Opera, will star in the world premiere of Kevin Puts' The Manchurian Candidate, the third commission of the Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative. This is second opera from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, who debuted Silent Night with the company, which was broadcast on PBS and is being revived at the Fort Worth Opera Festival this spring.

The opera is based on a 1959 novel by Richard Condon, which inspired two film adaptations. In the story, Major Ben Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw and the rest of their infantry platoon are kidnapped during the Korean War and brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat - for which Congress awards him the Medal of Honor. Years after the war, Marco begins having a recurring nightmare about Shaw murdering two of their men while under observation by Chinese and Soviet officials. When Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon also has been suffering the same nightmare, he determines to solve the mystery. They discover that the Communists have been using Shaw as a sleeper agent, a guiltless assassin subconsciously activated while playing solitaire to obey orders. Shaw's KGB handler is his mother Eleanor, a ruthless power broker working with the Communists to quietly overthrow the U.S. government and establish her husband, the McCarthy-esque Senator Johnny Iselin, as a puppet dictator.

 Matt Worth sings "A sermon about doubt" from Douglas Cuomo's Doubt:

Così fan tutte, 2011; Doubt, 2013) will create the role of Sergeant Raymond Shaw
Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Minnesota-Operas-20142015-Season-Includes-HANSEL-AND-GRETEL-THE-ELIXIR-OF-LOVE-and-More-20140220#scjseCsjIKXk3PM8.99

Così fan tutte, 2011; Doubt, 2013) will create the role of Sergeant Raymond Shaw
Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Minnesota-Operas-20142015-Season-Includes-HANSEL-AND-GRETEL-THE-ELIXIR-OF-LOVE-and-More-20140220#scjseCsjIKXk3PM8.99

Così fan tutte, 2011; Doubt, 2013) will create the role of Sergeant Raymond Shaw
Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Minnesota-Operas-20142015-Season-Includes-HANSEL-AND-GRETEL-THE-ELIXIR-OF-LOVE-and-More-20140220#scjseCsjIKXk3PM8.99

Worth, who previously received rave reviews with the company as Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and as Father Flynn in the world premiere of Douglas Cuomo's Doubt, will take on the critical role of Sergeant Raymond Shaw. He'll be joined by soprano Brenda Harris as Eleanor Iselin and bass Daniel Sumegi as Senator Johnny Iselin.

soprano Brenda Harris (Macbeth and The Dream of Valentino, 2014) will sing the role of Eleanor Iselin opposite bass Daniel Sumegi (The Flying Dutchman, 2003) as Senator Johnny Iselin. Kevin Newbury (Doubt) directs and Music Director Michael Christie conducts this Minnesota Opera New Works Initiative production.
Read more at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Minnesota-Operas-20142015-Season-Includes-HANSEL-AND-GRETEL-THE-ELIXIR-OF-LOVE-and-More-20140220#scjseCsjIKXk3PM8.99

Performances will run from March 7-14, 2015