Blake Denson and Xiaomeng Zhang advance to Met Finals

Blake Denson and Xiaomeng Zhang

Two baritones have reached the finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Blake Denson and Xiaomeng Zhang will join mezzo-sopranos Gabrielle Beteag and Lindsay Kate Brown; sopranos Chasiti Lashay, Jana McIntyre, Alexandria Shiner, and Denis Vélez; as well as tenor Jonah Hoskins.

The final round of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions will take place on the Met stage on March 1, 2020. 

This year’s semifinalists were chosen from more than 1,000 singers who participated in auditions held in 40 districts throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, and who then competed in the 12 regional finals.

The finalist will have a week of training with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Grand Finals Concert. Each finalist will sing two arias on the Metropolitan Opera stage. Tenor Javier Camarena will perform for the audience while the judges deliberate. Following the performance, the winners will be announced, each of whom will receive a cash prize of $15,000 and career-making exposure.

Blake Denson began his musical life as a percussionist in the Paducah Tilghman High School band. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with his Bachelor of Music in Voice before heading to Rice University to attain his Masters degree in vocal performance.

Chinese baritone Xiaomeng Zhang completed his Artist Diploma at Juilliard and was a participant in San Francisco’s 2018 Merola Opera Program. He was also a national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2018.

Five low male voice in Metropolitan Opera semi-finals

Baritone Xiaomeng Zhang

There will be two baritone, two bass-baritones and a bass among the 23 singers chosen to compete in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions semi-finals. They will move on to a closed competition on Monday, February 24 for the chance to advance to the Grand Finals on March 1st conducted by Bertrand de Billy.

The low male voices include Brent Michael Smith, bass-baritones Joel Allison and Ben Brady, as well as baritones Blake Denson and Xiaomeng Zhang. The remaining competitors includes sopranos Erika Baikoff, Claire de Monteil,  Cara Gabrielson, Courtney Johnson, Chasiti Lashay, Jana McIntyre, Whitney Morrison, Alexandria Shiner, Denis Vélez and Suzannah Waddington; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Gabrielle Beteag, Lindsay Kate Brown and Katherine DeYoung; countertenor Key’mon Murrah; and, tenors Jonah Hoskins, Joseph Leppek and Joshua Sanders.

Met Opera 2020 semi-finalists

This year’s semifinalists were chosen from more than 1,000 singers who participated in auditions held in 40 districts throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, and who then competed in the 12 regional finals. These auditions are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council and administered by National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the country.

Brent Michael Smith performs "I'm a Lonely Man" from Susannah:

The singers who advance to the Grand Finals will have a week of training with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Grand Finals Concert. Each finalist will sing two arias on the Metropolitan Opera stage. Tenor Javier Camarena will perform for the audience while the judges deliberate. Following the performance, the winners will be announced, each of whom will receive a cash prize of $15,000 and career-making exposure.

Results will be posted to @MONCAuditions Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.          

Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert are available online.

Thomas Glass and William Guanbo Su advance to Met Opera Grand Finals

William Guanbo Su

Baritone Thomas Glass and bass William Guanbo Su are among the nine singers who advanced to the 65th annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

The 2019 Grand Finals concert will take place March 31. Winners, selected by a panel of judges, will earn cash prizes of $15,000, with remaining finalists receiving $7,500.
At the recital, each finalist will perform two arias, accompanied by the Met Orchestra (conducted by Carlo Rizzi).

Anthony Roth Costanzo will host the proceedings, which will also feature a performance from bass-barihunk Christian Van Horn. Tickets are available online.

The other finalists are tenor Piotr Buszewski, tenor Dashuai Chen, soprano Alaysha Fox, soprano Meghan Kasanders, tenor Miles Mykkanen, soprano Elena Villalón and mezzo-soprano Michaela Wolz.

A number of low male voices who won the Competition have gone on to have stellar international careers, including Louis Quilico, Justino Díaz, Robert Hale, Samuel Ramey, Thomas Hampson, Nathan Gunn, Eric Owens and Christian Van Horn.    

Cameron McPhail's beefy Rape of Lucretia

Cameron McPhail in The Rape of Lucretia at Yale

We recently included Cameron McPhail in a post about the nine baritones performing in the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions at Merkin Hall in New York City on November 18 and 19. After the post went up, we were told about some sexy pictures of him as Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Yale during the 2011-12 season. 

Of course, we had to find them and provide a better introduction to this fast rising Canadian baritone, who holds both an Artist Diploma in Voice and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from The University of British Columbia. He spent the 2011-12 season completing his Masters of Music at the Yale Opera Studio where he studied with American bass Richard Cross.

A 2014 winner of the George London Foundation Competition, McPhail joined the Canadian Opera Company for the 2012-13 season as a member of the Ensemble Studio where he made his company debut as the Premiere Officer in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites. During the 2013-14 season he returned to Canadian Opera Company with mainstage appearances as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, and Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.

He just finished four performances of Orff's Carmina Burana with the Florida Orchestra under the baton of Danail Rachev. He returns to his native Canada on December 5th for Handel's Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony. On February 25, 2015, he'll create the role of Reverend Colgate in a world premiere concert staging of Gregory Vajda’s comic opera Georgia Bottoms with the Huntsville Symphony. The opera about the modern South, is based on the national best-seller by Alabama author Mark Childress.

If you want to enjoy 19 of opera's sexiest and most talented singers all year, make sure to order your own copy of the 2015 Barihunks Calendar by clicking below.

Nine Baritones Competing in Met Auditions in NYC

The Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions will be held at Merkin Hall in New York City on November 18 and 19. This year, nine of the 82 singers are baritones, including SeokJong Baek, Vladimir Tsyglian, Robert Balonek, LaMarcus Miller, Kidon Choi, Takaoki Onishi, Ryan Torino, Anthony Caputo and Cameron McPhail.

A number of the singers have appeared on Barihunks, including Takaoki Onishi who we introduced to readers in May 2014, Robert Balonek who we featured in our Met Auditions overview earlier this year and Cameron MacPhail who is in our recent post about upcoming Messiahs (he's performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra).

The singers will perform before judges Susan Ashbaker, Richard Bernstein and Cori Ellison for a spot in the Region Finals to be held on January 14, 2015. The judges for the Finals will be Gayletha Nichols, Richard Bado and Susan Graham.

Cameron McPhail

Canadian baritone Cameron McPhail was the 2014 winner of the George London Foundation Competition. He joined the Canadian Opera Company for the 2012-13 season as a member of the Ensemble Studio where he made his company debut as Premiere Officer in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites. During the 2013-14 season he returned to Canadian Opera Company with mainstage appearances as Schaunard in La Bohème, Guglielmo in Così fan Tutte, and Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera.

Robert Balonek

Robert Balonek attended SUNY Purchase College and the Mannes School of Music. During his two years at Mannes he performed Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte as well as ​Ford in Falstaff. He also performed with the Mannes Baroque Ensemble as the bass soloist for the Bach's St. Matthew Passion and the Fauré Requiem soloist for the Westchester Choral Society.  In 2014, he performed in scenes from Le Chevalier Saint George's L'amant Anonyme with the Little Opera Theater of NY, Paul Revere in the Boston Tea Party Opera at the NY Fringe Festival and Castro in Victor Herbert's only grand opera, Natoma.

LaMarcus Miller

In 2012, LaMarcus Miller won First Place at the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition at Carnegie Hall. That same year he won the Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition (Eastern Region). He made his Kennedy Center Center debut singing the leading role of USMC Philip in the new Opera “Fallujah” by Tobin Stokes & Heather Raffo.
In August, he performed Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with the Sugar Creek Symphony.

Anthony Caputo

New York City native Anthony Caputo recently completed his Graduate work at SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Music where he studied under the tutelage of Jacque Trussel. While there he performed Balthazar and Melchior in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Antonio in Mozart's La Nozze di Figaro, Mercurio in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Prince Ferdinand in the East Coast Premiere of Holby's The Tempest, Father Francis in the World Premiere of Lucas' Confession, Pappageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Le Directeur in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and Pandolfe in Massenet's Cendrillon.

Vladimir Tsyglian

Canadian Vladimir Tsyglian earned his Performance Degree from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He was a 1st Prize winner in the Concert Recital category at the Kiwanis Music Fesival. He made his professional debut in the world premiere of "A Dickens of a Christmas." He recently performed Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen with Opera by Request in Toronto.

Takaoki Onishi

Takaoki Onishi won the Top Prize in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and the First Prize in both the Opera Index, Inc. Vocal Competition and the Licia Albanese - Puccini International Vocal Competition. He also received a prize in the 2013 Loren L. Zachary Competition, as well as two Grants from the Giulio Gari Foundation.  He made his Lincoln Center debut in the Julliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital at Alice Tully Hall. In February, he performed the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Julliard Opera and in March he performed Jesus in Bach's St. Matthew's Passion.

Kidon Choi

Kidon Choi is a first-year Master's student at Manhattan School of Music and a recipient of the Joseph F. McCrindle Scholarship. He completed his B.M. in vocal performance at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. In April 2013, Choi made his Sejong Art Center debut with Seoul Metropolitan Opera as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida. Choi released his own CD ‘Soar’ with Sony Music Entertainment.

Ryan Torino and SeokJong Baek

We don't have bios for Ryan Torino and SeokJong Baek.

Suggested admission to the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions is $20.  You are welcome to attend both days and come and go as you please. Tickets are available online.

Make sure to order you 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar today. Each year, the money raised from the calendar goes to support young artists like those featured above. This year's calendar features 19 of the hottest singers in opera today. Order by clicking below.

Jarrett Ott sings Tony Solitro's "War Wedding"; Metropolitan Opera Auditions next week

Jarrett Ott

We recently introduced Jarrett Ott to readers when he advanced in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.  On February 15, he'll be competing in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at the Kennedy Center.

A reader alerted us to an amazing video of him performing Tony Solitro's "War Wedding" during a closed recording session at the Curtis Institute of Music. The songs of War Wedding chronicle the sensuous wedding night of two young lovers set against the backdrop of a savage and vicious war. After they part at daybreak, the young soldier dies from his wounds, and his bride is left alone.

The cycle was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, musicologist Justin Vickers.

He is finishing up his Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music where he has performed  Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo, Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Gregor Mittenhoffer in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers, Valentin in Gounod’s Faust, Harašta in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and Le Mari in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias. This season he will also perform Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen with Mikael Eliasen at various venues, as well as perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Riverside Symphonia. At Curtis he will sing roles in Poulenc's Dialogues des carmélites and Rossini's La Cenerentola. You can listen to some sound clip HERE.

Jesse Enderle crosses over into musical theater

Jesse Enderle

Jesse Enderle opens tomorrow in Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables at the San Antonio Playhouse's Russell Theater as Javert. Performances will run from October 3-November 3 and tickets are available online.

At 28 years, Les Misérables is now the longest running musical in the world. It has been translated into 22 different languages and performed in 42 countries and 319 cities.  The San Antonio production adds one more professional performance to the 48,000 that have occurred worldwide,  giving it a total audience of more than 60 million people. There have been over 47 cast recordings of Les Misérables including albums, singles and symphonic. Both the original Broadway cast album and the symphonic recordings won Grammy awards.

Philip Quast sings Javert's suicide aria:

We first learned about Fargo native Jesse Enderle when he was two-time regional winner in the Metropolitan Opera Regional Council Auditions in Wisconsin. We then saw him in a hysterical turn as Pooh-Bah in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado at the Fort Worth Opera Festival.

In addition to Fort Worth, he has appeared with the Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera and the Arbor Opera Theatre. Other roles he has performed include Baron Douphol in La Traviata, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Escamillo in Carmen, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Sid in Albert Herring.

Also, make sure to order your 2014 Barihunks charity calendar with 16 of the hottest baritones in all of opera. Click HERE to order today. All proceeds are going to benefit young artists and young artist programs.

BREAKING NEWS: 6 of 10 Met Audition finalists are BARITONES!!!

Richard Ollarsaba

If there was any doubt remaining that we're in the "Golden Age of Baritones," it was put to rest today at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions semi-finals. An astonishing six of the ten singers advancing to next Sunday's finals are baritones or basses. Those singers include Matthew Anchel of the Eastern Region, Brandon Cedel of the Middle Atlantic Region, Musa Ngqungwana of the Middle Atlantic Region, Richard Ollarsaba of the Upper Midwest Region, Thomas Richards of the Central Region and Efraín Solís of the Western Region.

The ten winners will now perform on March 10 at 3 p.m at the Grand Finals Concert accompanied by the Met Orchestra. The singers will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the concert, which is open to the public.   Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online atwww.metopera.org.

Efraín Solís

Other singers advancing are tenor Michael Brandenburg of the Central Region, soprano Tracy Cox of the Western Region, soprano Sydney Mancasola of the New England Region and Rebecca Pedersen of the Rocky Mountain Region.  Barihunks would like to congratulate all of the finalists and wish them well (but we will unabashedly be pulling for the baritones!).

Sexy Don Giovanni/Leporello combo at Kentucky Opera

Fitness Buff and Barihunk Donovan Singletary

Mozart's Don Giovanni is a key ingredient in the delectable dessert we call Barihunks. It has dominated our pages more than any other opera and for good reason. The story of a sexy, irresistible, sexual predator and his love starved sidekick just seems to invite the casting of some of the hottest singers in the business.

The Kentucky Opera has stuck to that noble tradition by casting AVA graduate Ben Wager as Don Giovanni and former Lindemann Young Artist Program favorite and Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals winner Donovan Singletary as Leporello. Singletary, an avid fitness buff, is living proof that you can take care of your body and your voice simultaneously. The Florida native has won numerous vocal competitions in addition to the Med Auditions, including the 2011 Vienna Prize by the George London Foundation, 2011 Vienna Prize by the George London Foundation Award, First Prize in the 2010 George London Foundation Competition and First Prize in the Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actors Competition.

Donovan Singletary sings "Deh!...ti ferma..ti placa" from Rosini's Semiramide:

Ben Wager was a 2009 graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Enrico in Anna Bolena and the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, In 2009, he joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he sang  Zuniga in Carmen, Angelotti in Tosca and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. In 2011, he portrayed General Audebert in the world premiere of Kevin Putz' Silent Night at Minnesota Opera, which we covered extensively.

Ben Wager

The Kentucky Opera will have two performances of the Mozart classic on February 15 and 17. A couple of other young singers of note in the cast whose careers we've been watching are tenor Taylor Stayton as Don Ottavio and soprano Jan Cornelius as Donna Anna. Tickets are available online.

Philippe Sly Recording Two Albums; Singing the "Other" Magic Flute in Salzburg

Philippe Sly

We never get tired of singing the praises of Canadian barihunk Philippe Sly, who wowed the judges at both the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Concours Musical International de Montreal (MIMC) where he took away the top honors. We're convinced that he's one of the most amazing talents to come along in the last decade. We've posted his intensely moving account of Schubert's Der Erlkönig a few times, which has received a remarkable 45,000 hits on YouTube.

After finishing a year with the esteemed Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, he was signed by by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. He will also be touring Canada in recital series with the Debut Atlantic Series. He also returns to San Francisco, where he will appear in the mainstage production of Mozart's Così fan tutte under music director Nicola Luisotti.

Overture to "Das Labyrinth" by Peter von Winter aka "Magic Flute 2":

He's currently with the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival in Austria where he is singing Part 2 of the Magic Flute as Sithos in Peter von Winter’s 'Das Labyrinth' under the baton of Ivor Bolton. After Mozart's "Magic Flute" had a successful run of 200 performances, the composer's librettist Emanuel Schikaneder had the idea of commissioning a second part called The Labyrinth, or "The Struggle with the Elements." The opera was successful enough to have 42 performances over the next year. The performance is being recorded and will be broadcast on Unitel Classica at 8:15 PM Salzburg time on August 7th (2:15 PM EST/11:15 AM PST).

 Philippe Sly sings Schumann's "Am Leuchtenden Sommermorgen":

Sly recently finished recording his first album "In Dreams," which is schudeled for release on the Analekta label in September. The recording includes Schumann's Dichterliebe, Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Ropartz's 4 Poèmes de l'intermezzo and the world premiere recording of Jonathan Dove's Three Tennyson Songs. If you're like us and you can never get enough of this young singer, you'll be thrilled to know that he's back in the recording studio next month for his next album, which will be of Rameau cantatas.

On another matter related to Unitel Classica, they will be broadcasting the Don Giovanni from Sferesterio wilth Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Andrea Concetti that features a liberal amount of skin. We previously posted about the sexy production:

Things of Interest This Week: Boys in NY, Carbo's new CD, Barihunks Competing in Montreal

Jesse Blumberg (L) and Tim McDevitt (R)

Three things that we love are all back and under the same roof on June 4th: the great Steven Blier returns with his latest "Sing for your Supper" show with barihunks Jesse Blumberg and Tim McDevitt. Blier always creates interesting themes for his shows and his latest offering will center on summertime.

Blumberg and McDevitt will be joined by Alex Mansoori, Adrian Rosas and Gennard Lombardozzi in selections by Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Jason Robert Brown, Eubie Blake, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Kern.

The show is at Henry's at Broadway and 105th in New York City and reservations are required.

Jose Carbo's "My Latin Heart"

Jose Carbo has released his first solo recital, My Latin Heart, which includes selections by Granada, Piazzolla and other Latin favorites.

The CD is available at ABC Records. You can also preview the CD and purchase it on iTunes.

Sidney Outlaw (L), Philippe Sly (C) and John Brancy (R)

Regular readers will know that we love to follow all the vocal competitions, especially as barihunks keep sweeping away all the tenors, sopranos and mezzos. We'll be closely monitoring the Montreal International Musical Competition this Tuesday and Wednesday as three of the eight finalist are not only barihunks, but some of our favorite singers around.

Sly was named our "Best Newcomer" along with Dominik Köninger in our "Best of 2011" feature. We still play his rendition of Schubert's Der Erlkönig to anyone who will listen. Sly was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and left the Merola Opera program a year early to join the Canadian Opera Company. 


Brancy has won or come in second in a number of competitions and has already worked with the aforementioned Steven Blier. A recent graduate of Julliard, Brancy recently studied at the International Meistersinger Akademie with sopranos Edith Wiens and Ann Murray, as well as pianist Malcolm Martineau.


Like Sly, Sidney Outlaw is another product of the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. While in San Francisco he gave a recital that included Schubert's rarely heard Il traditor deluso, which still has lieder aficionados buzzing. On stage he stole the show with his performance of Dr. Dulcamara  in L’elisir d’amore.


Brancy and Outlaw will be representing the United States, while Sly is representing Canada in the competition. Both performances will be broadcast at 7:30 PM on Radio Canada. Click here to listen to the broadcasts. You can listen to the preliminaries here. 

Met Opera Finalists Announced; Is Will Liverman Another Baritone Frontrunner?

Will Liverman (Photo by Rebecca Fay)

The Metropolitan Opera announced the names of nine finalists who will sing in the 2012 National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert on March 18 at 3:00 p.m. with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis. 

The finalists are: Janai Brugger, soprano from Darien, IL;Anthony Clark Evans, baritone from Owensboro, KY; Matthew Grills, tenor from Newton, CT; Will Liverman, baritone from Virginia Beach, VA; Margaret Mezzacappa, mezzo-soprano from Euclid, OH; Andrey Nemzer, countertenor from Moscow, Russia; Kevin Ray, baritone from Cornwall, NY; Lauren Snouffer, soprano from Austin, TX; and Michael Sumuel, bass-baritone from Odessa, TX.

As is the case from past seasons, we've heard a number of these singers live. Just as we predicted the success of barihunk Philippe Sly, who won the competition last year, we feel that Virginia Beach native Will Liverman is the latest baritone who has to be favored to win the competition. Of course, we wish ALL of the singers the best of luck in the competition and with their careers. 

Will Liverman's photo is by Rebecca Fay. Check out her website for more information. 

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Catching up with Damien Pass in France

Damien Pass

When we last featured Aussie barihunk Damien Pass in 2007, he had recently graduated from Oberlin, had won and Encouragement Award from the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition and was starting to get small roles in places like Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera North and the Music Academy of the West. Somehow we lost track of him until we received an email recently asking why he wasn't included in our poll of sexiest Aussie barihunks.

We're pleased to announce that we found him in France, where he's been singing smaller roles at the Paris Opera.  He's performed Don Inigo (L’heure Espagnole, Ravel), Frank Maurrant (Street Scene, Weill), Lucas (Les Troqueurs, Dauvergne), and the Marquese (Mirandolina, Martinů) with the Atelier Lyrique at the Paris Opera.

Damien Pass sings Aaron Copland's "At the River":

In September 2001, Pass made his Parisian recital debut with the Fesival les journées romantiques with a program that included Aaron Copland, Franz Liszt, Cole Porter, Franz Schubert and Henri Duparc.

He's also made his mark outside of France, singing the title role in Handel’s Saul with the Britten-Pears Orchestra conducted by Richard Egarr in Aldeburgh.

 Damien Pass sings Aaron Copland's "Long Time Ago":

Pass will next be seen March 15th at the Palais Garnier in a program of Massenet with the Paris Opera Orchestra. A week later he'll be part of a concert of music by Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf et Richard Wagner at the Goethe Institute in Paris. We'll try to keep better tabs on this promising young talent in the future.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Met Audition Winner Update: Anthony Reed in Recital; Ricardo Rivera Advances

Aaron Rogers & Anthony Reed

With the Green Packers out of the playoffs and not heading back to the Super Bowl, the good folks of Wisconsin are looking for things to do other than shovel snow. We'd suggest trading one A.R. for another, meaning QB Aaron Rogers for bass-barihunk Anthony Reed.

On Wednesday, January 25th at 7:30 PM, Reed will be performing in a concert sponsored by the Florentine Opera. Reed will be joined by soprano Lindsay Sessing and tenor Kevin Newell. All three singers were winners in the 2011 Metropolitan Opera/Wisconsin District Auditions.  The concert will be at St. John's on the Lake, 1840 N. Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee. Call (414) 291-5700 for additional information.

Unlike a football game, we can pretty much guarantee that this will be a winner. The young bass has been impressing judges and honed his skills at the Seagle Music Colony.

Anthony Reed sings Mozart's "O Isis und Osiris" from the Magic Flute:

Anthony Reed and four other singers will now advance to the Midwest Regional Auditions to be held Feb. 4, 2012, at the Ordway Center Main Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ricardo Rivera

A reader who attended the Metropolitan Opera National Council/Eastern Region Auditions alerted us to barihunk Ricardo Rivera who won 1st Place that day and will now advance to the National Semi-Finals on the Metropolitan Opera Stage in March.

Rivera has been cleaning up in competitions, having previously won 1st Place and the Audience Prize in the 2011 NY Lyric Opera Competition, 4th Place in the 2011 Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, Encouragement Awards from the 2011 Gerda Lissner, 2011 Licia Albanese-Puccini, 2011 MONC, 2010 Opera Index, and 2010 Career Bridges Competitions, and was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant in 2009.

On January 29th, he'll perform Orsini in Wagner's "Rienzi" with the Opera Orchestra of NY at Avery Fisher Hall. Click HERE for tickets and additional cast information. On February 15th, he'll be the baritone Soloist in Sophia Gubaidulina's "Perception" with the Pacifica Quartet and eighth blackbird in Chicago." Click HERE for additional information.

Barihunks would like to wish both singers the best of luck!

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Phillip Sly Talks About His Operatic Journey

Sly as Collatinus (top); bottom photo by Adam Scotti

We've been touting the amazing talent of Phillipe Sly even before he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. He was recently interviewed in La Scena Musicale where he talked about his operatic journey from childhood to the Met Auditions. Click HERE to read the interview.

Here he is performing the first seven songs of Schumann's "Dichterliebe."



Contact us at Barihunk@gmail.com. We are always accepting reader submissions for new "talent." Please keep in mind that we don't post everyone who is submitted. If your submission has not appeared, please do not keep submitting them. We greatly appreciate all of the amazing singers who readers have exposed us to and allowed us to share with the world.

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Philippe Sly sings Der Erlkönig

We were convinced from early on that Philippe Sly would win the Metropolitan Opera Council Audition. This video of him singing Schubert's amazing song "Der Erlkönig" shows why. He has interpretive abilities far beyond his years and an amazing voice to boot.

Sit back and ENJOY!

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

IT'S OFFICIAL: THE GOLDEN AGE OF BARITONES IS NOW

Clockwise bottom left: Joseph Barron, Ryan Green, Joseph Lim and Phillipe Sly

As if we needed further evidence that the "Golden Age of Baritones" is officially upon us, four of the five winners of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions were baritones. We've been featuring Phillipe Sly since we first heard him sing and believe that he's destined for a major career. Sly was joined by baritones Ryan Speedo Green, Joseph Lim,  Joseph Barron and soprano Michelle Johnson as winners of the competition. We offer our hearty and well-deserved congratulations to each of the singers. You can read their bios HERE.

Mariusz Kwiecien in Met Brochure

A quick look at who the real superstars are on stage and in marketing campaigns reveals that baritones are dominating the opera stage like at no other time in history. Rene Pape, Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Paulo Szot, Christopher Maltman, Simon Keenlyside, Nathan Gunn, Erwin Schrott, Peter Mattei and Mariusz Kwiecien are some of the dominating figures in opera. A decade ago almost every marketing piece for an opera company featured female singers, with Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Natalie Dessay and Cecilia Bartoli leading the way. Even the major "crossover" stars are now baritones, particularly Nathan Gunn, Rod Gilfry and Paulo Szot, who have all made their mark singing the music of Broadway.

Even the media savvy tenor Placido Domingo is getting in on the action, singing the baritone roles Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto and Iphigenie en Tauride. 

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Competitive Beefcake Around the World

Enzo Romano (L), Szymon Komasa (C) & Davide Bartolucci (R)

Finalists were announced 3,500 miles apart in two of the most prestigious vocal competitions in the world. The Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions announced their eight finalists and the grandly named "Cardiff Singer of the World" named their twenty finalists.

Although separated by the Atlantic Ocean and a different approach to reaching a winner, one thing that both competitions have in common is an abundance of barihunk talent.

Nicholas Masters & Philippe Sly

Both Nicholas Masters and Philippe Sly, who we featured earlier on this site, are among the "Elite Eight" who will sing with the amazing Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Lincoln Center on Sunday, March 13. Winners will receive $15,000 each.

HVOROSTOVSKY AT CARDIFF IN 1989

At Cardiff, three singers who are new to this site will compete for the Grand Prize, which in 1989 went to barihunk Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Italian baritone Davide Bartolucci, Polish baritone Szymon Komasa and Uruguayan Enzo Romano will compete between June 12-19 for the coveted title. [Click on their names to read their bios]. Famed baritone Håkan Hagegård will be one of the judges, as will Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Marilyn Horne. In addition to the Grand Prize, Cardiff awards a Lieder Prize and an Audience Favorite Prize.

PAUL WHELAN SINGS CLAGGART'S ARIA FROM BILLY BUDD

Other Cardiff winners who have appeared on Barihunks are Paul Whelan, winner of the 1993 Lieder Prize, Christoper Maltman, winner of the 1997 Lieder Prize, Tommi Hakala, who won the Grand Prize in 2003 and Jacques Imbrailo, who won the Audience Prize in 2007.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Ryan Kuster Profiled; Joins Barihunks in Met Auditions

Ryan Kuster: Backstage and Onstage

Ryan Kuster was recently featured in his hometown paper, the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, in anticipation of his appearance at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. You can read the entire article HERE.

The Met auditions have a long tradition of launching major operatic careers. Past winners include Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Grace Bumbry, Teresa Stratas, Susan Graham, Stephanie Blythe, Renee Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Ben Heppner, Jessye Norman and Federica von Stade. For those unfamiliar with the competition, we highly recommend watching the documentary The Audition. 

Kuster will compete in a closed audition on March 6th for a chance to compete in the Grand Finals Concert on March 13, which will be hosted by mezzo Joyce DiDonato. The first round includes twenty-two young artists, which is dominated by nine baritones. Two that we'll have our eye on besides Kuster are Nicholas Masters, who we featured on this site a year ago,  and Canadian Philippe Sly.

Sly, who we heard was a riveting Nick Shadow in Opera McGill's production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress will be joining the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco this year.

Nicholas Masters & Philippe Sly

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet