Barihunk Matt Worth named to faculty at SF Conservatory of Music

Matt Worth (Photo from artist website)

Barihunk Matthew Worth is joining the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music n Fall 2019, joining the voice department led by chair and former tenor César Ulloa. The acclaimed school has a number of noted singers on faculty, including Catherine Cook, Susanne Mentzer, Patricia Craig, Deborah Voigt and Rhoslyn Jones.

Last season, he created the role of the Narrator in the world premiere of The Passion of Yeshua with the Oregon Bach Festival. This season he will return to the role at Royce Hall in Los Angeles and again with the Buffalo Philharmonic. He recently could be seen on PBS' Great Performances as Father Flynn in Douglas Cuomo's Doubt from Minnesota Opera.

The 2018-2019 season also includes Worth’s return to Boston Lyric Opera as Figaro in Rosetta Cucchi’s production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and a workshop performance of Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed’s Postville, commissioned by Santa Fe Opera and San Francisco Opera.

Last season, Worth performed the title role in David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s JFK with Opéra de Montréal, Bernstein’s Arias & Barcarolles with the New York Festival of Song at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Laura Kaminsky and Mark Campbell’s As One with Cincinnati Opera, and recitals at the University of Cincinnati and Austin Peay University.

Pietro Di Bianco to make US Debut in Minnesota

Pietro Di Bianco as Thoas in Iphigenie en Tauride at the Opéra national de Paris (left)

Italian barihunk will make his long-overdue US debut on January 26th at the Minnesota Opera in Nino Rota’s The Italian Straw Hat. The 2014 Paris Opera Awards Competition winner has sung to great acclaim at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra national de Paris, Wexford Festival Opera and the Innsbrucker Festwochen.

In this absurdist farce by the composer of the music for The Godfather films, groom-to-be Fadinard gallops around Paris on his wedding day in search of a straw hat to replace the one his horse has inadvertently eaten. The bright and breezy score captures the increasingly ridiculous situation that rides on the edge of chaos. Di Pietro will sing the role of the jealous husband Beaupertuis, who suspects that his wife Anaida is having an affair.

The Straw Hat from Milan's La scala with Juan Diego Florez:

The opera premièred at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on April 21, 1955 and had its first US performance at the Santa Fe Opera in 1977.

Di Pietro wraps up today as Vincenzo Biscroma in Donizetti's Viva la Mamma! in Geneva. This season he will also appear as Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff at The Grange Festival and in Cesti's La Dori in Innsbruck.

Barihunk Matthew Worth featured on Great Performances broadcast of Doubt

Matthew Worth in Doubt (Photo: © Michal Daniel)

The Minnesota Opera's production of Douglas J. Cuomo’s opera Doubt will be broadcast on Great Performances on PBS on January 25th (check local listings for time).

The story, which has been seen on Broadway and made into a movie with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, revolves around scandalous allegations and tensions at a Catholic elementary school.

The libretto was written by playwright John Patrick Shanley, who based it on his Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The opera was commissioned by Minnesota Opera in collaboration with the Cincinnati Opera and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. The opera was part of the opera company’s New Works Initiative, a landmark program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works. It premiered on January 26, 2013 at the Minnesota Opera.

Matthew Worths sings "A sermon about doubt":

The opera features barihunk Matthew Worth as Father Flynn, who is accused of inappropriate behavior with a young African-American student. Soprano Christine Brewer will sing the role of the school principal Sister Aloysius, who makes the accusations and sets the drama in motion at the Bronx-based Roman Catholic in 1964. The young, idealistic Sister James will be played by Adriana Zabala and the boy's mother by mezzo Denyce Graves. Other than a chorus and a children's chorus, these are the only vocal roles.

Other operas on Great Performances this year include Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice on January 18, Verdi's Aida and Nico Muhly's Marnie on February 1.

Hadleigh Adams to star in Fellow Travelers at Minnesota Opera

Hadleigh Adams

New Zealand-born barihunk Hadleigh will take on the role of Hawkins Fuller in Gregory Spears' Fellow Travelers at the Minnesota Opera opposite hunkentenor Andres Acosta.

Fellow Travelers, which was written in collaboration with librettist Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury, was developed in a 2013 Opera Fusion workshop. Barihunk Joseph Lattanzi sang the world premiere in Cincinnati in 2016 and reprised the role in Chicago.  

The opera is set in Washington D.C. against the backdrop of the McCarthy-era "lavender scare" and tells the story of Timothy “Skippy” Laughlin, an aspiring young journalist, and Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller, a handsome, profligate State Department official. A chance encounter with Hawk leads to Tim's first job in the Nation's capital, and his first love affair. As his involvement deepens, Skippy struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his religious beliefs, and his love for Fuller – an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal. The libretto is based on the novel by American novelist, essayist and critic Thomas Mallon.

Performances will run from June 16-26 and tickets and additional cast information is available online. The gay-themed opera will overlap with Twin Cities Pride, which takes place June 23-24.

Later this summer, Hadleigh Adams can be seen at West Edge Opera as Vicomte de Valmont in Francesconi's Quartett. He then heads to the mainstage of the San Francisco Opera for Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca.

Barihunk-fest at Minnesota Opera concert

Christian Zaremba, Rudy Nieto and Kelly Markgraf

The Minnesota Opera's upcoming Mixtape Concert will feature a veritable feast of barihunks (and hunkentenors) performing selections from opera, musical theater, jazz and pop. The concert is highlighting past and current members of the company's Resident Artist Program and will be held on April 8 at 2 p.m. at the Ordway Concert Hall.

The featured baritones and basses include Kelly Markgraf, Rudy Nieto, Christian Thurston, Matt Boehler, Benjamin Sieverding, Wm. Clay Thompson and Christian Zaremba. The tenor lineup is pretty impressive as well, featuring Andres Acosta, Chris Colmenero, Daniel Montenegro, James Valenti and David Walton!

The concert pays tribute to the 20th season of Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program and is “pay what you want” with a suggested donation of $20 per ticket. Tickets can be reserved online.

The unique, eclectic program includes  and features selections from Les Miserables, Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath, as well as music from Wagner, Puccini, Rossini and Richard Strauss. 

The Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program offers a full season of employment for talented artists beginning their professional careers. From late August through April, Resident Artists gain valuable experience in assignments ranging from ensemble, understudy, comprimario to leading roles in main stage performances.

Celebrating the 90th birthday of composer Dominick Argento

Nathan Gunn in The Aspern Papers; Carolyn Sproule & Joseph Lattanzi in Postcard from Morocco

Dominick Argento was born on October 27, 1927 and has become one of the leading American composers of modern times.

His best known pieces are the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham's Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. He also is known for the song cycles Six Elizabethan Songs and From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, the latter earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. Many well known baritones have performed his operas, including Ryan MacPherson and Joseph Latanzi in Postcard from Morocco, and Nathan Gunn in The Aspern Papers. Two of his early operas, written while he was a student—Sicilian Limes and Colonel Jonathan the Saint—have been withdrawn by the composer.

Argento moved to Minneapolis in 1958 with his new wife, soprano Carolyn Bailey, to begin teaching theory and composition at the University of Minnesota. Within a few years he received commissions from virtually every major performing group in the area. His wife died on February 2, 2006.

 Christòpheren Nomura sings selections from The Andrée Expedition:

Argento became involved in writing music for productions at the then-new Guthrie Theater. In 1963, he co-founded the Center Opera Company, which later became the Minnesota Opera. He composed the short opera The Masque of Angels for the occasion as the first Performing Arts commission of the Walker Art Center. This work—with its complex harmonic language and an emphasis on expansive choral writing that prefigures his later role as a prominent choral composer—firmly established his local prominence, as well as providing a role for his wife.

In 1971 his surrealist opera, Postcard from Morocco, opened at Center Opera and received a glowing review in the New York Times. He eventually received commissions from New York City Opera, the newly formed Minnesota Opera, Washington Opera, and the Baltimore and St. Louis symphonies, among others. He also developed close professional relationships with several prominent singers, notably Frederica von Stade, Janet Baker, and baritone Håkan Hagegård, tailoring some of his best-known song cycles to their talents.

In 1984, the Minnesota Opera commissioned Casanova's Homecoming, with text by the composer, which went on to a well-received run at New York City Opera. At the insistence of Beverly Sills, then musical director of the company, the opera was the first in New York City to be performed in English and accompanied with English supertitles. The opera won the 1986 National Institute for Music Theatre Award.

In 1987, Argento composed The Aspern Papers as a vehicle for Frederica von Stade, with his own libretto adapted from the 1888 novella by Henry James. His next opera, and arguably largest work to date, The Dream of Valentino, premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1993.

Malte Roesner in Barihunks Calendar and 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!

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.

Barihunks Rodolfo Nieto and Andrew Lovato join hunkentenor Leonardo Capalbo for major role debut

Leonardo Capalbo, Andrew Lovato and Rodolfo Nieto (l-r)

When hunkentenor Leonardo makes his role debut on March 12th as Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca with the Minnesota Opera, he'll be joined by two barihunks on stage. Andrew Lovato will be singing Angelotti and Rodolfo Nieto will take on Sciarrone. Tosca will be sung by the riveting Kelly Kaduce. Capalbo and Kaduce also perform together on March 17, 19, 24 and 26. The alternate cast will feature Dominick Chenes as Mario and Alexandra LoBianco as Tosca. Lovato and Nieto are featured in all performances.

A shirtless Leonardo Capalbo in La traviata from Geneva:

Lovato made his Minnesota Opera debut as the role of Sonora in La fanciulla del West and subsequently performed Young Raymond in the world premiere of The Manchurian Candidate by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell and Le Dancaïre in Carmen.

Andrew Lovato sings the Father's Entrance Aria from Hansel und Gretel:

On March 20th, he performs "A Taste of Opera: Tosca" with the company. It's a a pre-show brunch and informal conversation with experts from the world of opera which also includes Leonardo Capalbo an Stephen Powell. On April 2, he joins resident artists from the Minnesota Opera at the Metropolitan Ballroom for a 1930’s Cabaret. You can register online.

Rodolfo Nieto sings Non più andrai from Le nozze di Figaro:

Bass-barihunk Rodolfo Nieto has been featured frequently with the Minnesota Opera in various roles including Castro in La fanciulla del West, Horatio in Hamlet, Johann in Werther, Scottish Soldier #1 in the world premiere of Silent Night, Joseph in Wuthering Heights and Colline in La bohème. Nieto will also be part of both "A Taste of Opera: Tosca"and the 1930s Cabaret.

Ryan Taylor takes over Minnesota Opera; Leaves great legacy in Arizona

Ryan Taylor now and in his singing days

Former baritone Ryan Taylor is taking over the Minnesota Opera, after he successfully revived the Arizona Opera. Taylor certainly would have been a candidate for barihunks during his singing days, but he was winding down his career as we were revving up the site. Taylor takes over on May 1 and you can read more on the Star Tribune website. We recently posted about another barihunk, Jason Hardy, who took over the reigns of OperaDelaware.

His current programming at Arizona Opera includes Bizet's Carmen in February with the barihunk trio of Ryan Kuster as Escamillo, Joseph Lattanzi as Morales and Calvin Griffin as Zuniga (and the sensational Daniella Mack as Carmen). That will be followed later in the month by Mozart's Don Giovanni with barihunks Morgan Smith and Joseph Lattanzi rotating the title role and Ryan Kuster singing Masetto.

Another of his great legacies will be Arizona Spark, which workshops new compositions. Our personal favorite is Clint Borzoni's Copper Queen, with a libretto by John De Los Santos. The opera tells the story of Julia Lowell, the ghost that haunts a famed hotel in Bisbee, Arizona, once prominent as a mining town for both copper and “Bisbee-blue” turquoise. You can hear sound clips HERE. The Minnesota Opera also has a long tradition of presenting new works, including composer Kevin Puts' Silent Night, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Borzoni will be presenting two new works in San Francisco next week for String Quartet and Baritone with barihunk Marco Vassalli. Tickets are available online.

Andrew Lovato returns to Minnesota for role debut as Harlequin

Andrew Lovato as Harlequin at Minnesota Opera

Andrew Lovato is returning to the Minnesota Opera to make his role debut as Harlequin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. He made his Minnesota Opera debut as Sonora in Puccini's La fanciulla del West and subsequently performed Young Raymond in the world premiere of Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell's The Manchurian Candidate and Le Dancaïre in Bizet's Carmen.

Performances of Ariadne auf Naxos will run from September 26-October 4 and tickets are available online. Lovato will be joined by Amber Wagner as Ariadne, Brian Jagde as Bacchus, Erin Morley as Zerbinetta and Hanna Hipp as The Composer. 

This summer, Lovato premiered the role of Harry Engel in Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star in his Cincinnati Opera debut. He will be singing the role of Slim in Of Mice and Men with Austin Opera in January 2016. In March 2016, he returns to the Minnesota Opera to perform Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca.

NOW ON SALE: The 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar

Kyle Ketelsen as Sexual Revolution-era Escamillo

Barihunk Kyle Ketelsen is starring in Minnesota Opera's updated version of Carmen, which is running through May 10th. Director Michael Cavanagh has set the opera in 1975, when Spain was coming out from under 40 years of oppressive rule by the dictator Francisco Franco. The opera is set in Seville in the heart of the sexual revolution, when many in the western world were embracing romantic freedoms, while Spain was still mired in an era of repressive misogyny.

Ketelsen is joined in the opera by two other familiar singers to readers of this site, Christian Zaremba as Zuniga and Andrew Lovato as El Dancaïre. Richard Ollarsaba, a 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions grand finalist, will perform the role of Escamillo on May 1, 3, 8 and 9.

Ketelsen's Escamillo next travels to the Théâtre antique d'Orange this Summer, where he'll be joined by hunkentenor superstar Jonas Kaufmann and mezzo Kate Aldrich.

Reader Submission: Eric Broker

Eric Broker

Our latest Reader Submission is 21-year-old bass-barihunk Eric Broker, who is a senior at St. Olaf College and a Communications and Social Media Intern with the Minnesota Opera. He performed his senior recital on April 11th, which you can watch online. He performed music by Handel, Poulenc, Mozart, Bolcom and others.

Broker recently won the Minnesota National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition and was a finalist the Schubert Club Song Competition last year. He is currently a member of the Minnesota Opera Chorus and is preparing for graduate school.

While at St. Olaf,  he sang the roles of Voltaire/Dr. Pangloss in Bernstein's Candide, Superintendent Budd in Britten's Albert Herring, Carl Olson in Weill's Street Scene, and the title role in James McKeel's Fabrizio's Comet, a world premiere opera. He has also performed Handel's Messiah with the Canon Valley Orchestra and patriotic anthems with the Northfield Band.

Broker is also a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, which is indicative of superior attainment in music, together with the personal qualifications pertaining to an outstanding exponent of the art. Membership acknowledges personal integrity, leadership, open-mindedness and intellectual stamina throughout one's time at St. Olaf College.

Barihunk rich Manchurian Candidate premieres in Minnesota

Brenda Harris as Eleanor Iselin (left) and Matthew Worth as Sergeant Raymond Shaw; Leonardo Capalbo as Captain Ben Marco (right) Photos (c) Michal Daniel

Kevin Puts' latest opera The Manchurian Candidate is having its world premiere at the Minnesota Opera on Saturday, March 7th. The cast includes four barihunks who have been featured on this site, led by Matthew Worth in the pivotal role of Sergeant Raymond Shaw. Joining him in the cast are Christopher Job as Senator Thomas Jordan, Christian Zaremba as General Tracy and Andrew Lovato as Young Raymond. Added to the mix is hunkentenor Leonardo Capalbo as Captain Ben Marco.

The Manchurian Candidate is part of Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative, a program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works. The opera follows Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning first opera Silent Night, also led by Michael Christie and with a libretto by Mark Campbell, which Minnesota Opera premiered in 2011.

Matthew Worth in rehearsals for The Manchurian Candidate:

The Manchurian Candidate is based on a 1959 novel by Richard Condon, which inspired two film adaptations. In the story, Captain 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 has been suffering the same nightmare, he determines to solve the mystery.

The opera runs from March 7-15 and tickets are available online.

Rodolfo Nieto in free night of love songs

Rodolfo Nieto

American barihunk Rodolfo Nieto, who we introduced to readers during his run as Jose Castro in Minnesota Opera's La Fanciulla del West two months ago, will be giving a free recital on Friday, November 21st. The free concert at Bemis Rehearsal Hall will include love songs by Richard Strauss, Schubert, Chausson, Fauré, and Tosti.

The concert is free, but an RSVP is requested.  If you can't make the recital, you can listen to him HERE singing some Schubert songs.

Make sure to order your Barihunks Charity calendar by clicking below and enjoy 19 of opera's hottest men all year.

Xavier Rivera

Wexford sells out for European premiere of Silent Night

Matt Worth

Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night got its long-awaited European debut today at the Wexford Opera Festival. Opening night was completely sold out and tickets are going fast for the remaining performances through November 2.

The cast is a mix of Europeans and Americans and is loaded with barihunks. Wexford has cast Matthew Worth as Lieutenant Audebart, Quirijn de Lang as the lovable Poncel, Ian Beadle as William Dale and Jamie Rock as Gueusselin.

Tickets are available online.

Commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and first performed in 2011, the opera was inspired by the 2005 film Joyeux Noël about the spontaneous Christmas truce between enemy combatants during the First World War. Its core message is that war is not sustainable when you come to know your enemy as a person.

Opening night of Silent Night at Wexford

On October 25th, composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell will present a talk about the work at 11 AM. The film Joyeux Noël will be screened in the Jerome Hynes Theatre in Wexford Opera House at 10:30 am on the days of the Silent Night performances. There is no charge but tickets must be booked through the Box Office.

The current production is presented with the support of the American Friends of Wexford Opera with the support of the French Embassy in Ireland.

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Barihunk quartet in Minnesota Opera's Girl of the Golden West

Christian Zaremba as Ashby and Andrew Lovato as Sonora (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Apparently, Don Giovanni isn't the only opera that deliver barihunks in bunches. We recently posted about a barihunk duo in Puccini's La fanciulla del West (Girl of the Golden West), only to find out that the Minnesota Opera has doubled the eye candy and presented a barihunk quartet in their current production.

Led my the amazing and ageless Greer Grimsley in the critical role of Jack Rance, the opera also features Andrew Lovato as Sonora, Rodolfo Nieto as Castro and Christian Zaremba as Ashby. We recently featured Lovato when he was part of the Santa Fe Apprentice Artist Program. Zaremba and Nieto are new to this site and have both somehow managed to sneak below our radar.

Greer Grimsley as Jack Rance (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Zaremba made his debut this summer at the Glimmerglass Festival as the bass soloist in David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion and appeared as Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff with the Martina Arroyo Foundation. Other credits include Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen and Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca, as well as Don Basilio in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia with Long Island Opera and Capitol Heights Opera. This past season, he was the bass soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Annapolis Chorale and Mozart's Requiem with the St. Cloud Orchestra.

He made his debut with Minnesota Opera last season as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Lamoral in Richard Strauss' Arabella and the Innkeeper in Puccini's Manon Lescaut). He returns to the Minnesota Opera next season as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen.

Rodolfo Nieto

Rodolfo Nieto has appeared with the Minnesota Opera in various roles including Horatio in Thomas' Hamlet, Johann in Massenet's Werther, Scottish Soldier #1 in the world premier of Puts' Silent Night, Joseph in Wuthering Heights, and Colline in Puccini's La bohème. Other roles include Alidoro in Rossini's La cenerentola with Lakes Area Music Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Green Mountain Opera Festival, and Don Alfonso in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. 

There are additional performances of La fanciulla del West on September 25, 27 and 28. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Nicholas Nelson

UPDATE: We've just learned that it's actually a quintet of barihunks, but the Minnesota Opera didn't list the complete cast, so we missed Nicholas Nelson as Jim Larkens. (SHAME ON THEM!!!)

Silent Night to make European debut at Wexford; Canadian debut in Montreal; Continues in U.S. in Cincinnati

Ian Beadle (right)

Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night is getting its long-awaited European debut at the Wexford Opera Festival from October 24-November 2. The cast is a mix of Europeans and Americans, with two singers who have been featured on this site, Matthew Worth as Lieutenant Audebart and Quirijn de Lang as the lovable Poncel. There are also a few singers in the cast new to this site. 

Ian Beadle, a graduate from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performs William Dale on the Scottish side of the war. He recently finished a year in the English National Opera’s Opera Works program and performed as part of The Big Barber Bash at the London Coliseum.

His operatic roles have includes Belcore in Donizetti's Elisir d’amore at the Wexford Festival Opera, the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Opera Holland Park, Crébillon in Puccini's La Rondine at Go Opera, Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Sinfonia D’amici, Guccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at Opera Holland Park and Morales in Bizet's Carmen with Co-Opera Co.

Jamie Rock

Irish baritone Jamie Rock sings the role of Gueusselin on the French side of the war. He has performed the roles of Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme, Dancaire in Bizet's Carmen, Tarquinius in Britten's Rape of Lucretia and General Belliard in the world premiere of the original version of Prokofiev's epic masterpiece War and Peace. He has performed with the Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre Company, Opera Ireland, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Opera de Bauge and British Youth Opera.

He is also a member of the vocal ensemble Quartet. The group, under the patronage of Malcolm Martineau, is made up of graduates from the Alexander Gibson Opera School who draw on years of conservatoire training to explore a range of music and look for new ways of presenting the vocal repertoire.

Jamie began his studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama . He is an alumnus of the OTC Young Artist Programme (Dublin), Wexford Festival Opera Young Artist Programme, Leeds Lieder+ Young Artists, Oxford Lieder Young Artists and Josephine Baker Trust. 

Tickets are available online.

Daniel Okulitch (left) and Joseph Lattanzi (right)

Silent Night, which has been performed to great acclaim in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Fort Worth, now heads to the Cincinnati Opera and north of the border for its Canadian debut.

The Cincinnati cast includes many singers familiar to the piece, including the powerful voice of Craig Irvin as Lt. Horstmayer, Gabriel Preisser as Lt. Gordon and Andrew Wilkowske as Ponchel. New to the cast are Joseph Lattanzi as Gueusselin and Phillip Addis as Lt. Audebert. There are only two performances of the opera on July 10 and July 12. Tickets are available online.

Addis also will be performing Lt. Audebert in the Canadian premiere from May 16-23 at the Opéra de Montréal. The cast includes a barihunk favorite in the Lieutenant Horstmayer of Canadian Daniel Okulitch. Tickets go on sale in August 2014, so mark your calendars.

Gueusselin

Gueusselin and Phil

Andrew Lovato stars in Santa Fe Opera spring tour

Andrew Lovato and the Spring Tour singers

Barihunk Andrew Lovato is hitting the road for the 2014 Santa Fe Opera Spring Opera Tour. He'll be joining former apprentices Abigail Mitchell, Rachel Hall, Joshua Dennis and legendary coach Kirt Pavitt in bringing opera to the backroads of New Mexico, Texas and Colorado.

The traveling opera troupe will perform a new piece called “True North,” which explores the relationship of the young singers whose characters were featured in Written in the Stars and Avastar, the original operas performed on previous tours.

The popular Spring Opera Tour has been going on for about 20 years bringing opera to students and families who might not otherwise experience live opera. The tour began yesterday in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and travels to Lubbock, Texas for a performance on Sunday. Over the next three weeks they'll travel to Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, Pagosa Springs, Farmington, Socorro and Moriarty.

Andrew Lovato sings Wagners "Der Engel" from the Wesendonck Lieder:

Andrew Lovato has participated in young artist programs with Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera where he performed and covered roles in Morrison's Oscar, Offenbach's La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein, Puccini's La Bohéme, Oklahoma and Mozart's Don Giovanni.  He is currently in the young artist program at the Minnesota Opera.

The Waukesha, Wisconsin native received his Bachelor of Music in Voice from Lawrence University and a Master of Music in Voice from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he performed roles in Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Britten's Peter Grimes, Robert Ward's The Crucible and Mozart's Don Giovanni.

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

Reader Submission: Philippe Brocard

 

Philippe Brocard

Our latest reader submission is French baritone Philippe Brocard, who is opening in William Mayer's "A Death in the Family" on June 9th at the Opera Theatre D'Avignon. However, one would never know it from visiting the company's website, as there are no cast lists (our biggest pet peave in the opera world!). You can, however, get tickets online. 

William Mayer’s three-act opera is based on two American classics: the Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Death in the Family by James Agee and the play All the Way Home by Tad Mosel. The opera also draws on related passages from Agee’s non-fiction work  Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.  Premiered by the Minnesota Opera Company in 1983, A Death in the Family was cited as the best new opera of that year by the National Institute for Music Theater
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Philippe Brocard sings "Finch'han del vino" from Don Giovanni:

Brocard started playing the piano at the age of five. In 2004, he decided to become an opera singer and won the FLAME 2007 competition and a year later came in second at the 15th European Competition of Music in Picardie. He performed as a soloist in several oratorios in France and abroad. 

Recently, he sang Figaro in Madagascar, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at Paris Châtelet Theater, Belcore in Donizetti’s Elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni at the Gigondas’ Festival, Baron Gondremark in La Vie parisienne, Jupiter in Orphée aux enfers, le Comte Oscar in Offenbach’s Bluebeard, Papageno at the 10th Puisaye-Forterre Festival, Dr. Ricin in Hervé’s Chilpéric and Valentin in Gounod’s Faust.  

As a soloist he sang Le chant des partisans at Bastille Day on Paris’ Champs Elysées which was broadcast live on national TV. He recently performed Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte in Paris and Papageno with the Mozart Gesellschaft in Dortmund, Germany.