André Schuen debuts as Don Giovanni in Montpellier and Versailles

André Schuen as Belcore in Graz (right)

We just learned the André Schuen will be singing the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opéra National Montpellier for the first time in his young career. He had previously sung the role of Masetto in Graz. The opera opens today and there will be six performances running through June 16. The opera then travels to Versailles with the same cast on June 23, 25 & 27, 2013.

We've been watching his rapidly emerging career, which included his sensational shirtless performance as Belcore in Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" at the Graz Opera in Austria in November 2012. After this run of Don Giovanni, Schuen returns to Graz where he will perform Die Heerrufer des Königs in Wagner's Lohengrin, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflote and  Alphonse in Donizetti's La favorite.

We will try to post pictures as soon as they are available. 

Emerging Barihunk: Nicolas Courjal

Here's a shot of Nicolas Courjal as Masetto looking at fellow barihunk Franco Pomponi in a production of Don Giovanni in Montpellier, where he is currently singing The Speaker in Die Zauberflote opposite Detlef Roth, the brilliant Sandrine Piau and the Queen of the Night as sung by Uran Urtnasan-Cozzoli.

The French-born bass studied at the Conservatory in Renne and established himself at the famed Opera Comique in Paris. Like many basses, he's not given many barihunk roles, getting stuck singing Zuniga instead of Escamillo, and Basilio rather than the Barber. That's why we decided to feature a picture of him offstage, so that Barihunk fans can see him in his full glory and not dressed up looking like Moses.

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