Joseph Lattanzi in free concert and world premiere

Joseph Lattanzi (Photos from artist website)

Barihunk Joseph Lattanzi will be one of the featured stars of Cincinnati Opera's free Opera in the Park concert on June 9th. He'll be joined at Washington Park by his fellow cast members from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which is being performed on June 13 and 15. They include sopranos Janai Brugger and Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb and tenor Martin Bakari. Also performing will be Piotr Buszewski, Liv Redpath, Thomas Dreeze and hunkentenor Aaron Blake.

No tickets are required for the event, but guests are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs, Concessions and food trucks will be on site.

In addition to The Marriage of Figaro, Lattanzi will join the company from July 22-27 for the world premiere of Scott Davenport Richards and David Cote's opera Blind Injustice, which explores the true stories of these six people who were tried, convicted, imprisoned, then ultimately freed by the Ohio Innocence Project. Joining him in the cast are fellow barihunks Miles Wilson-Toliver and Morgan Smith.

Casts and additional information on the Cincinnati Opera season can be found online. 

Later this season, Lattanzi will reprise the role of Hawkins Fuller in Gregory Spears' Fellow Travelers at the Arizona Opera and then perform Dandini in Rossini's L Cenerentola at the Virginia Opera.

Ricky Ian Gordon's new opera Morningstar premieres in Cincinnati

Morgan Smith (left) and Andrew Lovato (right)

The Cincinnati Opera is presenting its first world premiere in 50 years with Ricky Ian Gordon's Morningstar, which opens on June 30th and runs through July 19th. The cast features two barihunks familiar to readers of this site, Morgan Smith as Aaron Greenspan and Andrew Lovato as Harry Engel. The cast also includes Twyla Robinson as Becky, Elizabeth Pojanowski as Sadie, Elizabeth Zharoff as Esther, Jennifer Zetlan as Fanny and hunkentenor Andrew Bidlack as Irving Tashman.

The libretto was adapted from Sylvia Regan’s 1940 play about Russian Jewish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side in the early 20th century. The story revolves are eh 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire where 146 workers perished, most of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Gordon's grandmother, Rebecca Lieberman, who worked at the sweatshop survived because she was home sick the day of the fire.

Gordon teamed up with libbretis William M. Hoffman, who wrote the play As Is and the libretto for The Ghosts of Versailles to compose the piece for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. That effort failed to materialize, but the opera got a second chance in 2012, when Opera Fusion: New Works teamed up with the Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music to present the work at a workshop for unproduced contemporary operas.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online. 

Seattle Opera keeps barihunk tradition alive in new era

German bass-barihunk Andreas Bauer

The Speight Jenkins era at the Seattle Opera is officially over, as incoming General Director Aidan Lang has announced his first full season, which will be presented in 2015-16. The good news is that the company's long-standing commitment to barihunks is in tact with some of the world's sexiest baritones and basses in all of their casts!

The six season opera will include a new production, a world premiere, and two of the repertory's greatest operas that have never been seen before in Seattle, Verdi's Nabucco and Donizetti's Maria Stuarda. Lang is also maintaining Seattle Opera's great Wagnerian tradition by presenting The Flying Dutchman with barihunk Greer Grimsley. He'll be alternating the role with Alfred Walker.

Nabucco will feature the Seattle debuts of barihunks Andreas Bauer and Christian Van Horn alternating the role of the High Priest Zaccaria, in a cast that also includes Gordon Hawkins in the title role and Mary Elizabeth Williams in the fiendishly difficult role of his daughter Abigaille.

Morgan Smith (left) and John Moore (right)

The company is also presenting the world premiere of Jack Perla's An American Dream, which resulted from the company's story telling initiative, the Belonging(s) Project. The World War II based libretto tells the story of strangers bound together after a Japanese American family is forcibly removed from where they live on an island in Puget Sound, and the new residents slowly piece together the history of their home. Barihunk Morgan Smith will sing the role of Jim, an American soldier married to Eva, a German Jew who has fled the Nazis and moved to the Pacific Northwest.

Morgan Smith will also alternate the role of Count Almaviva in a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with fellow barihunk John Moore. The cast also includes barihunk Aubrey Allicock as Figaro, a role he will rotate with Shenyang.

Sarah Larsen with  Michael Todd Simpson, Steven LaBrie, Joseph Lattanzi, and Colin Ramsey in the Seattle Opera's The Consul modeling Barihunk tee shirts (Photo by Elise Bakketun)

Other barihunks appearing with the company are Michael Todd Simpson as Cecil in Maria Stuarda and Keith Phares and  Brett Polegato rotating the role of Zurga in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. The production will also include the Seattle Opera debut of Jonathan Lemalu as Nourabad. The female leads in the Donizetti will be Christine Rice and Joyce El-Khoury as the doomed queen, while Mary Elizabeth Williams and Keri Alkema sing Queen Elizabeth I, her hated rival.

Tickets and additional cast information are available online. 

Morgan Smith featured in Opera News

Morgan Smith (Photo © James Salzano 2014;Grooming Affan Malik)

Morgan Smith has rugged good looks, striking intelligence, charismatic stage presence and a powerful baritone of mingled velvet and steel — yet he considers himself a work in progress. “One of my biggest challenges has been thinking too much,” he says. “People say the best singers are those who are able to turn down the velocity of the wheels in their head — not to say I’m some brilliant mind, but I do have a very analytical, active mind, and I often feel I could be better at turning that off at the appropriate times.” But he notes that a singer has to earn the right to let go. “It’s so important for any artist — in order to be a vessel, in order to have the story speak through them, the technical ducks have to be in a row.”

Smith grew up in White Plains, playing cello, jazz bass and soccer (Columbia recruited him as a goalie), but a high-school production of Into the Woods opened the door to vocal studies, and by the time he had earned his Ivy League B.A., he was ready to pursue his master’s degree at Mannes. “And then what do you do after that?” he says. “You hurry up and wait for your pants to fit.” 

[CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING AT OPERA NEWS]

San Diego Opera Saved; Barihunks in all 3 Operas

Alex Esposito is bringing his definitive Leporello to San Diego

Never underestimate the power of social media or the devotion of hard core opera lovers. On March 19, the San Diego Opera stunned the world when it voted to close the company at the end of the 2014 season. Social media exploded with employees, performers and orchestra members leading the charge. Questions were raised about the management of the company and the motives for closing.

Yesterday, Board President Carol Lazier, surrounded by fellow board members, opera staff, choristers and union members announced that the 2015 season will proceed after they raised over $2 million in crowd-funding campaigns. Lazier donated an additional $1 million to attain a goad requested by the Board to proceed with the new season.

Morgan Smith and Franco Pomponi

That season will include barihunks in each of their productions, which had already been planned under the old regime.  One opera was dropped due to the cost to produce it, which was Wagner’s Tannhäuser. The singers who were scheduled to perform in the opera have been invited to sing in one of two gala concerts, a recital, or come back and sing for the opera in a future season.

The scheduled operas include Puccini's La bohème with Morgan Smith as Marcello,  Mozart's Don Giovanni with  Ildebrando D’Arcangelo in the title role and Alex Esposito as Leporello, and the San Diego premiere of John Adams’ Nixon in China with Franco Pomponi.

You can still donate to the San Diego Opera fundraising campaign online or purchase tickets for the new season.

Barihunk Feast in Fort Worth: Pearl Fishers and Silent Night

Photos by Rachel Parker

The Fort Worth Opera Festival, one of our favorite stops on the opera circuit, kicked off the season with a stunning production of Bizet's Pearl Fishers featuring barihunks Lee Poulis as Zurga and Justin Hopkins as Nourabad. We should also mention that hunkentenor Sean Panikkar, of Forte fame, adds to the beefcake fest AND sings Nadir's beautiful aria "Je crois entendre encore."

Any opera directed by John de los Santos promises to be entertaining and an oft-static work like Pearl Fishers needs the touch of someone who can direct AND choreograph. De los Santos' non-stop action in the Mikado at the Festival in 2011 had audiences rolling in the aisles. We've heard that his dance scenes are magnificent. Throw in a shirtless Lee Poulis with his pants hanging low on his torso and you have an operatic feast for the eyes and the ears.

Justin Hopkins and the dancers from Fort Worth Opera's Pearl Fishers

The opera is the story of two men who fight over the same woman, make up and then fight over her again when she reappears. In between there is one of the most famous duets in all of opera and a beautiful aria for the girl Leïla. One of the men gives up his life to save Leïla and his friend. This was reality TV before reality TV.

There are additional performances on April 27 and May 2 and tickets are available online.

Dan Kempson, Lt. Gordon in Fort Worth's Silent Night

If two barihunks isn't enough for you, then you'll enjoy the next opera at the Fort Worth Opera Festival, which has four bariunks.  Kevin Puts' Silent Night will be performed on May 4 and 10 with barihunks Dan Kempson as Lt. Gordon, Aaron Sørensen as the French General, Craig Irvin as Lt. Horstmayer and Morgan Smith as Lt. Audebert.

Aaron Sørensen, the French General in Silent Night: "Il est mignon!"

The opera is based on the screenplay Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion and recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history. On WWI’s western front, Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they share Christmas and bury their dead.
 
You can listen to the entire opera online at composer Kevin Puts' website. 

Matthew Worth debuts new website: Moby-Dick on the horizon

As we mentioned in a previous post, barihunk Matthew Worth will be making his debut with the Washington National Opera as Starbuck in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick. Worth will take on the role that fellow barihunk Morgan Smith performed in the premiere and which is featured on DVD. That performance was named "Best Opera on DVD" in our "Best of 2013" feature last month.

Matthew Worth

We can't wait to hear the sublimely gifted Worth take on the critical role of Captain Ahab's first mate Starbuck, the family man who tries desperately to dissuade Ahab from his single-minded, suicidal pursuit of Moby-Dick. The role includes more beautiful baritone music from Jake Heggie in the aria "Captain Ahab? I must Speak with you."

Matthew Worth performs Schumann's Dichterliebe (complete):

In anticipation of this major debut, the Connecticut native has launched a new website, which features a generous supply of photos and two videos. You can check out the site HERE.

In addition to two upcoming recitals, he will return to the Pittsburgh Opera in April as title character in Philip Glass' Orphée, a role that he received critical acclaim performing at the Virginia Opera last year. He was joined in that production by fellow barihunk Christopher Temporelli and one of our Barihunks Calendar grantees for 2013, tenor Jonathan Blalock.

Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick coming on DVD and PBS Great Performances

The epic performance of Jake Heggie's opera Moby-Dick from the San Francisco Opera is now on DVD and Blueray disc.  The release is part of a new partnership between the San Francisco Opera and EuroArts Music International, which will include six operas taped at the historic War Memorial Opera House.

The all-star cast includes barihunk Morgan Smith, Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne and is conducted by Patrick Summers. Smith plays the critical role of Captain Ahab's first mate Starbuck, the first mate and family man who tries desperately to dissuade Ahab from his single-minded, suicidal pursuit of Moby-Dick. The role includes more beautiful baritone music from Jake Heggie in the aria "Captain Ahab? I must Speak with you." You can listen to a recording of the aria with piano on barihunk Randal Turner's site.

Heggie and Gene Scheer brilliantly adapted Herman Melville’s epic tale of a fierce, obsessive whaling-boat captain who descends into madness and puts his crew in mortal danger. The opera is already assured to be part of the operatic standard repertory, with every production receiving critical praise for the work. The opera was originally co-commissioned by the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, State Opera of South Australia and the Calgary Opera and debuted on April 30, 2010.

The opera is 142 minutes, but the DVD includes and additional hour of extras including interviews with Morgan Smith, Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne, Jake Heggie, Patrick Summers and Gene Scheer.

The opera will also be presented as part of PBS's Great Performances 40th anniversary season on November 1, 2013 at 9 PM. Check your local listings.

There are two upcoming live performances of the opera. The Fargo-Moorhead Opera will present free scenes from the opera on October 1, 2 and 3, 2013 with tenor David Hamilton, tenor Joshua Kohl, baritone Cory Renbarger and bass Ashraf Sewailam. The highly anticipated East Coast premiere of the opera will take place at the Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera from February 22 - March 8, 2014. Starbuck will be sung by newlywed barihunk Matthew Worth and Queequeg by fellow barihunk Eric Greene. Tickets go on sale December 4, 2013 to the public and on November 25, 2013 to Kennedy Center members.

Morgan Smith's many upcoming debuts (mostly in Texas!)

Morgan Smith

Perhaps one of the most anticipated American premieres this year is that of exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger. We covered the opera two years ago when it was at the English National Opera with barihunk Leigh Melrose as Tadeusz. A year earlier the piece was done in Bregenz with Artur Rucinski in the baritone role.

In January 2014, the opera is coming to the Houston Grand Opera with barihunk Morgan Smith as Tadeusz, in a cast that also includes rising tenor sensation Joseph Kaiser, two of our favorite sopranos Kelly Kaduce and Melody Moore, as well as mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt. David Pountney’s production and Johan Engels’s two-level set, which received critical acclaim at ENO and in Bregenz, will be brought to Houston.

Leigh Melrose in The Passenger

The libretto is based on the eponymous novel by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz and is set in the late 1950s. It depicts a German couple, Liese and Walter, on board an ocean liner where former SS officer Liese thinks she recognizes an Auschwitz prisoner among their fellow passengers. Although Weinberg completed his score in 1968, the opera was not performed until 2006 and not fully staged until the 2010 Bregenz Festival.

The Houston Grand Opera will present a number of activities related to the opera. A series of three free concerts begins on November 10 with the world premiere of a new work by HGO Studio alumnus and composer David Hanlon, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht and based on the story of his grandfather, one of the thousands of Jewish people arrested on that infamous night and sent to Dachau. On December 9, they will host a concert exploring the music, art, poetry, and philosophy that emerged from Terezín, a concentration camp located in the Czech Republic. The third and final performance on February 22 features music of memory and hope with world premieres of works by Lawrence Siegel and Paul English based on text and inspiration from Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren.

Morgan Smith

Morgan has a number of new roles besides Tadeusz that he is adding to his repertoire next season. In Novemeber 2013, he takes on Captain Brandt in Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra at the Florida Grand Opera. In March 2014, he debuts the role of Fritz in Erich Korngold's Die Tode Stadt at the beautiful Winspear Opera House in Dallas. When he wraps up, he heads down Interstate 30 to the Fort Worth Opera where he performs Lt. Audebert in Kevin Puts' Silent Night in a cast full of his fellow barihunks.

If you've not had the chance to see Morgan Smith live, we highly recommend adding one of these performances to your opera travel calendar. He is one of the most compelling young artists to hit the scene in years.

Dreamy Casting: Barihunks on the air

Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Don Giovanni

Thanks to a heads up from an alert reader, we've learned that Edwin Crossley-Mercer just performed his first Don Giovanni in Dijon, France. He was joined by fellow barihunk Damien Pass as Masetto. If you missed the performance, you're in luck, as it's temporarily available on Medici.tv. Click HERE to watch the entire performance.

Medici.tv has a number of current releases featuring barihunks, including Purcell's Dido and Æneas with Lucas Meachem, Gounod's Romeo and Juliet with François Le Roux, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with Stéphane Degout and Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise featuring both Henk Neven and Rod Gilfry.

Guido Loconsolo

On April 4th, Italian barihunk Guido Loconsolo makes his Met debut as the scheming Egyptian general Achilla in Handel's Giulio Cesare. He'll be part of a dream cast that includes David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Alice Coote and the amazing Christophe Dumaux as Tolomeo.

You can watch the April 27th matinee as part of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series which will be transmitted live around the world.

Guido Loconsolo previously sang the role of Achilla at Glyndebourne. Earlier this season, he sang the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne, Publio in a new production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in Freiburg and Essen, Germany.

Simon Keenlyside

Fans of Simon Keenlyside will get plenty of chances to hear the ageless barihunk online. On April 6th, Radio France will broadcast his performance of Berg's Wozzeck from the Vienna, Staatsoper under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. On April 25, BBC 3 will rebroadcast his Macbeth opposite the riveting Lady Macbeth of Liudmyla Monastyrska from the Royal Opera House. This is a performance that is not to be missed! BBC 3 has also announced that they will be broadcasting Keenlyside's Eugene Onegin from the Royal Opera House. The date and time has not been announced, but we believe that it will be June 1st.

Morgan Smith

On Sunday, April 7th at 8:00 PM/PST San Francisco's KDFC will broadcast Jake Heggie's latest masterpiece Moby-Dick. The opera stars barihunk Morgan Smith along with Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne, Matthew O'Neill and Robert Orth. The performance is a rebroadcast from last season.

Duncan Rock Debuts as Giovanni; Shirtless in Heggie Piece

Duncan Rock in Jake Heggie's “For a Look or a Touch”

Barihunk Duncan Rock had a busy couple of days in November. On November 18th, he was asked to step in at the last minute in the Welsh National Opera's production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni." The next night he opened at the King's Head Theatre in London in the critical role of Manfred in Jake Heggie's “For a Look or a Touch.”

Heggie's powerful chamber opera is the tale of two gay lovers, both prisoners in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The text is based on the journal of the late Manfred Lewin, interviews with his lover Gad Beck and other survivors who were featured in the film "Paragraph 175." Heggie has created a mesmerizing and haunting depiction of the loss and persecution of the gay victims of the Holocaust. We were fortunate enough to get these amazing pictures of Duncan Rock as Manfred. 


We've featured this before, but it's worth sharing again. Here is the amazingly talented Morgan Smith singing "Golden Years" from "For a Look or a Touch":

Time is running out to purchase our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar. Please help us support young artists by purchasing your calendar today. Click HERE to order you copy and enjoy the world's hottest and most talented singers all year long.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Morgan Smith Triumphs In "Moby Dick"

By all accounts Jake Heggie's new opera "Moby Dick" is a critical success. The opera is having its world premiere in Dallas right now and will come to the San Francisco Opera in 2012. Tenor Ben Heppner has been getting rave reviews as Captain Ahab, but critics have also been singling out barihunk Morgan Smith for his portrayal as Starbuck. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "Baritone Morgan Smith brought mellifluous lyricism and anguish to Starbuck's tuneful arias..."

The highly respected Washington Post music critic Ann Midgette wrote:

"Ahab’s other foil is Starbuck, the first mate who keeps trying to reason with him, to no avail (each nearly murders the other). This was sung by Morgan Smith, a baritone with a strong mid-weight voice and acting ability whom I will be looking out for in future."

Although we don't have a clip of Morgan Smith from the opera, here he is singing Jake Heggie's "Golden Years":



Moby Dick runs through May 16 and you can visit the Dallas Opera website for more information.

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Jonathan Beyer Wins "Classical Idol" Competition

[Jonathan Beyer]


In a competition devoted to oratorio and opera, barihunk Jonathan Beyer emerged as the winner of the Rochester Oratorio Society’s fourth annual Classical Idol Singing Competition. Topping nine other contestants, Beyer claimed the title, as well as winning the popular audience favorite award. The young American baritone sang "News has a kind of mystery" from John Adams' opera "Nixon in China."

The Classical Idol Competition has developed steadily since it’s inception in 2007, and now attracts vocalists from across the nation and Canada. As the reigning Classical Idol, Beyer will return to Rochester next season and perform as a soloist with the Rochester Oratorio Society.

Jonathan Beyer can next be seen in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's "Moby Dick" performing the role of Captain Gardiner. That production also includes barihunk Morgan Smith as Starbuck. The production runs from April 30 through May 16 at the beautiful new Winspear Opera House. Click HERE for more information.

[Morgan Smith]


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Happy Birthday, Morgan Smith

Barihunks would like to wish Morgan Smith a Happy Birthday! Smith is a resident at the opera in Leipzig, where he is currently portraying Leander in Prokofiev's "Love for Three Oranges."

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