Daniel Okulitch to make ENO debut in Muhly's Marnie; Perform all-Glen Roven concert

Coverboy Daniel Okulitch and performing The Last Savage

Canadian barihunk Daniel Okulitch is hitting the opera stage and the concert platform in London next month. 

On November 18th, he makes his debut with the English National Opera (ENO) as Mark Rutland in the highly anticipated world premiere of Nico Muhly's opera Marnie.  Following his highly-acclaimed opera Two Boys in 2011, this is Muhly’s second world premiere for ENO. Okulitch will be joined by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and soprano Leslie Garrett.

With a libretto by Nicholas Wright, Marnie is based on the novel by Winston Graham and it examines the cost of freedom, the limitations of forgiveness and the impossibility of escaping the past. Set in 1950s London, the psychological thriller tells the story of a woman who has gone through life embezzling her employers, changing her identity, being forced into a loveless marriage by Okulitch's character, and eventually being forced to confront her past. 

Performances run from November 18-December 3 and tickets are available online. 

Glen Roven and Daniel Okulitch sings "Listening to Jazz Now":

In the middle of his run of Marnie, Okulitch will hit the concert stage on November 22 with mezzo-sopranos Kim Criswell and Lucy Schaufer for an evening dedicated to New York-based composer Glen Roven. Okulitch, who has sung Roven's music in numerous concerts, will perform his Songs from the Underground and his setting of Goodnight Moon. 

Roven's Songs of the Underground is a 15-song cycle consisting of songs based on texts by Yeats, Shelley, Milton, Whitman, Auden, Wordsworth, and Dylan Thomas. The music moves between classical and musical theater forms depending on the text. Originally written for soprano Lauren Flanigan, Goodnight Moon is one of two settings by Roven based on the children's books (the other being Runaway Bunny).

The recital will be at the 1901 Arts Club and tickets are available online. The concert also includes Two Song by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Saraband from Symphony No.2 and The Hillary Speeches. 

Malte Roesner in 2018 Barihunk Photo 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!

Benjamin Appl named ECHO Rising Star

Benjamin Appl

German barihunk Benjamin Appl was just named one of the European Concert Hall Organization's (ECHO) six outstanding young artists to become its Rising Stars. The selected Rising Stars receive professional development support and perform a concert tour across the halls of the ECHO network The ECHO Rising Stars series was founded in 1995 and has shaped the musical careers of many of today’s world class artists.

The aim of the Rising Stars series is to bring young and exceptional young artists to new international audiences. The selected artists are offered unparalleled performance opportunities to present musical programs of their choosing in the major concert halls of Europe. A new element for the 2015/2016 season is that each artist also has a new work commissioned for them as part of the series.  Composer Nico Muhly has been chosen to create a piece for Appl.

Other artists chosen this year are pianist Cathy Krier, cellist Harriet Krijgh, Quatour Zaïde, harrpist Remy van Kesteren and Trio Catch.

Cairan Ryan and Nathan Wyatt headed to Tanglewood

Cairan Ryan and Nathan Wyatt

Nathan Wyatt and Cairan Ryan, two talented young artists who were recently featured on this site have been accepted into the 2014 Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Arts Program.

They will work with three legendary singers, Phyllis Curtin, Dawn Upshaw and Stephanie Blythe, as well as other coaches. During their residency they will hone their skills in art song, contemporary music, chamber music, and orchestral projects under the instruction of resident and visiting faculty artists.

This season, they will participate in a performance of Bernstein's Candide with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Koussevitsky Music Shed, as well as performances with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, which will perform Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and other works.

Cairan Ryan was born in Lier, Belgium and emigrated to Calgary, Alberta. He is currently in his second year as a young artist at the Atelier Lyrique de L'Opéra de Montréal. Ryan makes his French debut on May 10 at Choregies d'Orange in a free concert of arias and duets with soprano Marlene Assayag, mezzo-soprano Beste Kalender and tenor Enguerrand De Hys.

In March, Wyatt performed the world premiere of Nico Muhly's work for baritone and orchestra, Pleasure Ground, with the Cincinnati Symphony as part of the MusicNOW Festival. In May, he sings the role of the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro with the American Dream Theater.

Barihunk Nathan Wyatt to premiere Nico Muhly piece

Nathan Wyatt

Barihunk Nathan Wyatt will premiere Nico Muhly's Pleasure Ground tonight as part of the  MusicNOW Festival with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Pleasure Ground depicts the life of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. Tickets are available online.

According to the composer:

"The title Pleasure Ground is a musical joke, a ground being a  recurring bass line that gives structure and melodic content at the same time. I use several grounds in this piece, but the third movement is particularly devoted to one cycle of 13 chords. At first, the ground is hidden inside a chorale-like texture of strings, over which violent brass and percussion snarl and fight. As the baritone sings about nature having overrun his designs, some small ensembles of instruments echo the voice: a bass trombone, sometimes, and others, a little gamelan of harp, bells and winds.

On the text “I have done a great deal of work in my life...” we first hear the ground bass in its proper position: at the bottom of the orchestra. It goes through two cycles, and suddenly transforms into the material from the very opening of the first movement, but here transformed from youthful optimism into something melancholic and halting. The piece ends with a delicate, drone-like texture under the words, “If man is not to live by bread alone, what is better worth doing well than the planting of trees?” This text slowly unfurls over a chordal drone, illuminated from within by slowly shifting woodwinds and from without by celeste, glockenspiel and harp. The idea here is an ideal garden: designed but not fussed-with, communal, and fragilely eternal."

Christopher Bolduc makes Met debut in Two Boys

Christopher Bolduc

Christopher Bolduc is finally making his Metropolitan Opera debut, after being a national semifinalist in both the 2007 and 2008 Metropolitan National Council Auditions. He'll be performing as Jake in Nico Muhly's Two Boys, which we've been following since its premiere at the English National Opera in 2011. The much anticipated U.S. premiere, which happens six years after it was commissioned by the Met, takes place on Monday, October 21 at 8 PM. 

The opera explores identity and desire in the shadowy world of the Internet as a detective investigates the stabbing of one teenage boy by another—and discovers a tangled web of online intrigue. Loosely inspired by real events, the work even comes with a warning for Met audiences about graphic and sexual language.

Performances will run through November 14th and tickets are available online.

This revised version of the ENO production of Two Boys is the first composition to be performed at Met stage since it inaugurated its commissioning program with Lincoln Center Theater seven years ago. If you want to see the opera, you'll have to see it live, since General Manager Peter Gelb said the adult themes ruled out the opera from inclusion in the company's HD theater simulcasts.

Keith Miller in the 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar

Appearing as Peter will be Barihunks calendar model Keith Miller. Other performers include mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as Detective Anne Strawson and tenor Paul Appleby as Brian, a 16-year-old accused of stabbing Jake.

Don't forget that money from this year's Charity Calendar will be determined from suggestions on our Facebook page or on Twitter using the hashtag #Barihunks2014. Money can go to young artist programs or any efforts involving young artists, including recording, recitals or performances. You can purchase a calendar and help out young artists by clicking HERE.