Luca Pisaroni has charmed the Austrians and become the toast of Vienna during his debut run at the Vienna State Opera. Pisaroni is performing as Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro through February 26. The media has focused on Pisaroni despite a cast that includes fellow barihunk Erwin Schrott as Count Almaviva and Dorothea Roschmann as the Countess.
Luca Pisaroni with his wife Catherine & Tristan (Photo courtesy of Kurier)
Here are two wonderful German language profiles on the Italian barihunk. The first is from the Austrian newspaper the Kurier and you can read it HERE.
Luca Pisaroni & Tristan (Photo courtesy of Der Standard)
This second piece appealed in the Austrian national paper Der Standard and you can read it HERE.
Erwin Schrott: Sharing the barihunk limelight in Vienna
One of our favorite readers and prominent figures in the music world reminded us that today is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday. In celebration, here are some of the world's most popular barihunks singing music from the world's greatest composer:
MARKUS WERBA - LE NOZZE DI FIGARO:
RANDAL TURNER- COSI FAN TUTTE
SIMON KEENLYSIDE - DON GIOVANNI
PAUL ARMIN EDELMANN - DIE ZAUBEFLOTE
BONUS: EDDA MOSER SINGING THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT (THE GREATEST MOZART VOCAL PERFORMANCE EVER)
Here is barihunk Luca Pisaroni looking very different. Amazingly, the photo on the left is of him singing Bach. Clearly, the chest has been shaved, but a very Biblical looking beard remains on his face. On the right, he's performing Mozart with a clean shaven face and a hairy chest.
Either way the guy is sexy. If you have a preference, let us know in the comments section.
Here he is singing Figaro's aria "Non più andrai" from Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra Bastille.
You can ring in the New Year by listening to two incredible barihunks, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo and Alex Esposito, singing Don Giovanni and Leporello respectively. The performance is from the Vienna State Opera and will be conducted by Franz Welser-Most. The performance will be broadcast on BBC Three beginning at 6 PM GMT.
In the meantime you can enjoy Alex Esposito singing "Se vuol balare" from Le Nozze di Figaro:
These shots of barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien are from Krakow where he is performing in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin." There are three performances left on December 19 and January 14 & 16. If you're anywhere near Poland make sure to check out his amazing portrayal.
In 2011, he's scheduled to reprise his portrayal of Malatesta in Don Pasquale at The Met, play the Count in "Le Nozze di Figaro" in Japan, repeat his definitive performance of King Roger in Madrid and return to The Met for Marcello in La Boheme. Oddly, his calendar shows no performances in Chicago, Seattle or anywhere in California.
We received an email from Germany informing us that barihunks Bo Skovhus and Christopher Maltman would be performing Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" and that Erwin Schrott and Simon Keenlyside would be perfoming "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival in Austria. Those performances will be in August 2011 and July 2011 respectively, so we have plenty time of time to cover it.
At the end of the email they asked us if we were familiar with Andre Schuen. They raved about his voice and incredible fidelity to the text. We thought that he was good enough and sexy enough to introduce him to the site. Let us know what you think at Barihunks@gmail.com.
Barihunk Erwin Schrott aka "Hot Schrott" is switching his recording label from Decca to Sony Classical.
The Uruguayan singer has signed an “exclusive, long-term agreement” with Sony Classical and will release his first CD in April 2011. The recording will feature music from his native South America, and include tangos by Astor Piazzolla, Pablo Ziegler and Juan Carlos Coblan, as well as songs from Argentina and Brazil.
Next year will feature a heavy dose of Mozart, as he sings Leporello and Figaro at Salzburg, Don Giovanni in Berlin and the Count in Vienna.
Keep in mind that we're still posting Messiah's where barihunks are performing. Send us your listing to Barihunks@gmail.com.
Mariusz Kwiecien sings the Count's aria "Vedrò, mentr'io sospiro" from Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro." This was recorded at the Reate Festival outside of Rome in 2010.
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One would never know that the San Francisco Opera faced budget cuts like every other opera company, as they have opened their season with critically acclaimed performances of Aida, Werther and Le Nozze di Figaro. The first cast of Nozze just wrapped up with the stunning Susanna of Danielle de Niese, barihunk Lucas Meachem as Count Almaviva and Figaro of Luca Pisaroni. The second cast looks just as promising with barihunk Kostas Smoriginas replacing Pisaroni.
The Lithuanian singer is known as the "Johnny Depp of Opera" and he promises to match, if not exceed Pisaroni's, sexy portrayal of Figaro.
Kostas Smoriginas: "Johnny Depp of Opera"
Smoriginas recently wowed audiences at Covent Garden with his Colline and debuted his searingly hot Escamillo at the Israeli Opera. Although this is his debut with the San Francisco Opera, he has previously sung Figaro in the U.S. with the Washington National Opera.
We provided some advance coverage for Ravinia's current festival, including the recent cast changes to Le Nozze di Figaro. Ravinia is always a wonderful place to enjoy great music with family and friends and this year is no exception.
We were pleased to see that the Chicago Tribune's respected music critic John von Rhein not only enjoyed the performance where John Relyea replaced Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, but he referred to two of the singers as "barihunks" in his review:
I was even more taken with Oropesa, the bright-voiced, very musical singer who played the chambermaid Susanna. Her sharpwitted and beautifully sung portrayal was a smooth fit with John Relyea's amused and amusing manservant, Figaro. A big man with a deep, sonorous bass-baritone, he was a pillar of vocal and dramatic strength in a role completely different from the sardonic devil he played in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" last season at Lyric. One would never have guessed he was a late replacement for the indisposed Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.
The show's other "barihunk," Illinois baritone Nathan Gunn, brought manly elegance to Almaviva's music, playing the wayward aristocrat as a handsome seducer who realizes his days of aristocratic privilege in the bedroom are numbered.
We don't have any video or photos yet from Ravinia, but here is a selection from YouTube of Nathan Gunn singing from the Barber of Seville with tenor John Osborn. Gunn remains one of the most viewed barihunks on our site and appears to have what amounts to a cult following.
The Ravinia Festival runs through September 7th and you can still see Annie Get Your Gun, Kiri te Kanawa, Nelly Furtado, Counting Crows, the Beach Boy and Train.
[Rosina (mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Jarrett) and Figaro (baritone David Krohn) plan her escape in the Aspen Opera Theater Center's new production of "The Barber of Seville." - Photo byAlex Irvin]
We might as well keep the trilogy theme going, as the Aspen Music Festival is presenting the Beaumarchais Trilogy from July 31 through August 21. The trilogy's links are Count Almaviva and Rosina who we encounter in Rossini's "Barber of Seville," Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," and John Corigliano's modern masterpiece "The Ghosts of Versailles."
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French watchmaker, spy, revolutionary, diplomat, gun smuggler and author. His Figaro plays Le Barbier de Seville, Le Mariage de Figaro and La Mère coupbale have provided inspiration for two classics of the standard repertoire and a modern work that seems destined to stay around.
Beaumarchais was known to show sympathy to the lower classes. Figaro's character is portrayed as more wily than his aristocratic and better-educated counterparts and his plays are filled with mockery of society's "nobler" class. The character of Figaro is still revered in France and throughout the world as a symbol of the common man standing up to the priveleged class.
It is extremely rare to have the opportunity to see the Beaumarchais Trilogy performed in one place, so the undertaking by the Aspen Music Festival is particularly notable. Barihunks fans will be thrilled to learn that David Krohn will perform Figaro in the Barber of Seville. Unfortunately, we don't know who is cast is in any of the other roles since the Festival doesn't post cast lists, which we find highly insulting to young singers. We rarely criticize anyone on this site, but posting the names of conductors and directors, but not singers is inexcusable.
Two of the world's greatest artists, Diana Damrau and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, teamed up with Riccardo Muti in 2006 for a performance of "Tutto è tranquilo e placido" from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna. He is currently performing the opera at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with fellow barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien. Tickets are almost completely sold out, so order now if you plan on attending.
We're posting this video to preview d'Arcangelo's mastery of the Mozart Trilogy: Nozze, Giovanni and Cosi.
The Italian barihunk recently performed Cosi fan tutte at the Opéra de Paris with fellow barihunk Paolo Szot. In December, he pairs up with Mozart and yet another barihunk as he performs Don Giovanni opposite Alex Esposito's internationally acclaimed Leporello. The performance will be at the Staatsoper in Vienna under Franz Welser-Möst.
[Don Giovanni in Munich; Mariusz Kwiecien; Alex Esposito & Kwiecien]
In January 2011, d'Arcangelo returns to Vienna to perform Cosi again under conductor Jérémie Rhorer.
We spent a good deal of time covering the Isaac Mizrahi production of "A Little Night Music" in St. Louis in some recent posts. We featured Chris Herbert pretty prominently, but also mentioned that Aaron Agulay and Lee Gregory were in the cast. Lee Gregory is married to the supremely gifted soprano Kelly Kaduce Gregory and we've just learned that the couple will be performing together again.
Lee Gregory will be singing Shaunard in La Boheme with Kelly Kaduce Gregory as Mimi from November 13-21 at the Michigan Opera Theater. This is the same company that brought us the U.S. debut of Barihunks favorite Randal Turner, so they hold a special place in our hearts.
We also feel compelled to bestow some praise on Michigan Opera Theater general director David DiChiera, who has kept opera running in a city that has faced some severe economic challenges. It was recently announced that DiChiera was selected as one of the recipients of the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts’ Opera Honors for his lifetime contribution to opera. The other recipients are Martina Arroyo, Eve Queler, and Philip Glass.
This site would like to offer a special CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. DiChiera.
It doesn't get any better that Mariusz Kwiecien and Erwin Schrott singing together - vocally or visually. The reviews are in for this pairing and it sounds like the two Über-Hunks stole the show.
The Times of London wrote:
"...Erwin Schrott who, in superbly cultivated voice, has a knowing, dignified and often very amusing sense of self-possession and a vocal depth that, in Act IV, can find the true darkness of despair. His counterpart in the struggle for male self-awareness is the Count of Mariusz Kwiecin, a rabid hunter, filling his own inner vacuum with a virtuoso anger and violence that can make body and voice quiver from top to toe."
[Kwiecien & Schrott talking to the BBC]
Mark Berry, writing for MusicWeb wrote:
"...there were two stellar performances from Erwin Schrott as Figaro and Marius Kwiecien as the Count. Both are artists – and actors – of extraordinary charisma. Testosterone levels registered during their confrontations might well have exceeded all previous records. Never have I felt so keenly the fury of Figaro’s ‘Perché no?’ immediately prior to the third act finale. The Count’s frustrations of his valet had finally pushed him too far; I thought he might kill his master. For the chemistry between the two baritones was something special indeed, their relationship far more credible than any other. Kwiecien possessed the stage as to the manor born, the dark arrogance of his vocal portrayal enhanced by his physical presence. And the slipping away of his authority, supplanted by the upstart Figaro, was if anything all the more impressive in its astonishing subtlety. But victor, of course, there could only be one: Schrott left one in no doubt that this was ultimately Figaro’s show. Try as I might, I could not summon up a single reservation – and, to be frank, I have no inclination to do so. Whether it be his ease with the Italian language, the diction of extraordinary and meaningful clarity, not least in his daring sashays into parlando delivery, the beauty of his legato tone, the smouldering sexuality, or the equally extraordinary vulnerability displayed in his fourth-act aria, this Figaro had it all. Schrott’s is an assumption every bit the equal of his astounding Don Giovanni."
[Erwin Schrott, Photo by Bill Cooper]
Tim Ashley in the Guardian wrote:
"...in Mariusz Kwiecien's Count and Erwin Schrott's Figaro we have performers equal in vocal and dramatic sensibility, capable of realising the central conflict in terms of psychology and class consciousness.
You sense danger whenever they are on stage. Kwiecien's sexual insistence carries the terrifying potential for abuse. Schrott paces like a frustrated animal before stalking the Count with a shotgun. The climax comes in a phrase of recitative, often overlooked. "I never dispute matters of which I know nothing," Schrott hisses at Kwiecien, eyeball to eyeball for the first time. The world seems changed in an instant."
The production at the Royal Opera House runs through July 3 and Jacques Imbrailo will take over for Kwiecien in the later performances.
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Erwin Schrott's Figaro in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" can be heard today on BBC4 at 7:30 PM GST (2:30 PM EST and 11:30 AM PST). Schrott has become famous for his portrayal of Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni and he will be joined by and all-star cast. Gerald Finley will star as Count Almaviva, Miah Persson as Susannah and Dorothea Roschmann as the Countess.
Schrott has also announced that his next album will be dedicated to tango music. Schrott started performing them as encores in his recitals and they have become something of a sensation. No release date has been set.
"You need balls to sing Don Giovanni, you must save it all for the end when you explode, then die” -- Mariusz Kwiecien
Music OMH interviewed barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien in London where he is performing Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House opposite fellow barihunk Erwin Schrott. Read the entire interview HERE.
The Washington National Opera has released a preview video of their current production of "Le Nozze de Figaro" with barihunks Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Count Almaviva and Ildar Abdrazakov as Figaro. As you can see from the screen cap, "Teddy Bare" manages to give the audience a little shot of skin even when he's not singing barihunk classics such as Dead Man Walking, Don Giovanni or A Streetcar Named Desire.
There are two performances left with Rhodes and Abdrazakov and one with the alternate cast of Trevor Scheunemann and Kostas Smoriginas. Visit the Washington National Opera website for casts and times.
Chicago's famed Ravinia Festival has announced a performance of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" which will celebrate conductor James Conlon's 60th birthday.
The performance will feature barihunks Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Figaro and Nathan Gunn as the Count. Conlon will conduct the magnificent Chicago Symphony Orchestra and lead a cast that also includes Rebecca Evans as the Countess.
Performances are on August 6th and 8th. Order early, as this promises to be one hottest tickets of the festival
It's been two years since we featured the emerging barihunk Grant Doyle. The Australian singer caught our eye singing Demetrius in Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We were wondering what he's been up to and were delighted to see that he'll be portraying the Count in "Le Nozze di Figaro" at Garsington Opera this summer.
We also noticed that he's set up a YouTube site and he has his first video up and running. Here he is singing the Torreador's song from Carmen:
We've been focusing a lot on Mozart's "Don Giovanni" lately, but the Lyric Opera of Chicago has assembled a dream cast for their "Le Nozze de Figaro," led by the "Hot Pole" Mariusz Kwiecien's Count. Other performers include barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro, Danielle de Niese as Susanna, Anne Schwanewilms as the Countess and Joyce DiDonato as Cherubino.
Even with a great cast like this one, Kwiecien always seems to dominate the stage with great acting and his amazing voice. He is indisputably one of the most compelling performers in opera today.
More than most productions, this Lyric cast is dominated by Mariusz Kwiecien as the volatile, philandering Count. One can go a long time before hearing the tortuous Vedro, mentr’io sospiro delivered with this kind of technical ease and forceful malevolence. With his aristocratic bearing and saturnine presence, the Polish baritone owns this role like no other singer today, and his refined, commanding vocalism brought out the Count’s bluster as well as a surprising, touching vulnerability at the opera’s coda.
[Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro & Danielle de Niese as Susanna]
John von Rhein, the classical music critic for the Chicago Tribune, managed to include Kyle Ketelsen's barihunk status in his insightful review:
The "downstairs" servant couple, Kyle Ketelsen in the title role and Danielle de Niese as the maid Susanna, were finely balanced with their aristocratic counterparts, Mariusz Kwiecien as Count Almaviva and Anne Schwanewilms as the Countess.
Ketelsen, playing a good guy this time following his devilish turn as Mephistopheles in Gounod's "Faust" earlier in the season, brought a firm yet flexible bass-baritone to Figaro's two arias, "Se vuol ballare" and "Aprite un po' quegli occhi," in which the Count's manservant railed against the perfidy of women.
Since the comic drama turns on the extended battle of wits between Figaro and the Count — who has mounted an assault on the virtue of Figaro's intended, Susanna — the American "barihunk's" ability to create a virile, likable hero in both voice and manner, while keeping the recitatives crackling, was very much to the point.
[Kwiecien's virile Count]
The Tribune also mentioned that Kwiecien brought down the house on opening night, an occurance that is becoming pretty common with this gifted performer and singer.
Kwiecien made a formidable predator through his baritonal command as well as the vain, aristocratic hauteur he brought to the philandering Count Almaviva. Figaro had all he could do to stay one step ahead of this libidinous bully. "Vedro, mentr'io sospiro," the third-act aria in which the Count vows to punish both servants, brought down the house Sunday.
Performances run through March 27th and you can get more information by contacting the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
