The Wall opens in Montreal, heads to Cincinnati and possibly the US/Mexican border?

Étienne Dupuis

Julien Bilodeau's new opera The Wall, which is currently playing at Opéra de Montréal through March 24th, will receive it's U.S. premiere at the Cincinnati Opera next season. The work is written for 10 soloists, 48 ​​singers and 70 musicians.

Founding Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters revisited the band's classic 1979 concept album The Wall for a massive world tour that ran from 2010 to 2013, and he worked with Bilodeau on the opera to mark Montreal's 375th anniversary. Waters, who has frequently infused politics into his concerts, has hinted at performing The Wall on the U.S./Mexican border to protest Trump's plan to build a wall to stem immigration.

The opera stars Québecois barihunk Étienne Dupuis as Pink, the fallen rock star, who is overprotected by his mother after his father dies in war. Pink goes on to a failed marriage, a rock career and a dabbling in totalitarianism as he becomes consumed with guilt.

The Cincinnati Opera's production is slated for July 2018 in celebration of the $135 million restoration of Cincinnati Music Hall.

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

Photos from Dead Man Walking: Michael Mayes in Glory Denied

Philip Kalmanovitch and Etienne Dupuis are all smiles as opening night arrives

On February 24h, we mentioned the upcoming performance of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in Montreal, Boston and Eugene, Oregon. We have rehearsal photos from two of those productions, as the much-anticipated opening night in Montreal is upon us.

Etienne Dupuis

Etienne Dupuis is a great example of how much opera is catching up to TV and movies with realistic casting. He hired two personal trainers to get in shape for the role of Joseph De Rocher, which has become a dream role for barihunks. Some of the hottest barihunks in the world have taken on the role of Joseph de Rocher including Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Mel Ulrich, Daniel Okulitch, Jordan Shanahan, Marcus DeLoach and Philip Cutlip. The performance in Montreal also includes Philip Kalmanovitch as a police officer. Many of you will remember him from last year's calendar and probably wouldn't mind being frisked by him.

Performances at Opera de Montreal run from tonight through March16th and tickets are available online.

Etienne Dupuis as Joseph De Rocher in Montreal

Dead Man Walking will open on opposite coasts on March 15th at the Eugene Opera and the Boston Opera Collaborative. If you ever get the chance to see the stage animal Michael Mayes perform this role, don't miss it. His workout photo from Tulsa, as he was preparing for the role a year ago, have rocketed into our ten most visited posts of all-time.

The opera will be performed at the Eugene Opera on March 15 and 17 and tickets are available online.

If you don't have time to schedule a trip to Oregon, there are still six weeks left to get to the Fort Worth Opera Festival where Mayes will portray Colonel Floyd James (Jim) Thompson, America’s longest-held prisoner of war. The opera by Tom Cipullo looks back on Thompson's years as a captive in Vietnam and features Mayes in the title role. If you've not been to this festival, we highly recommend adding it to your agenda, as it's one of the most innovative and entertaining festivals in America. Other operas this year include Puccini's La boheme, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment. Wes Mason, another of our favorite young barihunks, will be appearing as Marcello in La boheme.

Tickets and additional information about the Fort Worth Opera Festival are available on their website.

Michael Mayes getting in character in Eugene

Performances of Dead Man Walking with the Boston Opera Collaborative will run daily from March 15-18 with tickets available online.

Dead Man Walking coming to Montreal, Eugene & Boston

Michael Mayes as Joseph de Rocher and at the gym

We have a million reasons to love composer Jake Heggie, but perhaps we love him most for writing great leading roles for baritones. His opera Dead Man Walking has quickly entered the standard repertory and it's lead character Joseph de Rocher is invariably played by a barihunk. Yet another reason to love him.

Within three weeks, three productions of the opera will be running, one in Eugene, Oregon, one in Boston and the other in Montreal, Quebec. Michael Mayes, who transformed from bari-chunk to bari-hunk, to play the role at the Tulsa Opera, will reprise the role in Eugene. Etienne Dupuis will take on the role in Montreal, with Philip Kalmanovitch also appearing in the cast, who appears regularly on this site. John Arnold and Jonathan Stinson will alternate the role in Boston.

Etienne Dupuis and Jeanette Kelly from the CBC

When Mayes transformed his body during his Tulsa run it created a sensation on Barihunks when we ran the before and after pictures. Apparently, Etienne Dupuis has taken serioulsy the physical demands of the role, as well. He's hired two trainers to get in shape, including helping him develop the skills to sing and do pushups at the same time. You can listen to his interview on the CBC where he talks about getting in shape for the role. Dupuis and hot Jeanette Kelly also spend a good deal of time talking about the concept of barihunks and the increasing need to look the part on stage. We recommend that you play it to the end, so you can hear him sing "Hello" by Lionel Ritchie.

Performances at Opera de Montreal run from March 9-16th and tickets are available online. The opera will be performed at the Eugene Opera on March 15 and 17 and tickets are available online. Performances with the Boston Opera Collaborative will run daily from March 15-18 with tickets available online.

Baritone Version of Werther in Montreal

Phillip Addis

Opera de Montreal will perform the increasingly popular baritone version of Massenet's opera "Werther."

They have cast Phillip Addis as Werther, who actually looks the part of the young, forlorn poet. Although the title role has generally been played by tenors, two recordings came out in 2004 featuring baritones in the lead. Both Luca Grassi and Thomas Hampson recorded the role with great success.

Performance begin on Saturday and run through February 3rd. You can visit the Place des Arts website or the Opera de Montreal website for additional cast and performance information. The opera company's website also included highlight footage of the performance and other multimedia features.

Here is Thomas Hampson singing the famous aria "Pourquoi me reveiller.":



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