Zachary James prepares for Met debut with a little Cabaret

Zachary James (Photos courtesy of the artist)

Barihunk Zachary James made quite a splash with his super sexy, scantily clad performance of Sally Bowles' "Maybe this time" from Cabaret at the Bearded Ladies’ Late Night Snacks Cabaret, part of Opera Philadelphia’s O19 festival and FringeArts. The lineup also includes the legendary gender bending performer Justin Vivian Bond, as well as opera legends Stephanie Blythe and Anthony Roth Costanzo. There a couple of remaining shows before the festival closes on September 29 and tickets are available online.

The festival came with the following disclaimer; "Late Night Snacks ingredients may include artistic experimentation, adult content, consensual touch, ear worms, nudity, jubilation, great selfie material, rampant queerness, and many repeat visits."

You can see Zachary James' performance HERE.

He said this of the festival. "Several of the singers from Opera Philadelphia’s O19 festival were invited to participate in Late Night Snacks Cabaret in South Philly produced by The Bearded Ladies, a month long nightly event included in this year’s Opera Philly O19 festival and Philly FringeArts festival. We love what we do as opera singers but also all have cravings to step outside of the box and explore our versatility. Late Night Snacks hosted Stephanie Blythe screlting rock and busting out Carmen with ukulele, Anthony Roth Costanzo singing jazz in a smooth baritone, Alissa Anderson belting You Don’t Own Me, Will Liverman singing gospel accompanying himself on piano like a beast, and many more stunning turns. This was a time and space to let our hearts out and explore our hidden desires as artists."

Zachary James in Akhnaten (Photo: Jane Hobson)

James will also be making his Met debut alongside his Late Night Snacks co-stars Anthony Roth Costanzo and Will Liverman, when he reprises his performance as Amenhotep III in Philip Glass' Akhnaten, which runs from Noevember 8-December 7. Tickets are available online.

Barihunks rotate lead in Opera Philadelphia world premiere

Theo Hoffman and Johnny Herford (photo: Maximilian Führig)

Barihunks Theo Hoffman and Johnny Herford will share the lead role in composer Philip Venables and librettist Ted Huffman's new opera Denis & Katya. The opera will premiere on September 18 with Opera Philadelphia as part of their Festival O19.

The true story follows 15-year-olds Denis Muravyov and Katya Vlasova, who livestreamed their final hours on multiple social media platforms after creating a real-time voyeuristic spectacle and leaving behind a trail of devastating footage of their drinking, smoking, cuddling, and crying as they prepared to die.

The couple had been in an armed standoff with Russian Special Forces when they decided to broadcast themselves live on social media, creating a spectacle of real-time voyeurism. The couple became known as the Romeo and Juliet of internet clickbait.

Denis & Katya is scored for four cellos and features a double cast. Theo Hoffman will be joined by mezzo-soprano Siena Licht Miller for opening night, with additional performances on September 21, 22, 25 and 29. The second cast features Johnny Herford and Emily Edmonds for performances on September 21, 23 and 28. Tickets and additional information is available online. 

West Coast fans of Theo Hoffman can catch him this Fall as Papageno in Barrie Kosky's highly acclaimed production of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Los Angeles Opera. Information is available online.

Evan Hughes to perform recital with Les Grandes Interprètes

Evan Hughes (photo: Leela Ross)

American bass-barihunk Evan Hughes will be performing a recital with Les Grandes Interprètes in Toulouse, France on December 10th with accompanist Hélio Vida. 

The program will include selections from Schumann's Kerner Lieder, Hans Christian Andersen Lieder and his Lieder sur des poèmes de Heine, as well as Sibelius' Runeberg Songs, Ireland's Sea Fever, Purcell's Cold Song and Finzi's Earth and Air and Rain. Tickets are available online.

Upcoming performances include Theseus in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Opera Philadelphia in February and Citheron in Rameau's Platée with Semperoper Dresden in April.

Barihunk duo lead Opera Philadelphia's Marriage of Figaro

John Chest as Billy Budd in Berlin

Opera Philadelphia's season comes to a close with a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro starring barihunks John Chest and Brandon Cedel from April 28-May 7. This is a new co-production, which premiered last year at Lyric Opera of Kansas City and next travels to San Diego Opera and Palm Beach Opera.

John Chest will be performing with his wife soprano Layla Claire, both of whom are making their company debuts. They will be singing the bickering Count and Countess Almaviva. Joining them as Figaro is bass-barihunk Brandon Cedel, whose last appearance on the Academy of Music stage was in the East Coast premiere of Kevin Puts's award-winning Silent Night.

Brandon Cedel

Chest and Cedel will be joined by Cecelia Hall as Cherubino, Patrick Carfizzi as Dr. Bartolo, Lucy Schaufer as Marcellina, Jason Ferrante as Don Basilio, Ashly Milanese as Barbarina, Ying Fang as Susanna and Thomas Shivone as Antonio. Tickets are available online.

Chest will represent the United States at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in June 2017.

Barihunk John Moore in Breaking the Waves (with mature audience warning)

Barihunk John Moore and Kiera Duffy

Opera Philadelphia premiered Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Breaking the Waves, which includes the barihunk duo of John Moore as the main protagonist Jan Nyman and Zachary James as Terry. Mazzoli is a graduate of Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program. The opera has a "for mature audiences" warning as both leads appear nude.

The opera is based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. The libretto tells the story of Bess McNeill (sung by Kiera Duffy), a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan, a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, her marital vows are put to the test as he encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell him of her sexual activities. He insists that the stories will feel like they are making love together and keep him alive. Bess’s increasing selflessness leads to a finale of divine grace, but at great cost.

There is one remaining performance on October 1st and tickets are available online. The cast also includes the rising tenor sensation David Portillo, Eve Gigliotti, Marcus DeLoach and Patricia Schuman.

Barihunks take top honors at Loren Zachary Vocal Competition

Jarrett Ott (Photo: Dario Acosta)

John Viscardi

Two barihunks took 2nd and 3rd Prize at the Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition for Young Opera Singers in Los Angeles today. Soprano Vanessa Vasquez took top honors, followed by John Viscardi and Jarrett Ott. Last year, barihunk Andre Courville took 1st Prize and was awarded $12,500.

Other past winners include tenor Brian Jagde, soprano Sydney Mancasola, bass Scott Conner, soprano Joyce El-Khoury, tenor Brian Hymel, soprano Nadine Sierra and countertenor Brian Asawa, who recently passed away.

Jarrett Ott will be singing Masetto at the Santa Fe Opera from July2-22. The cast includes fellow barihunks Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni and Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello.

John Viscardi can next be heard in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with Opera Philadelphia on June 11th.

Barihunk couple Brandon Cedel & Jonathan Beyer team up for three operas

Brandon Cedel and Jonathan Beyer

Barihunk Jonathan Beyer and Brandon Cedel, who appeared together in our 2011 Charity Calendar, will be together onstage again from April 2-10 at the Pittsburgh Opera in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. The cast includes Emily Fons as Rosina and Michele Angelini as Almaviva. Tickets are available online.

They'll join forces again on June 3rd, when the Detroit Symphony presents Richard Strauss' Salome with and all-star cast that includes Lise Lindstrom as Salome, Chris Merritt  as Herod and Jane Henschel as Herodias. Tickets are available online.

They'll also join forces in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Castleton Festival with Cedel as Figaro and Beyer as the Count.

Upcoming performances for Cedel include Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Philadelphia, Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Münchner Opernfestspiele, and Leporello at Glyndebourne.

Another barihunk couple, Dan Kempson and Zachary Altman, have also appeared together onstage, including in a recent performance of Puccini's Turandot with the Pacific Symphony. They also performed a Valentine's Day concert with the West Edge Opera in Berkeley.

Barihunk duos in two Opera Philadelphia performances

Zachary James and John Moore in Mazzoli's Breaking Waves

Opera Philadelphia announced their 2016-17 season, which will include the barihunk duo of John Moore and Zachary James in the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s chamber opera Breaking the Waves, which features a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Mazzoli is a graduate of Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program.

The opera is based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. The libretto tells the story of Bess McNeill (sung by Kiera Duffy), a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan (sung by John Moore), a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, her marital vows are put to the test as he encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell him of her sexual activities. He insists that the stories will feel like they are making love together and keep him alive. Bess’s increasing selflessness leads to a finale of divine grace, but at great cost.

Performances will run from September 22 through October 1st. The cast also includes the rising tenor sensation David Portillo, Eve Gigliotti and Patricia Schuman.

Brandon Cedel and John Chest in The Marriage of Figaro

The company's new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro will feature the barihunk duo of Brandon Cedel as Figoro and John Chest as the Count. Performances will be at the Academy of Music and will also feature Ying Fang as Susanna, Layla Claire as the Countess, John Chest, Cecelia Hall as Cherubino and Patrick Carfizzi as Bartolo.

Other operas in the season include Puccini's Turandot with Christine Goerke in the title role and Daniel Belcher as Ping; a re-imaging of Verdi's Macbeth by South African director Brett Bailey set in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the title character as a Congolese warlord: and Stephanie Blythe making her role debut as the title character in Rossini’s Tancredi along with Daniel Mobbs as Orbazzano.

You can find more information on the Opera Philadelphia website.

Barihunk switch in Opera Philadelphia's Cold Mountain

Jarrett Ott

Opera Philadelphia has announced that Jarrett Ott will replace fellow barihunk Nathan Gunn as W.P. Inman for all five performances of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain. The opera is being performed from  Februar 5-14 at the Academy of Music.

Nathan Gunn created the role in the August 2015 world premiere at The Santa Fe Opera, but had to pull out of the East Coast premiere due to a serious family illness.

Jarrett Ott, who is a popular singer on this site, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and a member of Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artists Program. He has been involved with the development of Cold Mountain and the character of Inman for more than three years. He performed the role in two workshops in 2012 and 2013, sang with the full cast in March 2015 as part of a Works & Process presentation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and covered the role in both Santa Fe and Philadelphia. He began the 2015-2016 Season with Opera Philadelphia as Marchese D'Obigny in Verdi's La traviata.

The opera is based on Charles Frazier’s National Book Award-winning novel, Cold Mountain, which follows the American odyssey of W.P. Inman, a wounded Civil War soldier who deserts the Confederate Army at great peril to reunite with his love, Ada Monroe (which will be sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard). Ada's once privileged life on Cold Mountain has become one of loneliness and deprivation. As Inman makes his way home, he wonders if the violence he has experienced has made him unworthy of love, and is forced to question just where his allegiance lies. Amidst the destruction of the American Civil War, a pivotal conflict in America’s history, the transformative journeys of Inman and Ada go to the very center of their souls.

Barihunk duo in Songs of WW I in Brooklyn

John Moore and Jarrett Ott

On November 6th the Brooklyn Art Song Society will present Britannica: In Memoriam: Songs of the Great War at The Old Stone House. Barihunks John Moore and Jarrett Ott will join tenor Dominic Armstrong and pianists Michael Brofman and Miori Sugiya. Tickets are available online. 

The concert focuses on works by British composers whose lives were impacted by World War I.  W. Dennis Browne and George Butterworth were killed in action, and their respective pieces represent the tragic loss of genius before their time.  Ivor Gurney wrote his powerful songs in a sanitarium receiving treatment for psychological trauma from his war experience.. Though Gerald Finzi was from the next generation, he set Thomas Hardy's Channel Firing, a famous meditation on the madness of war. 

Upcoming performances for Ott include the Opera Philadelphia Emerging Artist series on November 8th with fellow barihunk Andrew Bogard and hunkentenor Roy Hage. You can listen to Jarrett Ott sing Pierrot's Tanzlied HERE.

Upcoming performances for Moore include Count Almavivia in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with the Seattle Opera opening in January 2016, Tadeusz in Weinberg's The Passenger with Florida Grand Opera and Adario in Rameau's Les Indes galantes at the Munich Opera Festival with fellow barihunk Tareq Nami.

MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGER FROM 9 COUNTRIES.

 

Barihunk duo opens Opera Philadelphia's Barber of Seville

Opera Philadelphia is opening its 40th Anniversary season on September 26th with a new production of Rossini's Barber of Seville starring Jonathan Beyer in the title role and Kevin Burdette as Dr. Bartolo. Performances will run through October 5th, with a free HD broadcast on a giant screen at Independence National Historical Park on Saturday, September 27.

Beyer, made his Opera Philadelphia debut as Escamillo in a 2011 production of Bizet’s Carmen. He has performed Figaro with the Boston Lyric Opera, the Castleton Festival, the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari and at the Lyrique-en-Mer. A little trivia about Jonathan Beyer that you may not know is that he's obsessed with figure skating and knows as much about the sport as most professional commentators. 

Kevin Burdette was last seen as the Prophet/King in the 2012 East Coast Premiere of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. He just wrapped up a run at the Santa Fe Opera as Herr Buff/Chamberlain in the double-bill of Mozart's The Impresario and Stravinsky's Le Rossignol. He returns to Santa Fe next season as Sergeant Supice in Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment and as Stobrod/Blind Man in the world premier of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain.

They'll be joined in the cast by Jennifer Holloway as Rosina, which is her role debut and company debut. Count Almaviva will be sung by the wonderful young tenor Taylor Stayton.

Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 215.893.1018. The free tickets to Opera on the Mall broadcast are available beginning Wednesday, September 3rd at operaonthemall.org.

Backstage photo from "No Tenors Allowed" featuring "Three Barihunks"

Gordon Bintner, Elliot Madore, Bill Eddins (Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Music Director), Philippe Sly

Regular readers may remember our post about the three Canadian barihunks performing the "No Tenors Allowed" concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The trio joined conductor Bill Eddins for a program of from music from Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Macbeth, Rossini's Barber of Seville, and Wagner's Tannhäuser.

We were fortunate enough to get a backstage photo of the group after Monday night's concert, which from all accounts, was a huge success. 

Philippe Sly can next be heard on April 2nd with soprano Hélène Guilmette performing excerpts from the Fauré Requiem, Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Creation with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec under the baton of Jean-Marie Zeitouni. Tickets are available online.

Elliot Madore returns to Pennsylvania where he will again be part of a barihunk trio in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opera Philadelphia. He'll take on the title role, as Wes Mason sings Masetto and Nicholas Masters sings the Commendatore. Performance run from April 25-May 4. Tickets are available online.

Barihunk trio in Zurich Faust (and a hunkentenor!)

Kyle Ketelsen, Jose van Dam and Pavol Breslik

We're not sure if the devil made 'em do it, but the Zurich Opera has cast four of the hottest men in opera in one production of Jan Philipp Gloger’s new production of Gounod's Faust. The hotter-than-hell cast is led by barihunks Kyle Ketelsen as Méphistophélès, Elliot Madore as Valentin and Erik Anstine as Wagner. They will be joined by hunkentenor Pavol Breslik as Faust.

The premiere is on November 3rd and runs through December 11th.

Elliot Madore & Erik Anstine

Madore and Anstine are both members of the Opernhaus Zürich ensemble. Madore will also be seen in revivals of Mozart's Così fan tutte as Guglielmo and Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème. On April 25, 2014, he returns to the U.S. in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni at Opera Philadelphia, a role that he will reprise in June at the Glyndebourne Festival. Anstine can be seen in upcoming performances of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Handel's Alcina.

We also recommend that you LIKE Elliot Madore's Facebook fan page where you can follow the career of this rising superstar.

Acclaimed "Silent Night" to open in Philadelphia with an army of barihunks

Regular readers might recall that we generously covered the debut of Kevin Puts' Pulitzer Prize-winning opera "Silent Night," when it premiered at the Minnesota Opera in 2011.  It featured a veritable army of barihunks including Troy Cook, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager, Michael Nyby and Craig Irvin, all of whom posed for a picture that we posted [see below].

Five of the barihunks from that production are reprising their roles at Opera Philadelphia opening on February 8th and running through February 17th. They include Craig Irvin as Lieutenant Horstmayer, the German commanding officer; baritone Liam Bonner as Lieutenant Audebert, the conflicted French commander and his aide-de-camp Ponchel sung by Andrew Wikowske; baritone Gabriel Preisser as Lieutenant Gordon; and, Troy Cook as Father Palmer.

Troy Cook, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager, Michael Nyby and Craig Irvin

Tenor William Burden stars as the drafted opera singer whose voice inspires peace among adversaries and soprano Kelly Kaduce as his love interest, Anna Sørenson. Kaduce also happens to be married to a barihunk in real life, Lee Gregory.

Liam Bonner sings Lieutenant Audebert's "J'ai perdu ta photo" 

Silent Night, which is based on the 2005 French film Joyeux Noel, recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history.   On World War I’s western front, weapons are laid down when Scottish, French and German officers defy their superiors and negotiate a Christmas Eve truce. Enemies become brothers as they come together to share Christmas and bury their dead.

Gabriel Preisser

Tickets and additional information is available online.

Also in 2014, the Fort Worth Opera Festival will give the regional premiere of the opera.