Six Low Male Voices Amongst 20 Finalists at Cardiff Singer of the World

Leonardo Lee and Patrick Guetti

Low male voices will be well represented at the 36th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, as they comprise six of the final twenty competitors. Competing for the prestigious prize from June 15-22 will be baritone Jorge Espino from Mexico, baritone Badral Chuluunbaatar from Mongolia, baritone Leonardo Lee from South Korea, baritone Andrei Kymach from Ukraine, bass Patrick Guetti from the United States  and bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba from the United States.

Winners of the Singer of the Year Prize and Song Prize will receive £20,000 and £10,000 respectively. An Audience Prize of £2,500 will also be awarded. 

This year's panel of judges will be opera director David Pountney, tenor José Cura, soprano Dame Felicity Lott, mezzo-soprano Federica von Stade, and Grange Park Opera founder Wasfi Kani.

Richard Ollarsaba sings "Se vuol ballare" from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro:

A number of operas most famous low voices were winners at Cardiff, most famously Dmitri Hvorostovsky who won the Main Prize in 1989 and Bryn Terfel who won the Song Prize that same year. Other winners have included Mongolian baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar who was co-winner of the Song Prize in 2017, Tommi Hakala who won the Main Prize in 2003, Christopher Maltman who won the Song Prize in 1997, Paul Whelan who won the Song Prize in 1993 and Jacques Imbrailo who won the coveted Audience Prize in 2007.

The other 2019 competitors are Guadalupe Barrientos, Lauren Fagan, Camila Titinger, Mingjie Lei, Katie Bray, Adriana Gonzalez, Luis Gomes, Roman Arndt, Karina Kherunts, Yulia Mennibaeva, Owen Metsileng, Sooyeon Lee, Lena Belkina and Angharad Lyddon.

Barihunks star in Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Rising Stars" Concert

Patrick Guetti, Emmett O'Hanlon and Takaoki Onishi

The Lyric Opera of Chicago will showcase their amazing young artists on Saturday, April 7th at the Lyric Opera House in their annual "Rising Stars" concert. Featured in the concert is a trio of singers who have been featured on Barihunks, including baritones Emmett O'Hanlon and Takaoki Onishi, along with bass Patrick Guetti. The three singers are also concluding their tenure with the company's Ryan Opera Center, a training program for young artists.

After leaving the program, Guetti has performances with Wolf Trap Opera as Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto and Bernstein's Songfest; Takaoki Onishi will perform Tchaikovsky's Iolanta with the Russian National Orchestra at Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and, Emmett O'Hanlon will wrap up a run as Wagner in Gounod's Faust at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Lyric tenor star of the future, Josh Lovell

The concert will feature music by Tchaikovsky, Offenbach, Massenet, Mozart, Verdi, Handel, Bernstein, Puccini and Rossini. Other artists include the gifted young lyric tenor Josh Lovell (keep your eyes and ears on this one!); sopranos Whitney Morrison, Diana Newman and Ann Toomey; mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger; contralto Lauren Decker; tenors Alec Carlson and Mario Rojas; and, bass-baritone Alan Higgs.

The concert will also be recorded for broadcast on 98.7WFMT the following day, Sunday, April 8, at 6 PM CST.

Ao Li and Patrick Guetti big winners at Met Finals

The winners of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, from left, the tenor Yi Li; the soprano Julie Adams; the bass Patrick Guetti; the soprano Amanda Woodbury; and the bass-baritone Ao Li. And Patrick Guetti again.

Baritones and basses took two of the five top prizes at The Metropolitan Opera finals, as Ao Li and Patrick Guetti were the day's big winners, along with soprano Julie Adams, soprano Amanda Woodbury and tenor Yi Li.

More than 1,500 singers participated in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 40 districts and 13 regions throughout the United States and Canada. 

Each singer performed two arias each with the Met Opera Orchestra conducted by Marco Armiliato. Guetti sang "Il lacerato spirito" from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and "La colunnia" from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Ao Li sang the cavatina from Rachmaninoff's Aleko and Mozart's Catalogue Aria from Don Giovanni.

The panel of seven judges chose five winners, who were announced from the stage by tenor Lawrence Brownlee. While the judges soprano Susanna Phillips, the afternoon’s guest artist,  performed “Dove Sono” from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.

The other winners are soprano Amanda Woodbury, soprano Julie Adamsand tenor Yi Li. Each winner receives a $15,000 award.

The other finalists were countertenor Christopher Lowrey, tenor Rexford Tester, and tenor Rafael Moras.

Don't forget to join our campaign to send barihunk Xavier Edgardo to the Opera on the Avalon young artist program. Even a $5 or $20 contribution will go a long way in supporting this talented young artist. Click HERE to give today.  

Met Grand Finals on Sunday; Radio performance Monday

Patrick Guetti

The Metropolitan Opera Grand Finals Concert will take place in New York City on March 30th with the nine finalists. The finalists were chosen from 1,500 singers who auditioned in 40 districts and 13 regions in the United States and Canada.

Finalists include bass-barihunk Patrick Guetti, 27, bass (Middle Atlantic Region: Highland Park, NJ); Julie Adams, 26, soprano (Western Region: Burbank, CA); Nicole Haslett, 26, soprano (Northwest Region: Mt. Laurel, NJ); Ao Li, 26, bass-baritone (Rocky Mountain Region: Dezhou, China, currently living in San Francisco, CA); Yi Li, 30, tenor (Middle Atlantic Region: Jinan, China, currently living in Silver Spring, MD); Christopher Lowrey, 30, countertenor (New England Region: Johnston, RI); Rafael Moras, 27, tenor (Gulf Coast Region: San Antonio, TX); Rexford Tester, 24, tenor (Middle Atlantic Region: Tazewell, VA); Amanda Woodbury, 26, soprano (Western Region: Crestwood, KY).

Each finalist will be competing for an individual cash prize of $15,000 each at the Grand Finals Concert. Even more important than the prize money is the contestants' opportunity to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on the historic opera house stage before an audience that will include opera company executives, artist managers, music critics, and other opinion-makers of the music world.

You can hear Guetti and the other eight singers this Tuesday, April 1 at 7 PM EST on WQXR. Their event appearance marks their first New York performance following the grand finals concert.

Don't forget to join our campaign to send barihunk Xavier Edgardo to the Opera on the Avalon young artist program. Even a $5 or $20 contribution will go a long way in supporting this talented young artist. Click HERE to give today. 

Four baritones/basses advance to Met Semi-Finals

Patrick Guetti and Scott Russell

One-fifth of the singers advancing from the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions to the Met Semi-Finals will be baritones or basses. They include Patrick Guetti, Scott Russell, Alex DeSocio and Ao Li. A panel of judges will hold closed auditions on March 20 to determine who will advance to the final round of the competition at the Met Grand Finals Concert under the baton of conductor Marco Armiliato on Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. At the end of the concert, winners will be announced, each of whom will receive an individual cash prize of $15,000.

Alex DeSocio and Ao Li

On Tuesday, April 1 at 7 p.m., the winners will perform a concert of varied operatic repertory at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR 105.9, New York City’s all-classical station. They will be joined by a Met star and former National Council winner, soprano Deborah Voigt. The event will be broadcast live on WQXR and there will be a live video webcast on both www.wqxr.org and www.thegreenespace.org.

The regional winners were chosen from nearly 1500 singers who participated in the auditions held in 40 districts and 13 regions throughout the United States and Canada, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council and administered by National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the country.

You can check out our January post to read about the baritones and basses who entered the competition this year.

Wes Mason to sing Pelleas at AVA

Wes Mason as seen in the 2012 Barihunks Charity Calendar. From the Ft. Worth Opera's "Before Night Falls"

Barihunk Wes Mason will perform Pelléas opposite soprano Chloé Moore's Mélisande in a performance of the Academy of Vocal Arts’ upcoming production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande running from February 25th through March 1st.  

Wes Mason and Chloé Moore discuss and perform an excerpt from Pelléas et Mélisande:


For the past seven seasons, The Academy of Vocal Arts has offered as part of its season, a fully staged opera with piano accompaniment in order to showcase AVA’s talented artists in roles they might not otherwise have an opportunity to perform. Often, these are operas that require large orchestras that would not fit into AVA’s small theater. Music director Luke Housner will be the pianist.

Bass Patrick Guetti sings the role of Arkel:


 Zachary Nelson (Golaud) and soprano Sydney Mancasola (Mélisande) sing Act l scene:


There are multiple casts, but Wes Mason will perform Pelléas for the performance on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:30 PM. Patrick Guetti will be performing Arkel in all of the performances. Zachary Nelson will perform Golaud on February 25th and 28th, as well as March 1st. Tickets range from $10-$60 and are available at www.avaopera.org or 215 735-1685.

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