Philippe Sly and Le Chimera Project in klezmer inspired Winterreise

Philippe Sly and Le Chimera Project in Winterreise

Philippe Sly and the Le Chimera Project will reprise their version of Schubert's epic song cycle Winterreise, which they performed to great acclaim in Montreal in April. There will be four performances between January 17-26 in Toronto, Québec, Ottawa and Alma.

Sly and Le Chimera Project have created a fascinating new take on the piece with a fully staged song cycle arranged for violin, clarinet, trombone, and accordion. This Klezmer take on the piece blurs the line between concert and theater.

[Synopsis of "Rast," performed in video: "He reaches a charcoal-burner's hut and, worn out by his long trek through the snowstorm with a heavy backpack, he lies down to rest. In the quiet his cuts and bruises sting sorely."]

When Schubert's Winterreise premiered in 1827, the public was perplexed by the piece, finding it too raw, too dark, too hard to digest. Only the famous song Der Lindenbaum found favor. But Schubert was completely sure that he had created a work of importance; no composition seems to have been as important to him as the musical realization of these 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller.  Of course, today one can't have a serious discussion about great lieder without mentioning Winterreise. The piece's influence on other composers can not be overstated and few baritones having included all or portions of the cycle in their repertoire. 

If you can't wait until next year, you can hear Philippe Sly in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal on December 3 and with the Gulbenkian Orchestra on December 13, as well as in Handel's Messiah with the University of Michigan Musical Society on December 7. He returns to the opera stage at the Opera Garnier in Mozart's Don Giovanni in March and Cosi fan tutte in June. 

No Barihunks on CBC's list of "30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians," so we added two

The CBC recently ran a feature called "30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30." They surveyed Canada's conservatories, music competitions and professional training programs to come up with their list. Although we at Barihunks take the word "HOT" to mean sexy, it appears that they are going for a double meaning, with "HOT" also meaning "musicians with talent to keep an eye on."

This year they didn't manage to come up with a single barihunk, despite having included them in past years, including Philippe Sly and Gordon Bintner. So we decided to add two to the list.

Micah Schroeder

Canadian-American baritone Micah Schroeder will be appearing as Harlekin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos with the Highlands Opera Studio in Haliburton, Ontario on August 24 an 26. He is a 2018 graduate of the Vancouver Opera Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program and an alumni of the Aspen Opera Centre, as well as The Banff Centre of Arts and Creativity. He recently completed a Diploma in Operatic Performance from the University of Toronto and holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Opera from the University of British Columbia.

Dimitri Katotakis

Toronto native Dimitri Katotakis studied at McGill University and Juilliard, before being accepted into the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. Last year, he was part of Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song concert "Protest." He was the Second Prize winner at the Canadian Opera Company's vocal competition.

Philippe Sly to perform Schubert songs with guitar

Philippe Sly as Zebul (left)

Canadian barihunk Phillipe Sly will kick off the second half of Tucson Guitar Society's International Artist Concert Series on February 3rd. He'll be joined by his frequent collaborator guitarist John Charles Britton in songs by Franz Schubert.

The duo will perform sixteen arrangements of Schubert songs for guitar and voice. Schubert owned many guitars and played the instrument at home. It is believed that many of his 600 songs were penned for his Schubertiades on the guitar. The duo has also recorded the songs on the album "Schubert Sessions," which was released in 2016 and is available on iTunes.

Sly is currently performing as Zebul in Handel's Jephtha at the Opera National de Paris through January 30th. The cast, under the baton of William Christie, includes Ian Bostridge in the title role, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Storgé, Katherine Watson as Iphis and Tim Mead as Hamor. Tickets are available online.

Upcoming performances includes the Fauré Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra, Schubert's Winterreise in Ferme de Villefavard, France, Bach's St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music and Rachmaninov's Aleko with the Montreal Symphony.

Barihunk duo alternating Guglielmo at Palais Garnier

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Barihunks Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Philippe Sly will be alternating the role of Guglielmo at the beautiful Palais Garnier in Paris from September 12 to October 21. As an added bonus, Sly's performance dates also feature barihunk Paulo Szot as Don Alfonso!

Philippe Sly

The innovative production is being directed by the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, who is using a double cast of singers and dancers to marry song and dance. The stage design is fairly minimal with plexiglass screens suspended on either side, providing plenty of space for the singers and dancers to navigate individually or as a group.

Paulo Szot and his dancer double

De Keersmaeker explained her concept of the opera to Wannes Gyselinck, the senior editor of rekto:verso, "The function of dance is to underline the tension between text and music, and even at times to emphasize it...This duplication creates a third visible voice alongside the music and the text. It was above all because of the music that, despite my doubts about opera as a medium, I accepted the Paris Opera's invitation: it is so full of movement, both bodily and emotional. Taking music as a starting point, I hope to attain a higher degree of abstraction, and through it discover the essence of the work. In most productions, the beauty and depth of the music is drowned under draperies, costumes, doors that open and close."

Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Watch Philippe Sly as Don Giovanni at Aix-en-Provence

Philippe Sly as Don Giovanni as Aix-en-Provence

Barihunk Phillipe Sly is a particularly sexy (and scantily clad) Don Giovanni in Mozart's classic at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. This performance marks his debut in the role, as well as the role debut of Isabel Leonard as Donna Elvira.

Performances are running through July 21, but one can also catch a broadcast of it on July 10th on Medici.tv at 12:30 PM PDT.

 The new production by Jean-François Sivadier includes Nahuel Di Pierro as Leporello, Eleonora Buratto as Donna Anna, hunkentenor Pavol Breslik as Don Ottavio, Julie Fuchs as Zerlina,  Krzysztof Baczyk as Masetto and David Leigh as Il Commendatore.

Sly in Dallas St Matthew Passion; Barihunk Quartet in Strasbourg's Troyens

Philippe Sly mock conducts the Dallas Symphony (left)

Barihunk Philippe Sly is joining an all-star cast for Bach's St. Matthew Passion, which opens tonight with the Dallas Symphony and runs through April 2nd. He'll be joined by baritone Matthias Goerne, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn, tenor James Gilchrist, tenor Werner Güra, soprano Valentina Farcas  and conductor Jaap van Zweden. 

When J. S. Bach came to write his St. Matthew Passion in the 1720s, the passion, as a musical form, had grown to allow orchestra, choirs, and non-scriptural choruses and arias. But even by the standard of the Baroque passion, the Passion According to St. Matthew is exceptional for its musical richness and its grand scope.

Musically, the score is of imposing length, and calls for double orchestra and double choir—three choirs, at one point. The musical textures range from complex counterpoint to simple hymns. Dramatically, the point of view shifts regularly, from the narrative of the Evangelist, to the actual words of Jesus and his disciples, to reflections that speak for the individual believer. But in Bach's hands, the effect that the Passion gives is not one of a brilliant collage, but a single, sustained, somber meditation—appropriate for a work that was first performed as part of a church service.

Philippe Sly sings Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"

Scholars believe the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion may have been in 1727. It was certainly performed on Good Friday of 1729, and perhaps at several other Good Friday services during Bach's life. It then dropped from public view until 1829, when it was triumphantly revived by Felix Mendelssohn, crystallizing a revival of interest in Bach that grew throughout the 19th century and still continues.

The text of the passion was created by the German writer Christian Henrici, who wrote under the pen name of Picander. Like Bach, he lived in Leipzig, and it is believed that he and Bach worked closely together on the text.

There are three strands in the text: the actual text from the book of Matthew; Picander's own poetry; and the pre-existing hymns, or chorales, which Bach incorporates into the score, which would have been immediately recognizable by his first hearers.

Sly can next be heard as Panthée in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg from April 15-17.  He'll be joined by another all-star cast featuring Joyce DiDonato as Didon, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Cassandre and a barihunk quartet of Stéphane Degout as Chorèbe, Jérôme Varnier, Nicolas Courjal as Narbal and Sly. 

   

BARIHUNKS featured in Canada's National Post

Malte Roesner and Marco Vassalli as seen in the National Post and the Barihunks Calendar

Canada's National Post has written a feature on the barihunk phenomenon, which includes extensive comments from site co-founder Jack Michaels. Canadian barihunks Philippe Sly and Phillip Addis are mentioned, along with Italian bass-barihunk Luca Pisaroni and Germans Marco Vassalli and Malte Roesner.

"Look at what we watch on television. Police detectives look like supermodels! We live in a culture where aesthetics are important. I don’t want to ever say it’s more important – voice is always the most important – but it’s become an important factor." - Barihunks co-founder Jack Michaels

The article mentions our charity calendar, which has funded numerous projects for low voices, including the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's opera "Green Sneakers" and Marco Vassalli's U.S. debut. 2017 will mark the tenth anniversary of the site, which was originally conceived as a fan site for Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Mariusz Kwiecien.

“It’s about the music first – that’s why I got into this. Any fitness things that are related, I do try to deliver them, but only as much as they serve the actual work. I’m definitely not thinking, ‘How will this pose look on Barihunks?'" -Barihunk Phillip Addis

Author Catherine Kustanczy does a great job of explaining that the "hunks in opera" phenomenon predates the creation of Barihunks almost a decade ago. She cites such historic opera figures as Cesare Siepi, Theodor Uppman, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Samuel Ramey, who all were operatic "pin up boys" decades ago.

You can read the entire article online.

Glenn Seven Allen and Edwin Crossley-Mercer in the 2017 Barihunks calendar

THE 2017 BARIHUNKS IN BED CALENDAR IS NOW ON SALE BY CLICKING BELOW

Chris Herbert & Philippe Sly available online from Trinity Wall Street

Christopher Dylan Herbert (photo: Laura Rose) and Philippe Sly

Trinity Wall Street in New York City continues to live stream some of the best music available on the web. The last few weeks were rich with music and two of our favorite barihunks performed, Christopher Dylan Herbert in Schubert's Winterreise and Philippe Sly in Handel's Messiah. Fortunately, both are available online or on our site.

We recently posted about Christopher Dylan Herbert's participatory version of Schubert's popular 1828 song cycle dubbed Winterize, which was performed with hats, scarves and mittens in New York's Central Park.

Herbert will be singing lead roles in Stewart Copeland and Robert Paterson's Dixon Place with the American Modern Ensemble on January 16-19. The piece is based on Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of the Amontillado and tickets are available online.

Handel's Messiah and Trinity have a long history, as the church presented one of the first performances of the work in North America in 1770.

Philippe Sly has a few more performances of sacred music coming up, with a Mozart Requiem with the Toronto Symphony later this month and a St. Matthew Passion with the Hamburg State Opera in April.

Philippe Sly featured in hometown Ottawa paper

Philippe Sly and Lisette Oropesa in SF Opera's Le nozze di Figaro

Philippe Sly, who is one of our favorite young artists in the world, was recently featured in his hometown newspaper, which you can read HERE. Our favorite quote from the article comes from conductor Patrick Summer, who captures Sly's artistry perfectly:

“Philippe has a great and rare gift,” notes Patrick Summer, one of the world’s eminent opera conductors, who is on the podium for the SFO Figaro. “And that is his ability to be a storyteller, to illuminate the text and make the music pulsate off the page. He gives me great hope for the future of opera, which is in a vulnerable position. I can’t wait, in fact I hope I have the privilege and the good fortune, to conduct him in (Figaro) in 10 years, in 20 years, and see what he does.”

Performances run through July 5th and tickets and additional cast information is available online. 

Philippe Sly and Luca Pisaroni on the big screen (the really, really big screen)

Luca Pisaroni signing baseballs in San Francisco

On July 3rd, the San Francisco Opera is continuing its annual tradition to simulcast opera to AT&T Park, home of the World Champion San Francisco Giants. The production is headlines by two barihunks, Philippe Sly as Figaro and Luca Pisaroni as Count Almaviva. Sly makes his role debut in this production and Pisaroni returns to reprise his successful performances from 2010.

This is the San Francisco Opera’s 13th simulcast and it will be  transmitted live from the stage of the War Memorial Opera House to AT&T Park’s high-definition scoreboard. The performance will begin at 7:30 PM and it is recommended that people register for tickets online.

San Francisco Opera's exciting summer season kicks off this weekend

Philippe Sly and Luca Pisaroni

The San Francisco Opera kicks off one of its most exciting summer season's this weekend in decade. First up is Hector Berlioz's epic 5 1/2 hour masterpiece Les Troyens with Anna Caterina Antonacci as Cassandra. She is perhaps the most exciting singing actress in opera since Leonie Rysanek.

The opera has not been performed in San Francisco in 47 years, where the U.S. stage premiere took place two years earlier in 1956 with Regine Crespin and Jon Vickers. The five-act opera is set to Virgil’s classical poem The Aeneid and is performed in two parts: “The Capture of Troy,” the Greek siege of ancient Troy including the famed Trojan Horse, and “The Trojans at Carthage,” the escape of the Trojans to the North African Mediterranean city of Carthage.

Christian Van Horn as Narbal (left)

Bass-Barihunk Christian Van Horn takes on the role of the queen's adviser Narbal, in an all-star cast that also includes Susan Graham as Dido, Bryan Hymel as Aeneas and Sasha Cooke as Anna.  The production is the largest physical production ever to be presented as the War Memorial Opera House, requiring 134 artists on stage and 95 musicians in the orchestra pit and backstage. The production first opened in 2012 at London’s the Royal Opera and later at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Following the San Francisco Opera performances, the production will be seen at the Vienna State Opera. Performances run from June 7–July 1 and tickets are available online.

Two of the most beloved and gifted barihunks in the world head the cast of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, with Philippe Sly as Figaro and Luca Pisaroni as the lecherous Count. They'll be joined by Nadine Sierra as his Countess, Lisette Oropesa as Susanna, Kate Lindsey/Angela Brower as Cherubino, John Del Carlo as Bartolo and Catherine Cook as Marcellina. Performances run from June 14-July 5.

Christian Van Horn with fellow barihunk Andrè Schuen and hunkentenor Jonas Kaufmann

Van Horn also appears as the Field Marshall in the world premiere of Italian composer Marco Tutino’s Two Women (La Ciociara), with a libretto by the composer and Fabio Ceresa. Anna Caterina Antonacci is also back as the mother Cesira. Her daughter will be played by Sarah Shafer. It is the first time in the history of San Francisco Opera that an Italian composer has been commissioned to write a new opera for the company.

The opera is based on 20th-century Italian author Alberto Moravia’s novel of the same name. Moravia’s critically-acclaimed 1958 work was adapted in 1960 by noted Italian film producer Carlo Ponti into a film directed by Vittorio De Sica starring Sophia Loren. Loren won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Actress for the performance—the first artist to win an Oscar for a foreign language film. Performances run from June 13-30.

Van Horn next appears as Zaccaria in Verdi's Nabucco at the Seattle Opera from August 8-22.

Philippe Sly in documentary about Jonathan Dove composition

Philippe Sly

Barihunk Philippe Sly is prominently featured in a one hour documentary filmed during the rehearsal period and performance of the world premiere of British composer Jonathan Dove's "Who Wrote the Book of Love." The piece was written for bass-baritone and string quartet with Phillippe Sly in mind as the soloist. 

Who Wrote the Book of Love? is a 45-minute cycle with words by British playwright and librettist Alasdair Middleton. The text explores the path of love and passion.

The first performance of the piece took place in March 2014 in a London gallery and Philippe's brother Mathieu Sly camera filmed the whole creative process, including some private moments.
Sly calls the piece the most beautiful composition that the composer has written for him. Dove also wrote Three Tennyson Songs for the singer.


Sly will perform Figaro in the San Francisco Opera's Summer Season production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which runs from June 14-July 5. He'll be joined by the Count of Luca Pisaroni.

Barihunks galore at exciting new San Francisco Opera season

Nicolas Testé, Zachary Nelson and Greer Grimsley

There is a lot of buzz coming out of San Francisco, where the opera just announced their new season and they are embarking on a worldwide search for a new General Director to replace the legendary David Gockley. The frontrunner is rumored to be director Francesca Zambello, who regular readers know coined the phrase "Barihunk" and is revered by the operators of this site.

As for the newly announced 2015–16 season, it is loaded with barihunks! The big news is Greer Grimsley in the San Francisco premiere of David McVicar’s production of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, co-starring hunkentenor Brandon Jovanovich and rising Wagnerian sensation Rachel Willis-Sørensen. Performances will run from November 18–December 6, 2015.

Tongues are atwitter about the US debut of opera bad boy Calixto Bieito, whose provocative version of Bizet's Carmen is being presented to the occasionally stodgy War Memorial audience with Zachary Nelson as Escamillo. The opera is infamous for a scene involving oral sex behind a car. Nelson will rotate the role with Michael Sumuel.

Mariusz Kwiecien and René Pape

If our email box is any indication, our readers seem to be most excited about the prospect of seeing two of the greatest barihunks in the world sharing the stage for Verdi's Don Carlo. Polish über-barihunk Mariusz Kwiecień will sing Rodrigo and bass-barihunk René Pape as Philip II. They will be joined by the amazing tenor Michael Fabiano making his role debut as Don Carlo, soprano Krassimira Stoyanova as Elisabetta and Nadia Krasteva is Princess Eboli. Performances are June 12-29, 2016.

Also on the docket will be Thomas Hampson in Verdi's Luisa Miller; the barihunk trio of Elliot Madore, Gerald Finley and Wayne Tigges in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd; rising superstar Philippe Sly as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute; Lucas Meachem in Rossini's The Barber of Seville; and, Nicolas Testé as Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

Other operas being performed are Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa and the American premiere of The Fall of the House of Usher—a double bill presentation of Gordon Getty’s Usher House and Robert Orledge’s reconstruction of Claude Debussy’s La Chute de la Maison Usher.

Subscriptions are on sale beginning January 12, 2015 and single tickets will go on sale beginning June 29, 2015.

Philippe Sly featured in Huffington Post

PHILIPPE SLY (Photo by Adam Scotti)

San Francisco Opera's fourth presentation in the 2014/15 season is Handel's hit from 1730, Partenope. Directed by Christopher Alden, the production debuted in 2008 and is a joint effort with the English National Opera and Opera Australia. In 2009, it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production. Back in Handel's day, the title character was linked to Parthenope, "Queen of Naples" - a girl named for one of the sirens and with suitors on every side. The opera involves a trio of princes from Corinth, Rhodes, and Cumae - and a caller who arrives unexpectedly, a certain "Eurimene" who is - not like the rest of them, anyway. Alden beams the provocative Partenope and her ensemble to Paris of the 1920's. No longer a queen, Partenope is transformed into the queen bee of an avant garde, intimate and artsy salon. Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly - praised for his stunning performance as Guglielmo in the Company's 2013 production of Cosi fan tutte - portrays Ormonte, no longer the Queen's guard, but a sharp-eyed partisan in Madame's daily eudaemonia.

"The way Christopher has set the production," says Phil, "it makes complete sense for me to be this other kind of insinuating character. What is available to me is quite ominent. Because the text can be quite vague, we can do what we want with it. It's a great use of Handel and shows how versatile his operas really are. Once there are no more boundaries, there is so much that can be done. Within one aria you could have people either frozen or actively participating with other characters who are not singing. The character who is singing could be repeating the same thing over and over again, but going through an entire transformation while singing it."

[Continue reading at Huffington Post]

There are five performance of Handel's Partenope remaining and tickets are available online.

Bearded Barihunk Beauties on opposite coasts

Jenna Siladie & Jarrett Ott (Photo by Richard Termine)

Beards are clearly one of the hottest trends in the world right now, especially amongst so-called hipsters. They're so popular that the Retail Times maintains that the biggest drop in retail sales this year is for personal grooming products, particularly razors. The trend has clearly hit the opera stage, where some pretty epic beards are hitting the stage this month.

The Gotham Chamber Opera has given barihunk a beard to compete with Washington Nationals player Jayson Werth's crumb catcher. The innovative company is returning to the music of Bohuslav Martinů, which they performed to sold out shows in 2003 with their double-bill of Les larmes du couteau and Hlas lesa. This time they're back with another double-bill featuring Alexandre bis and Comedy on the Bridge.

The plot of Alexandre bis actually revolves around a beard, as a man decides to test his wife’s fidelity by shaving off his beard and posing as his own cousin from Texas. Comedy on the Bridge tells the story of two rival principalities separated by a river.

Peformances will be on October 14, 16, 17 and 18 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in New York City. Tickets are available online. Also in the cast is Joseph Beutel, who has appeared regularly on this site

 

Philippe Sly as Ormonte

On the opposite coast, the San Francisco Opera has added a giant soup saver to the baby face of barihunk Philippe Sly in Handel's Partenope. The young Canadian, who practically stole the show in last season's Cosi fan tutte, will be singing the role of Ormonte, captain of Partenope's guard.

 

The opera opens on October 15 and runs through November 2. Tickets and additional cast information are available online. During the month of December, Sly will return to his native country to perform in Handel's Messiah withthe  Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Philippe Sly in Tolkien inspired video

The following text is by Mathieu Sly, brother of barihunk Philippe Sly:

"Since 2001 when The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released in theatres, my brother (Philippe Sly) and I (Mathieu Sly) have been relentless fans of both films and books. After seeing the first film, I pretended to be sick for a week of school just so I could read the volumes in their entirety.

When the extended DVDs came out I mined the special features as though for mithril. I didn't realize then that what I had found was in fact the Arkenstone from which I could not pull my gaze. I worshipped the artists of Weta Workshop.

My brother, for his part, in those young years the host to an enchanting falsetto, could conjure any of the distinctive melodies and themes painted by Howard Shore in those first three films that changed the course of our lives. Still we sing "Into the West" anytime we are reunited in the presence of a piano.

In our high school years Howard Shore brought the music and art of the films to our city of Ottawa to be performed in concert with our local symphony, slides of the film's conceptual art to be projected throughout. We were lucky enough, as young choristers, to take part; to finally, and truly, add our voices to the enduring life of the films - to be a part of the team.

Here we offer our voices again. We want to thank everyone who made those first films and inspired two young boys to imagine.

The poem is concerned with Bilbo's inner turmoil in this final chapter of the film saga."



'Live Or Die Tomorrow'

Through cloud, and rock, and mountains sharp
Now weary are my feet
If now I sleep and disappear
None will hear, none will hear

Though I will walk through fields alone
Winds will blow, rivers run
The sun will fall and stars will shine
And show the way by night

To waters of the Western Seas
Where none can die I'll hide
Over forests and through the dark
Metal, earth, and sorrow

A mountain rich with golden halls
Five armies there will meet
A battle fought, though I will not
The King will loose his seat

Now sun has fell and all is well
But stars they do not shine
I'll sing to warm my heart for now
Find my way tomorrow

What song to fill this night so dark?
Of deeds brave and noble
From dream of steel and death I wake
From loss, shadow, and ash

One star dim through the mist I see
It will fade, it will fade
What lies along this road I tread,
For none to see but me?

By cloud, and rock, and mountains sharp
I'll find my friends and fight
We'll fill the sky with stars so bright
Live or die tomorrow

Live or die tomorrow

poem by Mathieu Sly, music by Philippe Sly

New Releases from Canadian barihunks Phillipe Sly and Jonathan Estabrooks

Two of our favorite Canadian barihunks have released CDs this week. They are strikingly different in repertory, but equally enjoyable.

The ridiculously talented Philippe Sly has released "In Love’s Minstrels" with accompanist Michael McMahon. They perform English music from the late 19th and early 20th century by Healey Willan, John Ireland, Roger Quilter, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.

You can listen to the CD at the CBC website, but if you're logging in from outside Canada you'll have to create a free login (it took us 20 seconds and was worth it!).

Jonathan Estabrooks has released his album, which he funded throught Kickstarter. "These Miles" mixes classical, pop and classic musical theater, 'These Miles.' He's joined by the Macedonia Radio Orchestra in everything from Neil Diamond's Play Me to the Canadian folk song Away from the Roll of the Sea. You can preview it at CD Baby. 

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.

All-star "Three Barihunks" concert coming to Edmonton

Philippe Sly, Elliot Madore & Gordon Bintner (L-R)

We can't begin to tell you how often we're contacted because someone wants to put on a "Three Barihunks" concert, yet they never seem to come to fruition. It looks like the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Opera are going to beat everyone to the punch and they're appropriating the name "No Tenors Allowed" from the 1999 concerts and recording by Thomas Hampson and Samuel Ramey. [The funniest barihunk concert proposal we heard about was going to be called "No Shirts Allowed" and it was supposed to be an AIDS fundraiser in New York].

The Edmonton team has managed to bring in three of the hottest and most vocally gifted baritones singing in the world today and they all happen to be Canadians. Gordon Bintner, Elliot Madore, and Philippe Sly will join forces with 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.

The concert will be on Monday, March 24, 2014 at 7:30 PM at Enmax Hall in the Winspear Centre in Edmonton. For lovers of barihunks, we have to think that this is the hottest ticket of 2014! We've heard all three singers live and we can pretty much guarantee a night of visual and aural bliss. You can listen to six audio selections from Elliot Madore on his website.

Phillipe Sly sings Gustav Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen":

 Gordon Binter performs at FestiVoix:

This season, Elliot Madore continues as a member of the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich where he made his role debut as Valentin in Jan Philipp Gloger’s new production of Gounod's Faust. The title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni will serve as his return to both Oper Philadelphia and the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer of 2014. Future seasons will see him at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zurich, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.

Philippe Sly continues as an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera in the 2013 – 2014 season. He will make his debut at Opéra de Lyon in Laurent Pelly’s production of Rossini's Le comte Ory as Raimbaud and will be seen as Bartolo in San Francisco Opera’s Barber for Families. He also opens the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s season as Méphistophélès in concert performances of Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust under Kent Nagano. In concert, Sly makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Fauré’s Requiem and with Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, both under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  

In the past few months, Gordon Bintner made his debut in Berlin with the role of Bill in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with Ensemble Modern and Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon at l’Opera de Montreal. He made his European debut singing the role of Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème with Angers-Nantes Opera in France. Other appearances included the role of Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. Operatic performances in 2014 include the role of Don Alfonso in the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

Interview with Philippe Sly and upcoming Messiah

 

Philippe Sly

Philippe Sly will be performing Handel’s Messiah with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa under maestro Matthew Halls on December 17th and 18th at 7 PM. He'll be joined by soprano Sherezade Panthaki,  mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle and tenor Nicholas Phan. Tickets are available online. 

 

The Ottawa citizen ran an interview with this fast-rising star, which included the following question about being a barihunk:

You have been dubbed a “barihunk”. Embarrased? Embracing it?

People can say what they want (but) I have to admit, the blog has generated a lot of interest. Though there is the funny title, the blog does a good job of keeping tabs on current baritones and promoting new ones. Almost all of my baritone friends have appeared on the site.

We've had the pleasure of hearing Sly as a recitalist and on stage and the hype around him is justified. He is smart, gifted and commands the stage. To check out information about future performaces in Philadelphia, Quebec and elsewhere, check out his website.  

You can read the entire interview in the Ottawa Citizen online. 

We also want to add a comment about what Sly says about the site. We recently floated the idea to a few opera insiders and some of our favorite singers about shutting down the site on January 1, 2014. The unanimous response was that the site (even with its funny name) is still the prime source of information about baritones in the world of opera. Our goal continues to be twofold 1) to promote and assist the best baritone talent in the world, and 2) ensure that opera remains vibrant and interesting enough to compete with the wealth of entertainment options available to the public. 

We appreciate your readership. 

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